{"id":12505,"date":"2021-09-11T06:29:38","date_gmt":"2021-09-11T13:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12505"},"modified":"2021-09-12T06:31:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T13:31:17","slug":"a-time-capsule-in-two-front-pages-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12505","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;A Time Capsule in Two Front Pages&#8221;. The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"byline-prefix\">By <\/span><span class=\"css-1baulvz last-byline\">Ralph Blumenthal, Times Insider,\u00a0Sept. 11, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/series\/times-insider\">Times Insider<\/a> explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.<\/p>\n<header class=\"css-w2oihy euiyums1\">\n<p id=\"article-summary\" class=\"css-w6ymp8 e1wiw3jv0\"><em>The newspaper of Sept. 11, 2001, is a document of America before the terror attacks and a memory of a vanished era.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-w6ymp8 e1wiw3jv0\"><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"css-rq4mmj\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-1\/10a2_itt-web-1-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" sizes=\"((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-1\/10a2_itt-web-1-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 600w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-1\/10a2_itt-web-1-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 1024w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-1\/10a2_itt-web-1-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 2048w\" alt=\"The New York Times on Sept. 11, 2001.\" width=\"600\" height=\"465\" \/><\/picture><\/p>\n<div class=\"css-79elbk\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"css-1a48zt4 ehw59r15\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-children\">\n<figure class=\"sizeLarge layoutHorizontal css-1a1lp8y\"><figcaption class=\"css-13o4bnb e18f7pbr0\"><span class=\"css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0\">The New York Times on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/span><span class=\"css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span>Ralph Blumenthal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1tyn5zp\">\n<div class=\"css-m46ch3 epjyd6m1\">\n<div class=\"css-233int epjyd6m0\">\n<p class=\"css-aknsld e1jsehar1\">A day after the horrors of that crystalline blue Tuesday morning 20 years ago, I, like so many, carefully preserved a copy of The New York Times dated Sept. 12, 2001, with its screaming banner headline stretched across the top:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"meteredContent css-1r7ky0e\">\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 id=\"link-452599a6\" class=\"css-1tt7ig1 eoo0vm40\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">U.S. ATTACKED<\/em><\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">But I hadn\u2019t given any thought to the paper of the day before until this July, when a fellow teacher, Rob Spurrier, walked into my summer journalism classroom at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and handed me his yellowing copy. With a big <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2021\/09\/11\/nyregion\/9-11-20th-anniversary\">anniversary of 9\/11<\/a> approaching, he said, \u201cHere\u2019s your story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">I scanned the front page of that Sept. 11, 2001, national edition of the paper, with its comfortingly single-column headlines, like:<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"link-27dd47ef\" class=\"css-1tt7ig1 eoo0vm40\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">KEY LEADERS TALK<\/em><br \/>\n<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">OF POSSIBLE DEALS<\/em><br \/>\n<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">TO REVIVE ECONOMY<\/em><\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">On the top left was a big photo of an orange tent in Bryant Park for Fashion Week. Under it was the cable and network scramble for morning television watchers. Below the fold was a tizzy over school dress codes \u2014 what a reporter called \u201cthe tumult of bare skin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">I saw my friend\u2019s point. Looking at those two front pages side by side was a stark reminder of how drastically 9\/11 changed our world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"story-ad-1-wrapper\" class=\"css-zz666k\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">I had a special reason to be riveted. As a reporter for The Times, where I worked for 45 years, I was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Metro desk team that covered the <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1993\/03\/05\/nyregion\/twin-towers-investigation-insistence-refund-for-truck-results-arrest-explosion.html\">Feb. 26, 1993, terrorist truck-bombing<\/a> of the World Trade Center. It killed six, wounded more than 1,000 and left clues to the fanatics of Al Qaeda overlooked by investigators. In 2008, I covered the <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/09\/12\/nyregion\/12memorial.html\">seventh 9\/11 anniversary<\/a>. And in 2009, I reported on the uproar over a planned <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/12\/09\/nyregion\/09mosque.html\">Islamic center near ground zero<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\"><picture class=\"css-1j5kxti\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-2\/10a2_itt-web-2-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=600\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 3dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 288dpi)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-2\/10a2_itt-web-2-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1200\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 2dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-2\/10a2_itt-web-2-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1800\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 96dpi)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"css-1m50asq\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-2\/10a2_itt-web-2-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" sizes=\"((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 60vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-2\/10a2_itt-web-2-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 600w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-2\/10a2_itt-web-2-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 1024w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/10\/pageoneplus\/10a2_itt-web-2\/10a2_itt-web-2-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 2048w\" alt=\"Side by side, front pages on Sept. 11, 2001, left, and, on Sept. 12, 2001, show a world changed.