At 8:49 a.m. ET, on September 11, 2001, CNN abruptly returned from a commercial break showing a live video image of smoke billowing out of a gaping hole in one of the twin towers at the World Trade Center.
Carol Lin, a CNN anchor at that time, relayed to viewers the little she knew of the unfolding situation, saying they had unconfirmed reports of a plane crashing into one of the towers, adding, “CNN Center right now is just beginning to work on this story, obviously calling our sources and trying to figure out exactly what happened.”
Atlanta-based CNN videographer Ric Blackburn was on bump-shot duty that Tuesday morning, capturing shots of the CNN newsroom inside its former home at the CNN Center going into and out of commercial breaks for the network’s morning news shows.
Upon seeing the rising newsroom chaos following the first plane crash, Blackburn’s journalism instincts immediately kicked in, and he started documenting what he saw.
The CNN original’s incredible recording is available in two parts on YouTube and offers a rare vantage point on how a global operation like CNN responded to one of the biggest stories of the century. This internal account of what happened inside the CNN building amazingly captures how the network’s journalists responded and adjusted to the growing calamity in real time.
Like a loud crescendo
Speaking exclusively to TVNewser, Blackburn, who is now retired, recalls his experience that Tuesday morning. He said that, for the 16 video journalists stationed in Atlanta, to give them a break from all the traveling they did, they’d go on a one-month rotation at a time inside the CNN Center doing bump-shot duty.
It was his turn that month, and his shift began at 5 a.m. and was to run until 2 p.m. ET. As the intensity of the newsroom picked up, he called his supervisor and requested his regular camera and a boom microphone to capture the sound.
Blackburn’s recording starts around 9:25 a.m. ET, and by that time the second plane had already crashed into the second tower, with the gravity of the situation well established.
“I just started roaming the newsroom, people on the phone, people looking up at the monitors, people talking to each other, and it just crescendoed, like a loud crescendo as time went on,” Blackburn said.
He noted that Walter Isaacson, CNN’s president at that time, was not initially thrilled with his work capturing the newsroom and the many conversations happening in real time.
