September 13, 2001

11:42 AM

New Yorker onlinehas checked in with their lead story and an image of their next cover. I have to say I'm seeing accounts that are equally compelling from regular people writing on the Internet.
posted by luser (6 comments total)

The cover image on that page (a bustier-busting Lady Liberty) is from this week's New Yorker, delivered as the attacks were carried out. Is there another image I'm missing?
posted by arco at 11:53 AM on September 13, 2001

Should we commend Michael Specter for travelling to the WTC from midtown after hearing of the initial crash? Some might say it was brave reporting. I think it was pretty stupid.

If, maybe, America wasn't watching on every channel on TV, and there was a great need for an eyewitness account, well then, hey: you have my support. But can I really feel sorry for someone who intentionally puts themselves in that peril? Can you?
posted by adrober at 12:36 PM on September 13, 2001

Sorry, the image (at www.newyorker.com) was not of the next cover but one from 1982 that prominently featured the WTC. My mistake.
posted by luser at 12:47 PM on September 13, 2001

Nobody is asking us to feel sorry for him for doing what he did; where did you get that idea?

A reporter's job is to report the news, and this was news. That "America [was] watching on every channel on TV," was unknown to him at that moment, but even if he knew that it shouldn't have affected his actions. Granted, if he knew the buildings would collapse around him he might have hesitated, but that was (I'm sure) inconceivable to everyone until it actually happened.

I think we're all just overwhelmed with stories like this, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be told and recorded.
posted by arco at 12:53 PM on September 13, 2001

I can't fault a reporter for going where the story is, and Specter's not asking for sympathy. However, the self-important I'm-a-globetrotting-journalist details are a little too much: within a few of paragraphs he's mentioned the eruption of Mt. St. Helens seen from the air, the bombing of Grozny, and the launch of the Russian Space Shuttle. And for good measure: "You can't understand the intensity of an inferno on television. You have to be standing beneath it to see it. "

Mind you, there's some good reporting in the piece, but this strikes me as journo-preening.
posted by BT at 1:08 PM on September 13, 2001

Though I guess you're right to say he's not asking us to feel sorry for him, there's a certain quality to the piece--a certain "I'm a victim too" tone--that seems forced in light of his actions.
posted by adrober at 1:15 PM on September 13, 2001