For the past month, the world has been engulfed in news about the Sept. 11 tragedy — and rightfully so. An attack of this kind is unprecedented, and cable news channels are still providing around-the-clock coverage of the latest developments. And it doesn’t look like this story is going to end any time soon.
But what happened to the big stories the media had been covering before that first plane went into the World Trade Center Sept. 11? The top news stories of Sept. 10 have long dropped off the radar. For instance:
— Gary Condit: Had the attacks never happened, this story would probably still be going on, as it did all summer. Yet, his name hasn’t been mentioned since the attacks.
— Shark attacks: Not a day went by this summer when there wasn’t an update on a shark bite victim or the news of another biting, and this summer saw fewer shark attacks than previous years.
— Bill Clinton/Al Gore: These two were making the news with updates on how Clinton missed his presidential position and Gore’s new-fashioned facial hair.
— Cell-phone legislation: Stories around the country told of legislatures attempting to forbid people from talking on phones while driving.
— Governor/Senate races: In Wisconsin and around the United States, people were set to announce their candidacy and campaign for votes. For instance, Elizabeth Dole was to announce her campaign Sept. 11.
— Michael Jordan: It was leaked the day before the attacks that he might come back. His press conference announcing his return was delayed the next day.
— FBI losing computers with classified information on them and guns, too.
One of the reasons these stories have disappeared, says journalism professor James Hoyt, is the finite space and time the media has. Stations can’t expand the 30-minute nightly broadcast, just like newspapers can only expand the paper so much. However, it does say something about what it takes for the media to stop covering a story, he said.
“The media are not good at knowing when to pull the plug on a story,” Hoyt said. “Once they have invested resources into covering [a story] they feel compelled to stay with it through the end. And without the attacks we’d probably still be hearing about Gary Condit.”
However, the same risk exists for the media with this story — infinite sidebars and feature stories exist in addition to the daily hard news coverage. The question is if the media will know when to stop providing complete terrorist coverage and start including other major stories such as Hurricane Iris in Belize, where 15 Americans were killed.
The public needs to question if the media is always giving them the information they want or need to hear. Condit was being covered all summer long. The lost FBI information was covered for two days — an event that has the potential of affecting the country a lot more than if Condit runs for office again or not.
Society is at the whim of what the media chooses to cover, but the question is if the media will have the foresight to stop covering the attacks 24/7 and start working to include other important events in their news coverage.
