Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of September 11

by Newseum, Cathy Trost, Alicia Shepard

From The Newseum, America's first interactive museum of news, comes the definitive book detailing behind-the-scenes stories of how journalists covered the deadly assaults of September 11, 2001. Three kinds of people instinctively run toward danger―firefighters, police officers, and journalists. Collected here are dramatic first-person stories of more than 100 reporters and photographers who raced to the scenes of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in rural Pennsylvania.

With a moving foreword by NBC News Anchor Tom Brokaw, Running Toward Danger is arranged along a chronological timeline of the day and is illustrated with more than 100 photographs, many of them rarely seen. The book documents how journalists overcame daunting logistical and emotional challenges to report to a shaken world the implications of the new century's most terrifying moment. It includes intimate details about the marathon high-wire work of the network anchors and the harrowing stories of ordinary journalists who put themselves in harm's way to report the story. The book provides an enduring record of a turning point in world history, a book that future generations will rely on for insights about how news was conveyed to a shattered world.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 2002

About the author

The Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.

The Newseum is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., on America's Main Street between the White House and the U.S. Capitol and adjacent to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. The exterior's unique architectural features include a 74-foot-high marble engraving of the First Amendment and an immense front wall of glass through which passers-by can watch the museum fulfilling its mission of providing a forum where the media and the public can gain a better understanding of each other.

The Newseum features seven levels of galleries, theaters, retail spaces and visitor services. It offers a unique environment that takes museum-goers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made.

Reviews

[MKF]

I really don't understand adding the timeline at the bottom then trying to group the journalists accounts around it. It's also problematic because there's a big mistake if you're actually paying attention to it. It claims an explosion at WTC 2 happened at 9:04 am then just a few pages later says the plane then hit WTC 2 at 9:09 am. This is how conspiracy theories get started when you claim an explosion happened before the crash. They're actually both wrong because all the other timelines say that the plane hit WTC 2 at 9:03 am. After this I just ignored the timeline and focused on the accounts which offered a different view of what happened that day.

[Andrew Ramsaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm always fascinated by the viewpoints of journalists involved in covering history. There's the fact that they are there living the event but also a duty to digest and record and translate what is going on for the rest of us. When do you do your job and when do you be human and are they mutually exclusive? This book discusses that about 9/11.

[Edie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A chronological collection of eyewitness accounts from journalists who experienced 911. Brief but to-the-point reports tell the story as it unfolded. This book is put out by the Newseum, now permanently closed. That's a shame because I really liked that museum and thought it was an eyeopener to the dangers of reporting news.

[Ti-Leigh Telford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy duty stuff. Interesting to hear journalists' perspective.

[Brendan Reed]

Read this for my Journalism class, it's a very in-depth and emotional re-telling of the 9/11 attacks from the people who reported on it.