Since we last met to talk about 9/11 anniversary pages, a number of papers sent us a few of their 9/11 pages.
Before we dive into today’s work, let’s take a look at those pages, shall we?
—
NEVADA SAGEBRUSH
University of Nevada, Reno
Enrollment: 17,679
Designer Riley Snyder of the University of Nevada’s weekly student paper tells us:
We’ve been planning for this issue before school began. Because we publish on Tuesdays, the news editor (Ben Miller) and I decided to publish the story this week so it’d be on the stands on 9/11, and before the eventual media onslaught of 9/11 tribute packages.
The package had six stories, dealing with everything from the effect on academics, Muslim students, veterans and our staff back in 2001, who published an extra edition the day of the attacks. A1 design was done by our new design editor, Tara Vederosa, and myself. I came up with the idea of draping the [on-campus] statue of John Mackay with an American flag, and our photo editor, Garrett Valenzuela, got the shot.
I’m happy with the way the issue turned out, especially because we only occasionally get to do big design stuff like this. Overall, I’m really proud of our staff, considering we have a lot of people in new positions, and this is only our second issue.
Riley adds that all of the Sagebrush‘s 9/11 stories are online. Find a directory of them here.
—
REGISTER STAR
Rockford, Ill.
Circulation: 55,012
Adam McHugh, assistant delivery desk editor of the Register Star in Rockford, Ill., writes to say:
We’ve been running AP 9/11 copy this week leading up to Sept. 11, when we will have special section filled with local content.
Here is Sunday’s installment…
Monday’s page…
Tuesday’s page…
…and today’s page.
—
TULSA WORLD
Tulsa, Okla.
Circulation: 90,499
And James Royal, chief designer of the Tulsa (Okla.) World, tells us his paper has been running 9/11 anniversary centerpieces on A1 for weeks.
This is the front page from Sunday, Aug. 14…
…and the corresponding jump page.
Here are the fronts from Tuesday, Aug. 16 (left) and Sunday, Aug. 21.
Click on these — or any page today — for a larger view.
The Aug. 28 front looked at the impact 9/11 had on area Muslims — a theme we’ll look at in greater detail in a few moments.
Here’s the jump.
And here are pages from Tuesday, Aug 30 (left), this past Sunday and yesterday (Tuesday):
James writes:
One of the cool things I think we’ve been doing is the logo, where we rotate out a different picture with each package we run. I’ve tried to get a good mix of moments with those images, things about that day and the time right after it that would resonate with people in different ways.
Here’s a quick look at some of these series logos:
————————————————-
SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY ISSUES
And now, let’s take a glance at some of the day’s most outstanding front pages, as found at today at the Newseum.
Apparently, the topic of the day was homeland security and how funding on that has increased over the ten years since 9/11.
—
STAR-LEDGER
Newark, N.J.
Circulation: 229,255
The big paper in Newark today wrote about the country’s evolving response to an evolving threat of terrorism.
Nice to see the Star-Ledger is keeping the nice, clean design they’ve been using for their 9/11 stories this week.
The picture is by staffer John O’Boyle. Find the story here by Mark Mueller, Ted Sherman and Steve Strunsky.
—
BOSTON GLOBE
Boston, Mass.
Circulation: 219,214
The Boston Globe continued its week-long 9/11 series today, building page one around this photo of a policeman in an anti-terror vehicle.
But, as the caption says, the “Bearcat”…
…has been used mainly for nonterror purposes.
Here’s an excerpt of the story by Sean P. Murphy, Scott Allen and Ben Wolford:
The bomb exploded 5,300 miles away at a Coptic Christian church in Egypt. But police in Natick were taking no chances last winter when a local branch of the church celebrated Christmas Eve a few days later.
Rifle-toting, helmeted officers blocked traffic near St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church for seven hours, requiring church members to take a bus to services and requiring residents to show ID before they could go home. Out back, a SWAT team waited inside a specialized armored truck equipped with a sniper’s post on the roof, radiation detectors on the outside, and cameras that can read a license plate several hundred yards away.
All this, even though records show that the FBI had no evidence of a specific threat to this, or any, US Coptic church, just general concerns that they relayed to the police.
“I felt like we were in a war,’’ recalled Ben Mbugua, who lives across the street from St. Mark’s. “I feel like Iraq was not even that well defended.’’
