“I remember them announcing that building 7 had fallen at least 20 minutes before it happened.”
You almost certainly didn’t.
The person who who made the comment about the building falling before it did was on the BBC. So unless you were watching a BBC feed you didn’t see that “announcement”.
Yes. I did. It was reported on an American station--I don't remember which one I had the feed for at the time. It was on my computer at my desk. It's possible they may have gotten their information from the BBC, but the announcer at the time said they were told building 7 had fallen. Then, they went to building 7 where the reporter on the street said it hadn't yet fallen but they were told to expect it.
I recall one of the main USA news anchors saying something like “This just in - one of the towers has just collapsed!”...
He then looks up at the video feed and both towers are still shown standing there.
“Um - okay. Obviously this report is wrong as there they are.”
It wasn’t 20 minutes I don’t think - but 5 to 10 minutes later perhaps when the first one did collapse. Much longer than any delay in video would be, even if they had it delayed so they could block something too graphic.
I imagine the report from the field got garbled. It may have started off as “One of the towers may collapse.” ... “They are moving people away from the area.”