Why Don't the Networks Want Us Mad?

Why Don't the Networks Want Us Mad?
Something was missing from a week of rather tepid September 11th memorials. I did not see a single replay of the World Trade Center Towers falling. The focus of the memorial I saw focused on the victims rather than recalling the evil manifested by the attack itself.
This represents a continuation of a trend that has been gnawing at me for a long time now. I'm fairly certain that in the last year, I've seen more video of the USS Arizona blowing up at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 than I have of hijacked planes crashing into the Twin Towers. I can say that because I'm sure it's been more than a year since I've seen the Twin Towers go down. I read somewhere that the networks had agreed not to show these images anymore as they are too painful to those who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack. But there is a gossamer quality to that explanation. Were all the sailors on the Arizona unloved?
Now which tragedy is more closely tied to current events and should therefore get more airtime? Considering that we are spending blood and treasure around the world as a consequence of September 11, 2001, it seems that Americans deserve to be reminded now and then of why. If nothing else, we have welcomed three million immigrants in the last two years. Two million Americans reached voting age and presumably are more aware of the world around them than they were before. That makes 5 million people for whom a replay would hardly be a refresher course.
Reading aloud the names of the victims is fine, but it elicits sorrow, not outrage. And the atrophy of outrage is easily quantifiable. Most of the flags that went up after the attacks have either been taken down, or have been permitted to fray and fade. Clearly people's anger has cooled. And, it has been cooled because no one is blowing on the coals.
Anger and outrage are the more appropriate reaction to terrorism. If all Usama Bin Laden achieved in 2001 was to make us sorrowful, he'd still be living the high life in Afghanistan instead of hiding in caves. Saddam Hussein would still be nurturing, arming, and rewarding terrorists. Instead they both made us mad.
"The purpose of terrorism, is terror" said Vladimir Lenin, who used terror to dispirit the Russian empire into submission. To dispirit us is the intention of Bin Laden and his henchmen. We need to keep fresh in our minds who and what they are and the threat that they pose.
To do that, we need to see those buildings falling again. We need to see that footage of Palestinians dancing in the street after the attack. We need to see the anniversary celebrations that took place around the world Thursday, including London, England. Americans need to be reminded that there are evil, hateful people out there who wish to kill us.
Our media seemed disinclined to take sides here. David Westin, president of the ABC News opined that the attack on the Pentagon was not a terrorist attack, but a legitimate military action. The Reuters News Agency is reluctant to use the word terrorist claiming that, "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." When is the last time you heard that a terrorist blew up a bus full of children in Israel? It's been a while. The Reuterized mainstream press prefers to call Palestinian child killers, "militants."
I think I have a handle on it. Because defeatist demagogues such as Howard Dean and the French-looking John Kerry have made criticism of the war their central campaign issue, the left leaning press has resisted any images that would inflame support for the war and therefore, the incumbent president. Nothing would drive Howard Dean's poll numbers down than an occasional reminder of that awful day.
Would it be partisan to show the towers falling and report that this is what motivated United States to go to war? That is the truth. Nothing is more even-handed than the truth. And, if Howard Dean and the French-looking John Kerry want to argue that we should not have fought back, then let them do so to a properly informed and impassioned public.
Remember, the terrorists brought the war to us.