That’s the kind of heightened security that a flood of federal grant money can buy.
The A1 picture is by freelancer Robert E. Klein.
Here’s the jump:
The inside doubletruck includes a nice infographic on just about Boston makes it a — Gulp! — great target for terrorists. The graphic is by staffers James Abundis, Sean Murphy and David Butler.
Again, click for a readable version.
—
CITIZEN-TIMES
Asheville, N.C.
Circulation: 32,962
The Citizen-Times of Asheville was even more blatant about the possibility of post-9/11 anti-terrorism spending gone wild.
In today’s lead photo by staffer John Coutlakis, the director of Buncombe County EMS is sitting in an ATV paid for by Homeland Security. Around him are four-wheeled ATVs, trailers, a portable morgue, animal rescue equipment and high-capacity generators, the caption says.
Staffer John Boyle reports:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2002 has funded $397 million worth of equipment purchases and training for local law enforcement and public safety agencies in North Carolina.
That includes $1.6 million in Buncombe County and $2.5 million in Henderson County, according to state and local emergency services agencies.
“We’ve got so much of this stuff we’re in the midst of letting a contract to build another building that it will go in,” said Jerry VeHaun, Buncombe County’s director of emergency management. “I’ve been here since 1972, and I’ve seen this (federal funding) stuff go full circle. When this came along, I said, ‘We better get what we can now, because it won’t last.’”
—
COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Columbus, Ohio
Circulation: 142,786
The front page of today’s Columbus Dispatch suffers slightly from asking a horizontal photo to carry a vertically-shaped centerpiece. Plus, the background of the photo — shot at the state fair in July — is awfully cluttered.
Yet, that picture by staffer Brooke LaValley illustrates perfectly what has happened to us in the ten years since 9/11. Those are bomb squad officers investigating a “suspicious package.” Which turned out to be a cooler holding bottled water.
Go here to read the story by Theodore Decker and Marla Matzer Rose.
——————————————————————-
HOW AMERICAN MUSLIMS WERE AFFECTED BY 9/11
That was other big topic of the day, as found on the nation’s 9/11 anniversary front pages.
—
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Dallas, Texas
Circulation: 404,951
“Area Muslims became peace advocates,” proclaims the headline in today’s Dallas Morning News.
The interesting picture of folks in prayer is by staffer Lara Solt.
Sadly, the story by Dianne Solís is behind a paywall. Interestingly, however, the Morning News web site allows freeloaders like me to see the comments on the story, rather than the story itself. The two comments there right now seem pretty hateful. I’m sure that brings in a lot of paying readers for the DMN web site.
—
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
Providence, R.I.
Circulation: 91,804
The Providence paper ran twin stories today about the situation in which Muslims found themselves following 9/11 and about a Sikh who was arrested a day after 9/11 simply because of the way he looked.
Find the stories — both by Richard C. Dujardin — here and here. The pictures are by staffer Sandor Bodo.
—
HERALD-TIMES
Bloomington, Ind.
Circulation: 27,781
And the lead story today by Dann Denny of the Herald-Times of Bloomington, Ind., is about the trials and tribulations of area Muslims after 9/11.
Another interesting 9/11 piece on today’s front page is about how limestone cut locally was used in the repairs to the Pentagon.
Sadly, both stories reside behind a firewall.
——————————————————————-
MORE OF THOSE WONDERFUL LOCAL ANGLES
That Pentagon limestone story is a nice seque into my favorite stories: Those that found interesting local angles. Especially as an outsider in these communities, I’m certain to have not heard these stories before.
And there are some wonderful tales out there, too…
—
NEWS-GAZETTE
Champaign, Ill.
Circulation: 42,018
The centerpiece story by Paul Wood of the Champaign, Ill., News-Gazette, is about a local woman who helped out at ground zero after the attacks. Wood reports:
For roughly 8 1/2 months after America’s worst terrorist attack, [Susan Warsaw] not only worked in food service and generally helped out at sites near ground zero, but recruited dozens of UI workers and others, including her husband, Ron. He is also now retired from the Urbana campus.
Together, the volunteers served 3.5 million meals to cops, firefighters, medical technicians and construction workers at the site.
With the United Way and later the Salvation Army running things, more than 34,000 volunteers were involved from all over the world, putting in more than 1 million volunteer hours, Warsaw said.
