More 9/11 tapes released

[BarTopDancer]

They released the tapes of calls (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5259224.stm)from the towers to 911. So sad. :(

[Prudence]

I wish they'd stop playing them on the news. I don't mind them talking about it, but it's mighty depressing to actually listen to now-dead people asking questions they knew the answers to.

[AllyOops!]

I defy anybody to remain stoic while listening to those heart-wrenching tapes.

I first heard them on the news in my nail salon yesterday and I had trouble keeping a brave face. This morning when they played them on the radio, I cried.

When you listen to those poor trapped people, people just like you & I, at work...crying and pleading to be saved...toruted by the intense heat and crying while asking if they would die..I can't even fathom the horror...

When the normally trained to remain cool & calm Dispatchers begin to lose control...when the one Dispatcher loses her caller and shouts her name, realizing they have died..and says, "They've all gone to sleep"..I'm about to cry now.

(I decided to edit out my rather furious bomb-Osama & friends-Elmer-Fudd-style-with limitless-TNT-inside-their-caves rant. I'll save it for my boyfriend.)

:(

[Kevy Baby]

I still won't listen, or see any of the movies. I can't handle it.

I won't even watch comercials for the movies - it has that much of an affect on me.

[Alex]

Last weekend's This American Life was about death and one of the segments was a guy who compiled transcripts from the cockpit voice recorders from some number of plane crashes.

It was interesting but one segment that he read was the technical back and forth of them trying to save the plane and then right before the recording ends the co-pilot says "I love you Ann."

Even read in transcript form it was very moving and Lani was crying in the car (as she did again at another one where a Turkish pilot started singing a lullaby once it became clear his fate was unavoidable).

But apparently this is the only transcript in the book that included such personal statements by the cockpit crew so Ira Glass asked about that. It turns out that the NTSB redacts the transcripts to remove personal and emotional statements unless it bears directly on the technical issues at hand. Those are released to the families if they want to hear it but otherwise it is considered private.

I have no interest in hearing these 9/11 calls. It would just be a morbid voyeurism that I don't think I could stomach. They should be released to families if they want them. Information useful for future training should be gleaned, but I can't think of any actual news value in playing these tapes for general consumption.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I have no interest in hearing these 9/11 calls. It would just be a morbid voyeurism that I don't think I could stomach. They should be released to families if they want them. Information useful for future training should be gleaned, but I can't think of any actual news value in playing these tapes for general consumption.I agree. I hope they gave the families of those identified on the tapes the right of refusal for releasing segments with their voice.

[Prudence]

And I'm really ticked at last night's news for slipping it into the newscast without warning. They start off talking about some new tapes have been released that shed light on the rescue efforts and I expect to see the redacted transcriptions displayed or played of rescue efforts. As in, gee, let's learn from this and improve our procedure stuff. Not unreasonable. But no. The first tape segment is played aloud and is from some frantic trapped person. This is not what I want to listen to while I wait for the weather report before heading to bed. Playing yet another "person about to die" tape is the worst sort of sensationalism.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

I have no interest in hearing these 9/11 calls. It would just be a morbid voyeurism that I don't think I could stomach. They should be released to families if they want them. Information useful for future training should be gleaned, but I can't think of any actual news value in playing these tapes for general consumption.

I completely agree. I've watched exactly one show about 9/11 and that was the documentary that was by the two french filmmakers who were shooting a documentary about NYC firefighters on 9/11 and were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was heartwrenching and all I will ever need to see about what happened that day for it to be forever etched into my memory.

These types of "news items" serve absolutely no necessary purpose and I really find the playing of them for the purpose of ratings to be more than offensive.

[BarTopDancer]

I have no interest in hearing these 9/11 calls. It would just be a morbid voyeurism that I don't think I could stomach. They should be released to families if they want them. Information useful for future training should be gleaned, but I can't think of any actual news value in playing these tapes for general consumption.

I can't listen to them. I can barely watch the commercials for the new movie. On some aspects, it will always be *too soon* for me. I don't see anything gained by playing these tapes for the public.

I did hear somewhere that there were segments removed at the request of families.

[tracilicious]

I have no interest in hearing these 9/11 calls. It would just be a morbid voyeurism that I don't think I could stomach. They should be released to families if they want them. Information useful for future training should be gleaned, but I can't think of any actual news value in playing these tapes for general consumption.


Ditto on this. I don't see how the general public has any right to hear these tapes.

[Kevy Baby]

As previously stated, I have no interest in hearing these tapes. But an interesting question comes to mind: should the tapes be released at all?

I believe that legally there is nothing that prevents the release, but is there a moral reason why they shouldn't be released? I think it is wrong of the news outlets to broadcast them without warning, but do you morally believe they should be made available?

(By "you", I mean the "General you", not Tracilicious, whose post this follows)

(And by "General You", I am referring to anybody reading this, not General You (http://www.micechat.com/forums/member.php?u=16))

[innerSpaceman]

I haven't heard these, but the story in the Times today stated that only one civilian tape was released, and the rest were all emergency worker communications on the public payroll.

Perhaps some news outlets latched onto that one tape, but it was the only one not considered legally private - because it had been used in court during the Zacharius Mousoui (sp?) trial.

Otherwise, yes - as everyone here seems to be opining - civilian conversations are considered private and have not, according to this rather detailed story, been released.

The "familes" group that sued to get the tapes released is, however, pretty angry that it has taken five years of stonewalling ... and they simply don't believe at this point that there aren't plenty of other tapes, perhaps even more incriminating of the rescue communications (which was atrocious by all accounts), that are still being stashed away.

[Kevy Baby]

Is a 911 call made by a private citizen considered private? You hear those all the time on the news.

Just wondering.