Mr. Monahan should be commended for a well written text that covers a different aspect of the 9/11 tragedy. The editing is crisp and it makes a quick and easy read. However, the subject matter, that Mr. Monahan approaches with professional neutrality, is difficult at times to comprehend. Personally, I never saw much of the early coverage of the event so most of the text was new and very interesting. Admittedly, I know very little about the national media, nor have I watched the 'Today' show which is the focus of the book covers, in those early and confusing moments. The explanation that being forced to gather information, while on live television, broadcast to the entire country and beyond, makes the anchors job somewhat difficult at best I had never considered before. The confusion of those early moments, understandable, has not been rebroadcast so you are getting a first hand view of how the information, and unfortunately, disinformation dominated the early broadcast.
On my second read through I chose to begin with those actual broadcast moments and leave Mr.Monahan's well defined synopsis of how our news is gathered, formed and presented to us in the first chapter for after I had studied the actual uncertain moments. In searching for a descriptive phrase I decided to use the word 'unsavory' for my opinion of the sensationalism of certain parts of this horror that includes persons jumping from the towers to avoid the smoke and fire and the media's obsession with the body count. I will close my annalists of the actual text as I think persons should read this for themselves, and after some pause, decide how they feel about how society has drifted to tabloid nature that the national media are more that happy to provide us with. I wonder just how we got to this point that death, horror and the life changing aftereffects became no more emotional than the drab of a weather forecast. I recommend this work to friends, as without a doubt it is interesting-in the extreme-and told them very little about the text except that after careful reading I felt like taking a shovel, digging a hole in one of the pastures here and sticking my head in it for awhile to show my disgust of what our society has become. It seems that with the 9/11 horror we have taken Don Henley line "it's interesting when people die" to an entire new level. I feel somewhat pitiful at being part of that.
Again, an interesting and thought provoking work, and I look forward to see how it effects other people. Perhaps, I am being somewhat harsh as too my feelings for the American media and how it has molded our society. I guess as someone who watches very little television I was 'shocked' just like the title of the book said I would be. I look forward to more of Mr. Monahan's work on this subject.
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