Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and whether through documentaries, news segments, or personal accounts. Everyone old enough to remember knows where they were when the planes hit the World Trade Center.
Former CNN anchor Carol Lin, the first national anchor to report on the situation in New York, recounted covering the tragic event for the network on that day in an interview with Deadline.
“When I sat down, that was my first look at the North Tower, which had a big, gaping, smoking hole in it and a fire burning. And that’s all we could see; that’s all we knew at the moment,” Lin said.
“And the image comes up, and that is the first that I’m aware of that America, and to a large degree the world, was seeing the beginning of what would be the worst terror strike on U.S. soil.”
Lin discussed what was going through her mind as she was trying to gather information live on-air as CNN attempted to find someone on the ground floor to confirm and recount what they saw to describe the situation in New York to the audience.
“The audience [sees] a full screen of the North Tower with a gaping hole and smoke and fire and uncertainty, but while I’m talking, I’m on my computer. The CNN International desk [and] the CNN national desk] are both feeding me information,” Lin said.
“And the priority really is to try to get someone who is an eyewitness to what is occurring, to get them live and talking to us, so we have a better sense of what happened.”
Finally, Lin described the feelings inside the CNN newsroom when they realized that America was under attack with a plane flying into the Pentagon and other places such as the United States Capitol were evacuating people.
“When you hear that they’re evacuating the State Department, they’re evacuating the White House, there’s a threat against the Capitol, when a plane crashes into the Pentagon. … It was one thing after another, and it was surreal. It was utterly surreal.” Lin said.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