“You met people from other countries who just wanted to help so much,” she said, noting people from Holland donated thousands of tulip bulbs that bloomed the next spring in the area.
She was such an important figure in the aftermath that her face was put on a trading card: “Heroes of the World Trade Center.” She donated her slice of the proceeds to charity.
The portrait is by staffer Heather Coit.
—
CINCINNATI ENQUIRER
Cincinnati, Ohio
Circulation: 161,858
The Cincinnati Enquirer today told the story of a sixth grader who wrote a touching poem about 9/11 and sent it off to the folks working at Ground Zero. A flight attendant who was working there in her spare time found the poem and pushed to have it included in the official collection of 9/11 memorabilia that will go on permanent display this weekend when the Memorial and Museum opens.
That sixth-grader, of course, is now a senior at Miami University. The portrait of the young man and the flight attendant is by staffer Carrie Cochran.
Find the story here by Cliff Radel.
—
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Circulation: 292,441
While lots of papers are writing stories this week about kids who were affected by 9/11, the papers in the bay area today wrote about a very special group of kids — the class to whom President George W. Bush was speaking when the 9/11 attacks took place.
The Times‘ Lane DeGregory reports:
That’s when a man in a suit strode into the classroom and whispered in the president’s ear. “All of a sudden, the president looked so serious,” [Natalia Jones-Pinkney] said.
“Everything changed.”
The president stayed while the students read aloud The Pet Goat.
“Then he got up real fast and left,” Natalia said.
Some kids thought they had done something wrong. One boy thought the president had to pee.
Their teacher walked out, too, and came back crying. She turned on the TV and tried to explain. But the 7-year-olds kept interrupting: What’s a terrorist? What’s hijack? Why would anyone want to kill all those people?
They knew something huge had happened. Something bad.
The story is today’s must-read. Find it here.
—
TAMPA TRIBUNE
Tampa, Fla.
Circulation: 164,568
And the folks across the bay wrote the same story today.
The Tribune‘s Rob Shaw reports:
“I can remember seeing his expression change dramatically,” says Lazaro Dubrocq, who is now a 17-year-old senior at Riverview High School in Sarasota. “He seemed almost anxious, disconcerted, worried.
“He was looking around the room for a few seconds,” adds Dubrocq, who plans to attend Columbia University and study chemical engineering. “He wasn’t paying attention to the group of students who were in front of him.”
When you’re 7, Chantal Guerrero says, you don’t try to figure out why one man is whispering in the ear of the president.
The portraits of the kids are by staffers Scott Iskowitz and Jim Hockett.
—
DAILY NEWS
Philadelphia, Pa.
Circulation: 110,000
And the Philadelphia Daily News today did something interesting today: It packaged ten “unanswered questions” — myths, misconceptions, urban legends, conspiracy theories — into a cover story.
One sample from the story by staffer Will Bunch:
Q. Why did NORAD mislead investigators about what happened on 9/11?
A. In the days following the 2001 attacks, officials assured the public that the military did get planes in the air quickly and was ready to shoot down the final jet, United Flight 93, if it had come near D.C.
Investigators for the 9/11 Commission concluded that generals provided false information – claiming, for example, that they responded to the Flight 93 hijacking at 9:16 a.m. when tapes proved the jet wasn’t even hijacked until 12 minutes later. The Washington Post reported in 2006 that commission staffers debated referring their suspicions to the Justice Department for a possible criminal probe.
“I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described,” said John Farmer, the top lawyer for the commission.
But why lie? Most likely it was to cover up incompetence, but the true reason is still a mystery.
Interesting stuff. Find the story here.
Bonus points: That cover shot isn’t wire art. It’s by staffer David Maialetti.
—
The Newark page and everything after — except for Boston — is from the Newseum. Of course.
Previous 9/11 anniversary posts here in the blog…
Sunday: Please send me your 9/11 presentations.
Tuesday: First three days of the Boston Globe‘s remarkable anniversary series.
Tuesday: The best of the rest of the 9/11 anniversary pages, so far.
Tuesday: How we got all those incredible photos on 9/11
Not to be a nitpicker, but one of the images in the Tulsa series logos is from the 1993 WTC bombing, not the 9/11 attacks. Just an fyi.