David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. 9/11 5: The sequel's never as good
Last night, ABC's disturbing, much-maligned "Path to 9/11" and a repeat of CBS's grim, Emmy-winning documentary "9/11" were taken in by almost exactly the same number of viewers -- each had an 8.2 rating and a 12 share, translating roughly into 9, perhaps up to 11, million viewers. (No, honestly: each rating point reflects 1.1 million households, and then, eventually they figure out just how many people were watching in each of those households.)
NBC's Manning-v.-Manning "Sunday Night Football," of course, was the evening's big hit, grabbing at least 17 million viewers. The most disquieting thing about it was that song by Pink at the beginning: part snarl, part come-on, all dumb.
When CBS's "9/11" aired originally in March 2002, 39 million viewers -- a third of the nation's TV sets -- tuned in.
Today, of course, will mark the conclusion of the glut of the coverage of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a tragedy that has been covered from virtually every angle imaginable. There's a documentary that focused on the dust from the collapsed towers. There's a book about the police dogs that sniffed through the rubble lookiing for remains. There's a comic-book version of "The 9/11 Commission Report." There's a book collecting the nation's newspapers' front pages of Sept. 12, 2001 (hands down, the best one is the San Francisco Examiner's banner headline "BASTARDS!"). (This sort of begs for a companion book, featuring the most histrionically overwrought prose that appeared on the nation's editorial pages on Sept. 12, beginning -- but by no means ending -- with Ann Coulter's declaration that "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.")
In short, there's a lot of 9/11-abilia out there, and "How safe are we now?" has become a staple of TV news (CNN's Wolf Blitzer just trotted it out again seconds ago). It's become an industry unto itself, which is why it was a little amusing when detractors of "Path to 9/11" accused its makers of cashing in on the tragedy for personal gain: Yeah, and? They differ from everyone else who has written about it for a paycheck -- including, right at this minute, yours truly -- in what way, specifically?
And so we're reaching the inevitable end of the cycle for virtually every commodity America produces. 39 million initially watched the documentary "9/11;" probably only 10 million watched "Path to 9/11," created in easier-to-swallow docudrama form. Five years after the fact, there's only one book about 9/11 on each of the New York Times' hardcover and paperback nonfiction bestseller lists. The glut of coverage itself begets the residual nonchalance. Americans aren't tired of the story, necessarily, but we do believe we understand it fairly well and until a repository of new information comes along, we'll give a pass to the anniversary remembrances along the lines of "I was in New York that day -- the upper Westside, perhaps, but still -- "
Besides, Iraq and the regrouping of the Taliban in Afghanistan seem more pressing issues than revisiting 9/11's horrors. We have plenty right here, right now.
We haven't moved on -- our government and the media refuse to allow us to move on -- but perhaps it's time to at least consider it or at least to reflect upon our future as much as we have our past. After all, how long will officials conduct memorial services that are part respectful yet part morbid before the terrorists can at least claim victory over our time-management skills?
Comments
A bit jaded, are we?
Oooo, you're gonna get some shit for this!
Posted by: Suzy Q | September 11, 2006 4:05 PM