CNN Pipeline's (free) real-time rebroadcast of CNN's original 9/11 coverage seemed a bit gimmicky initially, but watching the story unfold in real time, with so little information — when just one plane had flown into just one tower and it was already a huge, huge story — it takes you back with a surprising intensity, and is surprisingly mesmerizing. Whether you have the stomach for this kind of brutal nostalgia or not, it's definitely worth checking out, if for no other reason than to remind yourself why you miss Aaron Brown (Tonight, on a special 360, you'll get Anderson Cooper and you'll like it). From a media perspective (which is ETP's perspective), it's incredibly interesting to watch the original coverage, to be taken back to a world before the newsticker and to hear the first utterances of quotes that you've been reading about for five years now (such as Aaron Brown's "There are no words"). But from a more universal perspective (which, I guess, can be ETP's perspective), it will be interesting as the day unfolds to watch CNN analysts and guests explain to many Americans for the first time what al Qaeda is and who Osama Bin Laden is (and no, he doesn't get bolded). It is, in many senses, like opening a time capsule and being brought back to a world you can't imagine you once lived in. It's jarring, but it's moving, and you can access it via the cnn.com homepage.
— Danny Shea
