[TVWW contributor Eric Mink and I were colleagues -- TV critic co-equals -- at the New York Daily News a decade ago, when terrorists steered planes into the Twin Towers and elsewhere. I was watching from the safety of my basement office in Cherry Hill, NJ, 90 miles away. Eric was much, much closer to what we now call Ground Zero.
Ten years later, I'm watching all the anniversary documentaries and coverage presented by the various TV networks, but Eric is not. In the very personal and memorable essay that follows, he explains why. - DB]
By Eric Mink
Early on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, life stirred in the television department at the New York Daily News, pretty much as it had every workday since Dave Bianculli and I had become colleagues more than eight years earlier. As we soon learned, every workday after that would be different from those that had come before. Three months later, I left the newspaper.
The collegiality and mutual respect with which Dave and I had worked throughout our tenure together at The News were never more crucial than in the demanding and draining weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We both watched, thought, talked and wrote, inevitably concentrating on programming and issues connected in one way or another to the attacks and their aftermath. As ever, the pieces we wrote embodied our individual personalities and styles; and, as ever, our efforts were never in conflict.
I've just written a freelance column for The St. Louis Jewish Light about my determination to avoid television coverage of the 10th anniversary, and why. I'm grateful that Dave found it worthwhile and wanted to share it with the readers of TV WORTH WATCHING.
A link to that piece is HERE.
Your comments, as always, are encouraged and welcome.