Michigan State’s Independent Voice
20 YEARS LATER, FORMER STATE NEWS REPORTERS REFLECT ON 9/11 COVERAGE
LOOKING BACK ON THE DAY By Mariam Hanna On Sept. 11, 2001, then-Editor-in-Chief of The State News Mary Sell woke up to get ready for her journalism ethics class at MSU. As part of her routine, she had CNN on in the background — but there was nothing routine about what would soon become that day’s programming. At 8:49 that morning, she watched as the first attack on the World Trade Center was broadcast on the network. Sell said she was shocked and confused, assuming this was some sort of horrific accident. As she got to class and became more aware of the situation, she knew she had to head to the newsroom. “I walked in, and we just said, ‘Alright we gotta get ready for this,’” Sell said. “‘We gotta tell people what’s going on.’... In those first hours, we didn’t know what we were looking at. But, it became apparent very soon that this was the biggest news event of our lives.” When she got to the newsroom, which was in the Student Services building at the time, then-opinion editor Jeremy Steele made his way over. “As was probably typical, I was running behind to go to whatever class I was supposed to be at in the morning,” Steele said. “I never got there because I heard what was on the radio and just diverted and went to The State News.” Steele, who is now an MSU professor, initiated coverage that morning — a job out of the ordinary for him. Steele sent a message telling everyone to come into the newsroom because a major story was happening. MSU alumnus Ed Ronco saw this message and started heading over, even though he technically was not a State News reporter that semester. “I got back to my dorm after I heard what had happened and saw an email from one of the editors saying, ‘Everybody come in right now,’” Ronco said. “I emailed and said, ‘I don’t really work for you, but do you need a hand,’ and they said, ‘Yeah, go ahead and come in.’ So, I spent the day as a reporter.” At this point, then-reporter Camille Knox was already on her way. She was in her dorm when the second tower was hit and instantly knew she had to be in the newsroom. She had experience with breaking news, but this was unique. “Normally with breaking news … we’re running around the newsroom like chickens with your head cut off, but this was a moment where we realized the gravity of this thing,” Knox said. “I think we all knew this is heavy, and this isn’t something that we were gonna get up tomorrow and shake off like we do a lot of other news stories. This thing is gonna have legs, and it’s gonna carry us through God knows how many more years.” Several State News workers had friends or family in New York and surrounding areas at the time, as did a number of MSU students and faculties. Sell’s best friend was working in downtown New York shortly following her graduation from MSU. She was the first person Sell thought of as she watched the towers go down and began to realize that this tragedy was no accident.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 T U ES DAY, S E PT E MB E R 14, 2021
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