As I watch the coverage of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, once again I am struck by the power of television, and the news organizations that bring strong emotions into our lives.  Those emotions are conveyed in many ways – the sadness of the relatives of the 9/11 victims, the images of the horrific day ten years ago when a sadistic enemy used our own airliners to kill thousands of Americans on our own soil for the first time, and through the wonderful stories of the many heroes of 9/11.

There is one constant in these emotions – the power of seeing these events live while we sit in our homes thousands of miles away.  For all its foibles, live television news has been a powerful force in our lives – in my life – for decades.  Yes, there are many things wrong with television news – but nothing ever invented has gripped my gut like live coverage on television.

I remember sitting in my freshmen high school English class on November 22, 1963.  It was a Friday and I was looking forward to our football game that night.  Suddenly the principal came on the school’s public address system to tell us President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.  We were instructed to stay in the same room for the remainder of the school day, and he put the live radio coverage on the P.A. system.  While it was a sad, gripping drama the radio coverage was missing something I wanted to see – live pictures of what was happening right now.

I remember two days later, a Sunday morning on November 24, 1963.  I was a 15-year-old glued to the TV set as I had been all weekend, watching live coverage of the aftermath of the JFK assassination.  They were transferring the alleged shooter – Lee Harvey Oswald – to a different location when suddenly, as I sat in my living room, a man walked in front of him and shot him live on television.

I remember the next day watching the JFK funeral live on television, when suddenly his 3-year-old son John F. Kennedy, junior stepped forward as the horse-drawn casket passed by. He stood erect, at attention, and snapped a salute to his dead father.  I can still see that image in my mind’s eye 48 years later.  I remember the announcer saying it was the very young man’s third birthday on the day his father was being buried.

I remember July 21, 1969 as I watched on live television – a man walked on the moon for the first time.  It was surreal – the video was a bit grainy, it was black and white, but it was amazing to see Neil Armstrong bounce down the final steps of the lunar lander as I sat in my home.

I remember January 28, 1986.  I was now vice president of news at KPNX-TV in Phoenix.  I had CNN on in my office as I always did.  Another space shuttle was being launched from Florida.  The Big Three networks were not covering it live – these launches had become old hat.  I was walking out the door of my office when suddenly the Challenger blew into pieces live on television.  I remember the smoke was oddly colorful – blue and brown shades against the clear Florida sky – as the tragedy unfolded live on TV.  I quickly rushed an anchor to the set – and we reported on the explosion five minutes before NBC scrambled to do a live report.

I remember September 11, 2001.  It was an unusual Tuesday for me – I was not traveling that day – something I did almost every Tuesday.  My wife Sherri had arrived home late the night before after working at American Airlines – where she assisted customers who needed a flight somewhere, or were stuck somewhere trying to get a flight home.  Sherri was also on the airline’s Care Team.  If there was a crash – she would be one of the people taking the calls from friends and relatives of people on that flight.

I remember tuning to the Today Show where I saw a smoking tower at the World Trade Center, live on television.  They were saying a small plane had crashed into it on a clear, cloudless morning in New York.  As I watched live suddenly a large plane crashed into the other tower.  It happened so fast, and seemed so unbelievable, that it took a few seconds before I realized what I had just seen on live television.  Then the reports started coming in of commercial airliners being unaccounted for in a number of locations, and the one that had become a fireball into the side of the second tower may have been from American Airlines.

I woke Sherri up, and she headed into work to start taking those calls – those terrible, grief-stricken calls – from people wondering if their loved ones had been on the American flights that crashed on that horrible day.  My wife was gone for three days while I sat in front of the live television coverage of the horror of 9/11.  It takes a special person to deal with those calls that kept coming in from around the country.  Now, she too, was forever connected to the day America was attacked at home.

I remember May 1, 2011, late in the evening, when the word started spreading on television and social media – that gutless bastard Osama Bin Laden had been killed by U.S. Navy Seals.  In minutes live television began showing the spontaneous celebrations outside the White House as Americans rejoiced that an evil man had been gunned down.  Some waved American flags.  It was a stirring scene brought into my home on live television.

And now, on 9/11/11 – once again live television is bringing pictures – in HD now – into our homes so we can be joined as a nation watching another historic day in America.  The live pictures are powerful.  It is what television does best.

Jim

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