Extra extra… The NYTimes Doesn’t “Do The Right Thing”

Over the past few weeks here at Penn State, I’ve started reading the New York Times, for a multitude of reasons, one among many of them being to find potential topics for this very blog…

Which is why I’m breaking the mold of blogging about the film Do The Right Thing (don’t worry, I cleared it with Dr. Miles!) and will instead be blogging about something that really caught my attention while I was reading the Times this Tuesday. Tuesday, as hopefully everyone knows, was the 11 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. The attacks were so traumatic and they touched such a widespread group of people that most of us feel a connection in some way or another to the event. We might even feel a connection to the event simply because we’re American citizens or live currently in America. September 11th, 2001 was, for some, the ultimate act of civic duty. For all of the emergency responders, volunteers, and average citizens that gave their lives, 9/11 was a day to put the good of the whole above the good of the individual. So many people overcame their differences to solve a common goal because in the moment, that was all that mattered. Out of 9/11 came a different mindset, a different ideology, because of the way Americans reacted. So many ideals have become commonplaces for Americans in the last decade because of the events of 9/11, and in my opinion they’re good ones: that we need to be proud of our country, that sometimes we need to put aside our differences for something bigger, and that we are part of a country where civic duty is important and should be recognized.

Which is why it angered me beyond belief to see that a mere 11 years after this life-altering event that rocked our country, the New York Times did not mention the fact that it was the anniversary of 9/11 until the 17th page of the newspaper. Let me say it again: the 17th page. Not the second or the third, but the 17th. Almost every other newspaper I found that day or looked up featured a story on the front page, and if not on the front page, somewhere close to the front of the paper. But not the Times. They didn’t even acknowledge it until the end of the news section, with a small article that discussed how we should begin to scale back on the remembrance and memorial of 9/11, now that it’s been more than a decade. I was so shocked and frustrated that the newspaper based in the city where the attacks occurred was taking such a viewpoint. I understand that we should make progress and move forward from the event, but in no way does that mean that we should forget that it happened and forget the incredible acts of so many who gave their lives that day. What happened to the phrase “Never forget” that has become so commonplace in our vocabulary that we all know what it refers to, even out of context? There’s a reason that no one has forgotten and that no one should forget. 9/11 was such an emotionally scarring experience for so many, and such an incredible act of patriotism and civic duty for others. It deserves respect, and acknowledgement from the media, especially in this day and age when we’re so shaped by the way the media portrays things.

In summary, I’m just extremely disappointed that the New York Times, in this case did NOT Do The Right Thing.