from TVNewser.com
Vanity Fair editor of creative development and former Life magazine director of photography David Friend's new book, "Watching The World Change" looks at the images of 9/11, the stories behind them, and the wider issue of how imagery is perceived — and used — in a post-9/11 world. The book has received a lot of attention since its release, most notably from Frank Rich in his Sept. 10 column making critical assumptions about the subjects of one particular photo (Slate's detective work on the photo here). One of the most interesting things about the book has, in fact, been its website, which has gone beyond book-and-reading information and has become a gathering place for 9/11 memories and reflections with a comprehensive blogroll and frequently-updated blog posts with links, feedback from readers, and even meta-commentary on the photo mentioned above, adding to the understanding of the story behind it and not shrinking from the controversy it spawned. Good stuff.
Yet lost in the shuffle has been a nugget featuring Fox News Channel top dog Roger Ailes, who leads the celebrations of the network's 10th anniversary this week. Friend spoke to Ailes for the book, and got a kind of creepily fatalistic comment from him that we present to you in full now:
There were deeper and more disturbing repercussions [to our having seen the towers fall on live TV], geopolitically and, to many, spiritually. "The implications from a television standpoint," says Roger Ailes, chairman of FOX News and FOX Television Stations, "are simply that: When the end of the world comes, we'll be able to cover it live until the last camera goes out. I believe I mean it literally. If you can witness something like [9/11] by two billion people, live, then there's nothing that can't be covered. And if we get into a world war, with nuclear weapons, I assume we'll be covering it live."Ailes, recognizing TV's corporeal-world role, as it were, at the right hand of omniscience, speaks with a preacher's assurance and without
an iota of irony when pondering the ultimate news story — a real-time Apocalypse Now: "It's horrifying to think about. But maybe God set it up that way. You can either figure out how to live in freedom...and hope, or you can watch yourselves burn to death. Nine-eleven is a warning shot that says: "Look, this can go either way. It's your choice, folks."
It's true; if people can have the presence of mind to keep a camera tilted upward as the towers come down, not to mention head straight into the eye of a hurricane in a fortified truck in the hopes of getting the story, then they probably will keep on shooting the live feed until the live feed goes dead. Even so, the cautionary "moral" of the second paragraph seems rather out of place for someone who has deliberately set up his network as an outpost of a particular point of view, whereon that point of view is presented rather, er, strongly (cf. Bill O'Reilly and dissent-eschewing Sean Hannity). Far be it from ETP to opine on the intentions of the Supreme Being, but we're betting that the motivating higher purpose isn't ratings. Or, at least, hoping. In any event, Happy Anniversary, Roger Ailes! Here's a song for you.
