# So what was the biggest news on the morning of September 11, 2001 before everything changed? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 10, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981 "2019-09-10T14:05:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/21 "2019-09-11T00:19:31Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Kinda interesting looking at the threads in the forums from that time to see what topics we were talking about: > > [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=12&pp=150&sort=lastpost&order=asc&daysprune=-1&page=50](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=12&pp=150&sort=lastpost&order=asc&daysprune=-1&page=50) > > The above link _should_ take you to IMHO, showing a list of the end-dates of threads. Let’s just say that for pretty much all forums, there’s a LOT of closed threads all of a sudden. > > The Pit: [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=12&pp=150&sort=lastpost&order=asc&daysprune=-1&page=50](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=12&pp=150&sort=lastpost&order=asc&daysprune=-1&page=50) > > Great Debates: [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=7&pp=150&sort=lastpost&order=asc&daysprune=-1&page=38](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=7&pp=150&sort=lastpost&order=asc&daysprune=-1&page=38) > > (Your settings may cause some additional clicking to get to the exact date - the links worked for me, so I assume they’ll work for all.) That [SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=86555) was a real Nostradamus. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/22 "2019-09-11T00:50:36Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I remember listening to NPR while getting dressed for work that morning; there was a story about the Northern Alliance driving back the Taliban in Afghanistan. I was listening to NPR while driving to work that morning. A few minutes before the first plane hit. I remember not only that story, but the one that went with it, about the assassination of the Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud by al-Qa‘idah. ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/23 "2019-09-11T08:09:54Z")
In Norway, there was an election the day before. A politician named Kjell Magne Bondevik, who normally has no luck, had managed to pull off a spectacular coup in terms of politics and negotiation. He’d managed to wield three parties in the political center-right into an alliance that formed a minority government with himself as Prime Minister, despite his party being rather small. He leaned back in his armchair and bent his normally teetotal ways enough to have a brandy secure in the knowledge that tomorrow the headlines were all going to be about his accomplishment. Later on it turned out that he was exactly what we needed for the times. He was an ordained minister representing the Christian Democrats, and it is said that he used his religious convictions as a minister to argue to Bush II that he could not support the Iraq invasion, and that the religious argument was one Bush could not refute. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/24 "2019-09-11T13:17:29Z")
It was already going, about six in the morning, and I heard about it on the radio as I woke up. Instantly snapped on the TV and had a hard time getting ready for work by seven. My commute route paralleled Sky Harbor’s downwind leg but there were no aircraft taking off as I drove in – very unusual as it’s a busy time of the day for them. At work the calls were very light and they offered an early release if you wanted it, covered by sick leave or vacation time. I stuck it out as I figured I’d only be moping around at home anyway. This looks like a good place to drop **Cartooniverse** ’s post about that day, [_Everything Changed: A September 11th Narrative_](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=623552). ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/25 "2019-09-11T13:26:58Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I’m reading a book about the Battle of the Bulge and strangely despite the enormity of the battle a lot of American and British papers literally had the battle on page 2 and domestic stories on the front page, such as FEARS OF BEER SHORTAGE IN PUBS OVER CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY. > > Bizarre how such mundane headlines even back then override actual national emergencies. I’m not sure what you’re getting at- you can google plenty of examples of period newspapers with BoB headlines and almost the entire front page covered with information about it. What I suspect may have happened is that on Dec 16th, the battle began, and I’d bet that the newspapers didn’t catch up until the 17th or 18th about that, and then probably by the 20th or so, didn’t have too much new information to report- most of what was going on was probably restricted tactical/operational information. So they were reporting about beer shortages, etc… Beyond that, the British wouldn’t have had nearly the interest in the battle, as it was against American forces, not British ones. ---
**Author:** ![tricoteuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tricoteuse/32/4334_2.png) [@tricoteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tricoteuse)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/26 "2019-09-11T13:27:07Z")
The headline in the local newspaper was about a very wealthy and influential property owner who had just gotten busted for running a prostitution ring disguised as “massage parlors.” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/27 "2019-09-11T13:27:33Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > That [SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=86555) was a real Nostradamus. There are misses, and then there are MISSES. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/28 "2019-09-11T14:40:01Z")
