Looking Back on September 11th: Calgary Herald Interview

Wednesday, 07 September 2011 | by Pat's Picks

My hometown newspaper, the Calgary Herald, published a column about me today. Reporter Valerie Fortney was in New York on September 11, 2001 to cover Fashion Week. She and I both found ourselves in the midst of a huge story.

I described to her what it felt like to be in the anchor chair that morning, the importance being calm and reassuring, and working to not “saying anything stupid” in an unfolding situation where “no one knew what was really going on.” I also discussed my refusal to use the term 9/11 to discuss the event of September 11, 2001 because it reduces such a massive tragedy to “disrespectful tabloid shorthand.” Ditto on the term “Ground Zero.”

Fortney ended the interview by asking me what my enduring memory of that morning was. I told her “it was the level of bravery of the firefighters, who knew what happened to the first tower, but continued up the stairs of the second . . . marching to what was likely a certain death.”

I’ll be moderating a panel discussion of my NY1 colleagues and their memories from September 11 called Bearing Witness: 9/11 Through the Eyes of NY1 on Thursday, at the Paley Center for Media. Starts at 6:30.