Meanwhile, American media tries to act inconspicuous
: While European media are donning tinfoil (see the post below), American media are — as I’ve complained before — trying to act as if 9.11 is something to whisper about, almost something to be ashamed about: our victimhood, our loss: Sshhhh, don’t disturb the Widow America.
Mark Steyn has a slightly different (conspiracy) theory:
Two years after ”the day America changed forever,” the culture is in thrall to the same dopey self-delusion it held on Sept. 10, 2001: There are no enemies, just friends we haven’t yet apologized to. The terrorist won’t be a problem if … we just give him a helping hand. Or, as the novelist Alice Walker proposed for Osama bin Laden, ”I firmly believe the only punishment that works is love.”
That’s why America’s TV networks have decided to sit out this week’s anniversary. On the day itself, it was all too chaotic and unprecedented for the news guys to impose any one of their limited range of templates. For the first anniversary, they were back on top of things and opted to Princess Dianafy the occasion, to make it a day of ersatz grief-mongering, with plenty of tinkly piano on the soundtrack and soft-focus features about ”healing circles.” That didn’t go down too well, so this year they’ve figured it’s easiest just to ignore it. The alternative would be to treat 9/11 as what it was — an act of war — and they don’t have the stomach for that. War presupposes enemies, and enemies means people you have to kill, or at least stop, or at the very least be ever so teensy-weensily judgmental about.
He could be right but I say that’s a media conspiracy theory that gives them too much credit for forethought. No, I think, instead, they’re simply making a (misguided) marketing decision that Americans are trying to get past 9.11 — they don’t want to be reminded.
That’s insulting and wrong.