I was not in the habit of watching or listening to news before heading to work; I lived in Manhattan @ 49th St and 2nd Ave and would roll out of bed, shower, get dressed, and hop the subway to 53rd and 6th where I worked, snagging a deli egg sandwich on my way to my desk. **The airplane flying into the first tower was already occupying the news by 8:30 AM**. I got off the F train and scowled at all the [del]brainless cattle[/del] annoyingly motionless commuters with their faces pressed against the glass window of some underground business at the Rockefeller Ctr stop, one which happened to have televisions on and running. “WTF is so compelling on the goddam teevee, that everyone’s gotta block me from getting out the turnstile?” “Somebody just flew a plane into the side of the world trade center” “They giving out pilot’s licenses as crackerjack prizes or something? New flash, there’s a huge honking tall building at the lower end of Manhattan. Stupid Cessna hobbyists” So whatever was “the news of the day” before the attacks would be in a very limited window between dawn and perhaps 8 AM. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/29 "2019-09-11T14:43:31Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > “They giving out pilot’s licenses as crackerjack prizes or something? New flash, there’s a huge honking tall building at the lower end of Manhattan. Stupid Cessna hobbyists” When we first got word where I was of the second plane, I dismissed it as someone having mis-heard the report, then quipped something along the lines of it only being a second plane “[if John Cusack was still working ATC](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120797/reference)” that morning. :cringe: ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/30 "2019-09-11T14:58:04Z")
I called and woke up my sister in California and told her to turn on the TV. She did and made some comment about “The Movie Channel.” I said “That’s not the movie channel, that’s real.” ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/31 "2019-09-11T16:26:22Z")
> **[Summer of the Shark](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_the_Shark)** > > The Summer of the Shark refers to the coverage of shark attacks by American news media in the summer of 2001. The sensationalist coverage of shark attacks began in early July following the Fourth of July weekend shark attack on 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast, and continued almost unabated—despite no evidence for an actual increase in attacks—until the September 11 terrorist attacks shifted the media's attention away from beaches. The Summer of the Shark has since been remembered as an example of tabl... News stories about supposed increase in shark attacks. And the Gary Condit/Chandra Levy thing. I was out of work that summer and girlfriend as well. Dot com crash victim. It was a pretty uneventful summer news wise. Hung out at the pool a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/32 "2019-09-11T16:47:45Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I called and woke up my sister in California and told her to turn on the TV. She did and made some comment about “The Movie Channel.” I said “That’s not the movie channel, that’s real.” I had the TV on as it was happening, but then called my parents to tell them to turn on their TV. “Which channel?” my father asked. “_Any_ channel,” I replied. (And that was almost literally the case. Later in the day, my mother turned to the Game Show Network (which was one of the few channels not covering the story; even MTV and HBO as I remember had the news on) just to have something else on. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/33 "2019-09-11T17:00:58Z")
I was in Columbus Ohio at the time. I remember they had mentioned that we’d start to see the first taste of fall weather, Ohio State football, Chandra Levy, and Bush’s faith based initiatives were what was on the news that morning. ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/34 "2019-09-11T18:03:02Z")
I don’t know what the news was like in SPAIN on that day, but apparently there is a beloved, cherished auxillery member of the Straight Dope who proudly, grandly gloated that in Barcelona, her watching innocent Americans suffer & die by the thousands on the morning of Sept. 11th 2001 (in her wise words, “…seeing Americans running around like chickens with their heads cut off…”, HAW HAW HAW) was a source of much mirth and an endless amusement to her. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/35 "2019-09-11T18:40:59Z")
**Moderator Warning** > [@Royal\_Nonesutch](#): > > I don’t know what the news was like in SPAIN on that day, but apparently there is a beloved, cherished auxillery member of the Straight Dope who proudly, grandly gloated that in Barcelona, her watching innocent Americans suffer & die by the thousands on the morning of Sept. 11th 2001 (in her wise words, “…seeing Americans running around like chickens with their heads cut off…”, HAW HAW HAW) was a source of much mirth and an endless amusement to her. If you have a problem with another user, take it to the Pit. This is an official warning for attacking another user outside of the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/36 "2019-09-11T19:27:11Z")
Comedienne [Paula Poundstone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Poundstone#Personal_life) had some legal problems that were starting to make headlines at that time. There was also a Little League Baseball controversy where pitcher [Danny Alamonte](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Almonte), following months of rumors after becoming a sensation during the Little League World Series, was revealed to be too old to be eligible to play. ---
**Author:** ![tricoteuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tricoteuse/32/4334_2.png) [@tricoteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tricoteuse)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/37 "2019-09-11T19:34:52Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I had the TV on as it was happening, but then called my parents to tell them to turn on their TV. “Which channel?” my father asked. “_Any_ channel,” I replied. > > (And that was almost literally the case. Later in the day, my mother turned to the Game Show Network (which was one of the few channels not covering the story; even MTV and HBO as I remember had the news on) just to have something else on. I turned on the Weather Channel, which wasn’t showing the news but they were talking about how all incoming flights were being rerouted to Canada. I thought that was kind of bizarre, then my mother called me and told me to turn on CNN. I did, right in time to see the second tower fall. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/38 "2019-09-11T20:40:56Z")
Here’s an interesting article about the OP topic: > **[9/11: The Week Before](https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/911-the-week-before/100142/)** ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981/39 "2019-09-12T13:23:57Z")
For 20 years Broadway held a free concert in Times Square called “Broadway on Broadway.” I went to the one on Sunday, September 9, 2001. Mayor Guilliani gave the opening speech, stating “Half of the New York City dollar is the tourist dollar, and half of the tourists go to see a Broadway show.” I went into and out of NYC on the bus, never really noticing the World Trade Towers. When I went in the next time three weeks later, I noticed the empty spot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-biggest-news-on-the-morning-of-september-11-2001-before-everything-changed/839981.md?page=1)