Media ignored calm amid the 9/11 chaos (very good article)

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | September 6, 2002 | ANDREW GREELEY

[Libertina]

The mainstream media discovered years ago that they could print pablum - even lies - which require no costly research or time-consuming digging up of FACTS. Very comfortable to their "bottom line" of truth black ink. Their friends publishing "competing" papers and TV do the same. Slick and easy - and truth plays no part.

[swarthyguy]

Sounds like you're one of those (who love 'em)...

Great thanks to all the crews of those ships. I understand they even fished out a few panicked people out of the waters when, in their fear, they jumped from the piers and missed the boat.

What must the temptation have been to get off in Jersey and keep heading west. But these guys went BACK and rescued more people. That afternoon, no one had a clue if more casualties weren't on the way via further attacks.

[PLOM...NOT!]

The paradigm of humankind as a mob simply isn't true. We are social animals, and even when terribly frightened we remain social animals.

I do take offense to this statement. We are not animals, we are distinctly different from animals. We have a conscience. This would explain why people put their own lives at risk to save another. Not because I need someone "socially" but because I consider their life worth saving.

[TruthNtegrity]

Ping!

[js1138]

when every instinct shouted otherwise.

Bad choice of words. The point of the article is that every human instinct says do just what they did.

[pbear8]

I own my very own.

I think they did a stellar job and went largely unnoticed. It must have been incredibly hard to land the boats in all the the chop that was being created by all the other boats. One of the trade magazines had a great picture of people being evacuated by tugboat. Any port in a storm.

Thanks to all the captains and crews and those who refueled the boats for their good and brave efforts.

[swarthyguy]

Huh! It's not instinctive to want to go back into a zone of destruction and uncertainty. The normal instinct is to want to get the hell out of there, ASAP, as most of the workers of NYC were doing.

[js1138]

Maybe for the 40 percent who voted for Clinton, but the normal human reaction to seeing people in danger is to try to help, even at personal risk.

[swarthyguy]

Perhaps. I think avoidance of said danger and personal injury is still a primary survival instinct type of thing.

When you see people in danger; but the equation changes when you are in danger also, then the primary urge is to save yourself first.

[jimfree]

Part of the command and control response that failed people this trip was the Port Authority telling the folks in the second tower to stay put. Thank goodness for folks such as Rick Rescorla, the Morgan Stanley security chief who refused to let his people wait in their pens for slaughter. The following book review is the first link I could find that retells his story. http://biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/020906/nf20020960976_1.html

[Beenliedto]

there's a real need to co-ordinate various agencies

Do you not find it rather odd, then....

That the FBI and CIA are not included?

[Samwise]

BUMP

[js1138]

I don't know if I would go into a burning building to save someone, or step in front of a car. But these are unusual choices. More often we are called upon simply to help. Maybe suffering some inconvenience, maybe disobeying "orders". But few are called upon togive their lives.

The point of the article is that people spontaneously organize and help each other. Not many people were in serious danger after the towers fell, but many who were in a position to choose between helping or taking the day off early, chose to help.

[swarthyguy]

Not to beat this into the ground, but my point --

>>Not many people were in serious danger after the towers fell

Thing is, that day, NO-ONE knew that. Especially the ships crews.

I don't if would call leaving Manhattan that day "taking the day off early". The smart thing to do was to get out of Manhattan.

[js1138]

The smart thing to do was to get out of Manhattan.

My son was halfway to work at 9:00 am on 9/11 -- between 34th street and Wall street. He did leave Manhattan (on foot) but not before locating his girlfriend and going back to his apartment for the cat. Fear and even panic do not always play out the way Hollywood films it.

[Arthur McGowan]

I've noticed, though, that in other countries, especially Islamic countries, people panic and trample one another to death in emergency situations.

[anymouse]

Maybe because some in the Judeo-Christian spectrum of faith, found predominantly in Western Civilization, know that good works are rewarded in the afterlife, and fear of death isn't their highest motivation.

[satchmodog9]

I was leaving for work just as the first plane hit the tower. After the second plane hit I decided to sit on my ass all day and watch the tube. I watched Fox and the commie news network all day. Through all the mayhem and carnage the only ones I saw panic during the whole mess were the press and their reaction to it. They are like bad mothers foisting their fears on their children. At least they try to.

[calebcar]

From USS CLUELESS. Steven Den Beste's take on why the US and freedom produces the best military
http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/08/CitizenSoldier.shtml

makes the same point.

[quizitiveOne]

How do you cover people who don't fly because they refuse to put up with all the phony feel-good airport security BS? Where can you find these people?

You go to the destination and ask the people how they got there and why. Go to Disneyland or the Grand Canyon and talk to the people who still travel. Or simpler, call the reservationists at Disney and ask them what people are saying about their travel plans. Or call the corporate internal reservationists to see how their clients feel.

But you are right. That takes work and effort and doesn't always tell the story you want to tell.