It was a horrendous day of death and unbelievable destruction, when the flashing television images seemed more like scenes from the disaster movies of the Seventies than ones from real life in the New Millennium.
An overwhelming sense of disbelief permeated the newsroom. Many of us felt as if we were “in some kind of alternate world where reality had been suspended,” as Pilot deputy managing editor Denis Finley put it.
Like we had been violated, “as if my safety and that of my family, friends and co-workers had been stolen,” added deputy managing editor Joe Coccaro.
America had been attacked! It was Pearl Harbor, the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Cole tragedy rolled into one. Far worse, really.
And yet, “we put the shock, grief and anger in our pockets and set to work to record history as it happened,” Pilot editor Kay Tucker Addis said.
I’ve said it before: There’s something about a BIG, breaking story, especially a tragedy, that brings out the best in journalists.
Such was the case with Tuesday’s “Attack on America.”
The Virginian-Pilot did something that day it hadn’t done since 1945: It published a special “Extra” edition. Within a matter of hours. Some 60,000 copies of the free, six-page edition were quickly gobbled up by residents anxious for more information about the tragedy.
We followed on Wednesday morning with a 12-page special section, chock full of local and wire coverage and gripping photographs of the carnage in New York and Washington, D.C., as well as area images. The in-depth coverage continued throughout the week.
Addis got the ball rolling Tuesday morning. She was at her desk (“planning a fairly routine day”) when deputy managing editor Debra Adams popped in about 8:45 a.m. to tell her to turn her TV to CNN.
“At that point, there was a single image: one World Trade Center tower with smoke pouring out of it,” Addis recalled. “Commentators were saying that an airplane had crashed into the tower…. It appeared that it could have been a small plane and could have been an accident.”
Addis paged Pilot Online coordinator Kerry Sipe, who was en route to the office, and asked him to get something online as soon as possible. Sipe reached senior Pilot Online producer Mark Edelen and discovered that staffers were preparing to post the initial, sketchy Associated Press bulletin.
Then, as Addis watched TV, she saw — live — the second plane attack the other tower.
Throughout the morning, as more and more information emerged, Addis was “struck by how sterile the scene was on TV _ no sound of sirens, no scenes of people fleeing in panic, of anything going on in the street. We just had commentators and those scenes of two cold, tall towers.”
So the Pilot staff set about to tell readers what was happening. Addis had two goals: getting the news out as quickly as possible and capturing the emotions and events surrounding the tragedy — both nationally and locally.
“I was fully very cognizant that the newspapers we produced would be historic _ that people would remember where they were and what they were doing Sept. 11, 2001, just as the dates Dec. 7, 1941, and Nov. 22, 1963, were imprinted in our long-term memories,” Addis said.
About 11 a.m., the newsroom began talking about the possibility of publishing an “Extra” _ an idea first raised by deputy managing editor Tonnya Kennedy.
“Initially, we thought we would not be able to distribute the edition, but when circulation director Pam Smith-Rodden said we could, we decided to go for it,” Finley recalled.
The paper’s production department said about 60,00 copies could be printed in an hour. Three o’clock was targeted as the optimum time for “Extra” to hit the streets.
The newsroom had two hours to produce the section with both wire and local copy and photos. It would have to be at the plant by 1:30 p.m. The presses would roll at 1:50 p.m.
Pilot publisher Dee Carpenter decided the “Extra” section would be free. Staffers distributed it to passing motorists and others at busy intersections; it was available at some convenience stores.
The “Extra” out of the way, newsroom personnel hardly had time to catch their breath. Reporters, photographers, copy editors, designers and others quickly set about producing Wednesday’s paper, including a 12-page special section. “That was a monumental task in itself, made more imposing after feeling like we had already produced a daily paper,” Finley said.
Wednesday’s large, bold headline, decided on after hours of discussion, read, “HORROR.” In blood-red ink, set against a black background.
Addis, who at times has thought some of the paper’s bold headlines “screamed” at readers, felt Wednesday’s headline was appropriate.
“This was a crime, this was a tragedy,” she said. “There was death and destruction, blood and fury.”
