"They've bombed the f***king Pentagon too:" Incoherence of speech & emotion on 9/11 Whenever the subject of '9/11 memories' comes up Anna Waits (my kid sister, for those who don't know) will often recall how it was the first time I swore seriously in her presence, and I guess if you're gonna use the f-word in front of your kid sister for the first time you may as well do it while describing the events of that day. She quotes me accurately: "They've bombed the f***king Pentagon too." Not my most eloquent moment, I'm not generally a sweary guy unless I've had bit to drink and even then I'm not one to use 'f**k' as an adjective much, but who sat in front ofCNN that afternoon had access to an appropriate vocabulary or presence of mind to eloquently express their thoughts on what was unfolding before them? There was nothing one could say. All one could do was watch. The time for discussion would come soon enough, but while the dust settled there was nothing very usefull we could add to the mounting statistics.

One man who did say something a few days later was The Daily Show's 'anchorman,' the very great Mr Jon Stewart. The first Daily Show aired after 9/11 was a clips show, but the first half consisted of nothing but a rambling to-camera monologue by Stewart, which had him in turns breaking down, sobbing, making half-hearted jokes, and ruminating messily on America Freedom, Democracy etc etc...I just caught it on youtube (put in 'Daily Show September 2001'), and it's remarkable, a heart breaking, unique piece of television, one man grappling honestly with his emotions, politics, and the weight of history...I've considered Stewart a minor hero of mine for some time, but this is something else - he hits the right note not because he says exactly the right thing, but precisely because he doesn't really know what to say, and what he does say is often muddled and muddied by gut reaction and a lack of hard facts...just like the rest of us at that time. It's a human reaction. It's a New Yorker's reaction. And I guess it's also the reaction of a man who knows his job has been rendered completely insignificant, and simultaneously perhaps more valuable than he ever thought it could be. Over the next 5 years, the Bush administration's reaction to 9/11 would make The Daily Show perhaps the most important show on American television.

(Thanks to Anna Waits for the tip off on this.)

Labels: Television

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