The Day We Dropped The “Student” From Journalist, And Became.
09 Sep 2011 1 Comment
(September 9th, 2011)
A perspective from The Daily Cougar Photo Desk, 9/11/2001.
For the rest of the story, please read Ken Fountain’s blog.
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It was suppose to be a normal news day. A Tuesday morning. I had planned to sleep late. A call came in, and it was Ed de la Garza, sports editor at the Daily Cougar at the time. “The World Trade Center just got attacked, you need to come in”. I am paraphrasing here. The exact words are blurred now, as was what unfolded in my mind the next hour or so. I thought he was joking, there was just no way this could be true. He told me to turn on the TV. I did. The image I saw was after the first plane had hit one of the Towers. It was all too unreal. I knew it was not a movie, but it was hard to believe what I was seeing.
I sat there and watched the news for a while, alone in my living room. There was no anger. It was mainly confusion as to what I was suppose to feel.
Then there was the job.
I was the Photo Editor at The Daily Cougar. There was no way to get to New York. I had to figure out what to do about photos. There was no time to feel guilty or helpless.
It was a strange day at the photo desk because there was not a lot we could contribute, except for one photo. I went out and asked for quotes from as diverse of a crowd as possible, with head shots and all accompanying them. That was extremely difficult, as you try to be as careful and as sensitive as possible to ask prepared questions. In the end, I think we included quotes from a professor, a student, and a staff. (If I may add, because of this, the “words from the street” became a regular feature of the newspaper).
All the folks at The Daily Cougar that day were amazing. From the newsroom to the production room. The 9/12/2001 edition of the paper is something I am very proud of.
9/11/2001 was the day I consider all the folks there in the newsroom badge carrying “student” journalists, who happened to be contributing to a student newspaper.
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