On the morning of September 11, 2001, MacFarlane was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston. Suffering from a hangover from the previous night’s celebrations,[125] and with an incorrect departure time (8:15 a.m. instead of 7:45 a.m.) from his travel agent,[126] he arrived at Logan International Airport about ten minutes too late to board the flight as the gates had been closed.[126] Fifteen minutes after departure, American Airlines Flight 11 was hijacked,[127] and at 8:46 a.m. it was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, obliterating the airplane, and killing everyone on board.[128]
In an interview with TVShowsOnDVD.com, MacFarlane said the following about his close call:
“The only reason it hasn’t really affected me as it maybe could have is I didn’t really know that I was in any danger until after it was over, so I never had that panic moment. After the fact, it was sobering, but people have a lot of close calls; you’re crossing the street and you almost get hit by a car… this one just happened to be related to something massive. I really can’t let it affect me because I’m a comedy writer. I have to put that in the back of my head.[129]”
Mark Wahlberg, his “Ted” co-star, also would have been on that very flight, which you might remember caused a controversy last year.
Yesterday, we made an editorial call resulting in the Sept, 11 moment of silence not being seen. While we dedicated a substantial amount of airtime to anniversary events, we still touched a nerve with many of your viewers … and for that we apologize.NBC News chief Steve Capus • Apologizing for something that made them look particularly off on Tuesday — instead of airing the moment of silence to honor the victims of September 11 (unlike every other network), they aired an interview with Kris Jenner, the mother of the Kardashians, about her breast augmentation — a questionable interview choice which drew attention to the oversight. The network says it had not regularly aired the moment of silence on since 2006, with the exception of the ten-year anniversary.
“You don’t want them to suffer. They’re trapped in a burning building. It’s just an unspeakable horror. And then you get this 10 years later. It just changes everything.”
A heartbreaking tale from the family of Randy Scott, an employee of Euro Brokers Inc., who was killed during the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. Randy’s family spent nearly 10 years believing that he died instantly during the first plane crash, prior to receiving his last written words (pictured above), only to learn that he and eleven co-workers were alive and trapped inside the first tower when it collapsed. source
Sept. 11 and Katrina top TV’s most memorable moments
LOS ANGELES — Watching news coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina disaster and the O.J. Simpson murder verdict proved to be the most impactful TV moments of the past 50 years in the United States, according to a study released Wednesday.
Which TV moment was most memorable for you?
Now seems like a good time to remind folks of the great September 11 reader memories thing the L.A. Times Tumblr did last year. Here’s my own; a number of others focused on the initial shock of seeing it on television.
They flew the plane in, but we caused it. We were bombing them, and they told us to stop.Tony Bennett • Discussing September 11, 2001 with Howard Stern on Monday night. As you might guess, the legendary singer regretted saying this after the fact, because it drew a ton of controversy. “There is simply no excuse for terrorism and the murder of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country,” he said in a statement released Tuesday night. “My life experiences — ranging from the Battle of the Bulge (in World War II) to marching with Martin Luther King — made me a lifelong humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior.” So, in other words … he stands behind his basic point (violence begets violence), but admits he worded it really poorly. Check. source (via • follow)
![thedailyfeed:
He didn’t know anyone was watching, but as Robert Peraza, 68, fell to one knee, bowed his head and placed his left hand over his son’s name at the National September 11 Memorial, a photographer with a long lens captured the very private moment. Overnight, the photo went viral, becoming the iconic image of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. [more]
An amazing photo. An amazing story. An amazing reflection.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrgsfp0u891qf5y35o1_500.jpg)
He didn’t know anyone was watching, but as Robert Peraza, 68, fell to one knee, bowed his head and placed his left hand over his son’s name at the National September 11 Memorial, a photographer with a long lens captured the very private moment. Overnight, the photo went viral, becoming the iconic image of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. [more]
An amazing photo. An amazing story. An amazing reflection.
United Flight 93, in voicemail form: The San Jose Mercury News got a hold of the voicemails to United Airlines Flight 93 passenger Mark Bingham. All sorts of people were trying to get a hold of Mark that day, who many now believe was one of the people who attempted to reclaim the plane from the hijackers. The voicemails start with “are you OK”-type messages, then notes of concern, then — after folks heard of his death — regret, remorse and appreciation for what he did. (A notable exception is his own mother, a former flight attendant with United, who tells him in her voicemail to fight back in an effort to save lives.) You’ll want to click this one and read closely. And, after you’re done, read the story that goes with it. We’d say this is the best newspaper page you’ll read about September 11, but that really gives all the other ones short shrift. There are many, many well-designed pages today. Charles Apple has a roundup.
EDIT: We’ve noticed a few cases where people have linked directly to the image on Twitter. We only posted it to our own host to save bandwidth for Charles Apple, and would ask that you not link directly to the image.
Yahoo wants to buy Hulu now too. They’re going on an “I...
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
» “A high-profile attack”: That’s how U.S. coalition leader Gen. John R. Allen described the vehicle bomb attack that injured over 100 people. But Allen sees the silver lining from a logistical perspective: “They have been ejected from the population in so many places around the country that their only ability to influence the battlefield on many occasions is simply to go for a high-profile attack,” he explained, “And that’s how we view this particular attack.”
A look at some of the latest airport scares in the United States within the last hour. There have been a lot of them, all coming a day after a Dulles terminal shutdown in DC. More info:
» High-alert reactions: The incidents come days after national officials asked American citizens to be vigilant after reports of a “credible and specific” terror threat. (post via producermatthew)
I’ve long been grateful to The Onion for its September 26, 2001 issue. Most simply, it allowed me to smile again.
Pictured above from that issue (and with apologies to the source since I’ve forgotten where I downloaded it from): God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule and US Vows to Defeat Whoever it is We’re at War With.
In a 2004 interview, Zack Stalberg, Editor of the Philadelphia Daily News and former Pulitzer Prize judge, told Editor & Publisher that he put The Onion up for consideration for a the prize’s commentary category:
“As it went around the table, you could see that people were blown away by this work,” Stalberg said about the entry, which included the paper’s mock Sept. 11 coverage. “But it was a little too different, a little too risky. I voted to make it a finalist, but nobody else did.”
Absolutely agree with this. Comedy should be bold. And nobody was bolder than The Onion. A great lesson on great satire.
40,000 people don’t realize this photograph is fake.
We got a special request from a reader to spread the word that this is a fake photo. Yes, it’s a hoax.
And a really old hoax, too. This is from the era where Fark was the most important aggregator on the internet.
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