Monday, September 12, 2011

US History Trivia: Which of these were reported on September 11, 2001?


Every American who was alive on that day can likely tell you exactly where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001, and remember the most explicit details about their locations during the event.  I first caught the news in the Red Door at Muhlenberg College but was in my Intro to Psychology class when the planes hit the towers, eating breakfast when the Pentagon was hit (hadn't heard the news yet) and watching the news when reports began to break about Flight 93 in Shankesville.  

The reporting was particularly interesting, especially with ten years of hindsight - many recollections about the day were dead on (most reporters immediately realized that the nation was under attack, particularly after the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower), but many of the information given that day was false (on CNN, on-air anchors actually did not see the plane hit the South Tower and only saw the explosion - as a result, the initial thought was that the fuselage of the plane lodged in the North Tower had exploded).  Off of Pocket Trivia: US History - which of these stories were (wrongly) reported on September 11, 2001: There was a fire on the national mall, the FBI had been bombed, the Sears Tower had been bombed or the Brooklyn Bridge had been bombed?
The correct answer to this is that there was a fire on the National Mall.  At about 9:45am on that day, after the planes had hit the Trade Centers and the Pentagon, CNN reported that there was a fire on the National Mall, though that was not the case.  A second false report involves stories of a car bomb at the State Department.

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