\" \/><\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-79elbk\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"css-1a48zt4 ehw59r15\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-children\">\n<figure class=\"css-1l3p632 e1g7ppur0\">\n<div class=\"css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"css-1l44abu ewdxa0s0\"><span class=\"css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0\">Side by side, front pages on Sept. 11, 2001, left, and, on Sept. 12, 2001, show a world changed.<\/span><span class=\"css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">Still, when viewed alongside the paper declaring that America had been attacked, the headlines conveying the events of Sept. 10, 2001, might seem jarringly irrelevant. I now see that paper as a time capsule of a mostly vanished era \u2014 before the worst unnatural carnage on American soil since the Civil War and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the nation\u2019s traumatic awakening to a violent new reality of global terror and forever war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">And it\u2019s even more poignant now, after the chaotic exit from the long war in Afghanistan that the 9\/11 attacks had ignited. Five of the 13 service members killed in the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26 <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/article\/us-soldiers-killed-afghanistan.html\">were just 20<\/a>, perhaps just infants at the war\u2019s outbreak.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-y1f5ai\">\n<div class=\"css-8atqhb\">\n<div class=\"css-nl7gl3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/news-event\/911-anniversary?name=styln-9-11-after&amp;region=MAIN_CONTENT_2&amp;block=storyline_latest_updates_recirc&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;variant=show&amp;index=0\">Sept. 11 Anniversary \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n<h2 id=\"storyline-latest-updates\" class=\"css-5o8lnh\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2021\/09\/11\/nyregion\/9-11-20th-anniversary?name=styln-9-11-after&amp;region=MAIN_CONTENT_2&amp;block=storyline_latest_updates_recirc&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;variant=show&amp;index=1\">Live Tributes<\/a><\/h2>\n<div class=\"css-rchdvv\">\n<p><time class=\"css-101kej7\" datetime=\"2021-09-12T00:08:44.000Z\"><time class=\"css-101kej7\" datetime=\"2021-09-12T00:08:44.000Z\">Updated\u00a0<\/time><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"css-ki347z\"><span class=\"css-1stvlmo\">Sept. 11, 2021, 8:08 p.m. ET<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<ul class=\"css-15zvb7e\">\n<li class=\"css-1l8wklm\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2021\/09\/11\/nyregion\/9-11-20th-anniversary?name=styln-9-11-after&amp;region=MAIN_CONTENT_2&amp;block=storyline_latest_updates_recirc&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;variant=show&amp;index=2#mets-and-yankees-share-a-moment-of-silence\">Mets and Yankees share a moment of silence.<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"css-1l8wklm\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2021\/09\/11\/nyregion\/9-11-20th-anniversary?name=styln-9-11-after&amp;region=MAIN_CONTENT_2&amp;block=storyline_latest_updates_recirc&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;variant=show&amp;index=2#scenes-at-ground-zero-as-a-disaster-weary-nation-marked-20-years-since-9-11\">Scenes at ground zero as a disaster-weary nation marked 20 years since 9\/11.<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"css-1l8wklm\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2021\/09\/11\/nyregion\/9-11-20th-anniversary?name=styln-9-11-after&amp;region=MAIN_CONTENT_2&amp;block=storyline_latest_updates_recirc&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;variant=show&amp;index=2#9-11-covid-survivor\">She survived 9\/11 and Covid: \u2018You just keep going.\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"storyline-survey-latest-updates\" class=\"styln-survey-component\">The paper of Sept. 11 was not without its alarms. On Page One, an ominous \u201crefer\u201d (pronounced reefer) to an article inside the paper: Palestinian snipers had killed two Israelis, bringing a retaliatory shelling by Israeli tanks. On A3: A suicide bomber had killed two police officers in Istanbul.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">Inside the paper, there was <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/09\/11\/world\/reports-disagree-on-fate-of-anti-taliban-rebel-chief.html\">the story<\/a> of a suicide bombing in Kabul that targeted a 48-year-old anti-Taliban rebel chief in Afghanistan called Ahmed (later Ahmad) Shah Massoud. Who then could have imagined that 20 years later the Taliban, ousted after 9\/11, would retake Afghanistan as President Biden struggled to extricate America from its longest and most futile war? Or that Ahmad, Massoud\u2019s son, would today be a leader in the Panjshir Valley fighting against the Taliban takeover?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\"><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/09\/11\/nyregion\/traced-on-internet-teacher-is-charged-in-71-jet-hijacking.html\">One article<\/a> at the bottom of the front page for Sept. 11 now seems eerily resonant, with \u201cJet Hijacking\u201d in the headline. On the run for 30 years, a teacher in Westchester County, N.Y., Patrick Dolan Critton, was arrested on kidnapping, armed robbery and extortion charges after a sharp-eyed Canadian investigator spotted his name in a local newspaper article. He had commandeered a jetliner from Ontario to Cuba in 1971, lived in Cuba and Tanzania, then slipped back into the United States in 1994. But like so much on 9\/11, his notoriety quickly faded in the immensity of the attacks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">Time and again we see how cataclysmic news overturns the world we know. And catastrophes follow an unassuming morning paper. Which is why quiet mornings can seem especially foreboding, especially if the sky is a perfect blue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">Ralph Blumenthal was a Times reporter from 1964 to 2009, and has since contributed articles on Pentagon efforts to track U.F.O.s.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ralph Blumenthal, Times Insider,\u00a0Sept. 11, 2021 Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. The newspaper of Sept. 11, 2001, is a document of America before the terror attacks and a memory of a vanished era. The New York Times on Sept. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12505"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12507,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12505\/revisions\/12507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}