Tag Archives: 9/11

Ground Zero: September 13, 2010

I’m sure I’m like a lot of Americans on this day. It’s hard to look at the date and not think about the morning of September 11, 2001. I think 9/11 will always be that way for me. Without question, it was one of the most emotionally draining days of my life.

So… for me… it’s a day to reflect.

I think back to the day itself when this seasoned news reporter was an emotional wreck, and the day years later when a Port Authority cop allowed me to shoot on Ground Zero. Each are worth a day of reflection.

This past weekend, 60 Minutes had a feature on the 9/11 museum that’s under construction. It’s definitely worth watching. The museum looks like it’s going to be pretty amazing, and I look froward to seeing it someday.

I also look forward to taking my daughter there when she’s older. I hope it helps her understand a time when we saw the worst in humanity followed by the best.

–Tony Gnau

Ground Zero Video Shoot: Sept. 2010

Many of you might know I’m a former TV news reporter. On September 11, 2001, I walked into the WLWT-TV (Cincinnati) newsroom, set down my bag, looked at the bank of televisions over the assignment desk and asked why the World Trade Center was on fire?

Nobody in the newsroom had noticed the live picture on the Today Show. We gathered at the assignment desk, and minutes later the second plane hit the second tower.

My assignment that day was to do a story on all the people who flooded a downtown cathedral during their lunch hour. It’s the only story of my journalism career I got emotionally wrapped-up in. I was fine until the building spontaneously burst into God Bless America. I teared up and had to walk out to compose myself before attempting to interview people as they left.

Photographer Kevin Martin and I put together an awesome story that day… and it never aired. NBC went more than 24-hours without local programming, so none of the stories our team created that day were ever broadcast.

And you know what… I could have cared less. A good friend of mine from college was a reporter for Bloomberg Financial Network at the time and worked on the stock exchange. I was far more concerned about whether or not my friend was dead than my story airing. Thankfully, she evacuated before the towers came down and is alive and well.

I’d like to make some point here. Link the story to being detached when you create a video or working under pressure, but I can’t… or won’t. I just wanted to share what I was doing the day our world changed.

We should all remember our feelings that day. Never forget.

–Tony Gnau