I was a teenager when it happened. I was working at McDonald’s at the time and had knocked off for the night. It was just Dad and I at home, him watching TV with a beer and me on the computer. I remember after a while of veging out, he yelled at me to come and see what was happening on TV in the lounge. I can’t recall what channel he was on or what coverage was being shown, but it was definitely US coverage of both towers burning. He was adamant it was a terrorist attack - that no accident like that happens twice.
I stayed up for most of the night watching it all unfold. The internet was a different place back then, very little social media and live video. But I remember trying to join US-based IRC servers (i was obsessed with mIRC at the time) to see what Americans were saying, but had a lot of issues getting on.
The whole investigation of 9/11 had me fascinated for a few years - I definitely got sucked in to some of the theories. But it wasn’t long before I realised they were mostly based on hearsay and photos with red circles.
Here’s some coverage from the New Zealand side of the Tasman: a full 3 News extended bulletin from the night of September 12th, with John Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld presenting.
Features reports on the NZ response to the attack.
I was 9 years old at the time, my Mum woke me up the next day (she had seen it unfold live) and I’ll never forget the way she said so calmly “Something awful has happened in America”
New Zealand would have been completely asleep. I’m assuming Television coverage didn’t start until Breakfast time after the events had unfolded on TVNZ and Three?
From what has been mentioned on Twitter. TVNZ’s coverage would of been from BBC World as the network would close down at midnight and switch to the BBC each night (First plane hit at 12.46am NZT). A former Breakfast staffer said Breakfast went to air at 4.30am September 12 and would remain on air for 8 hours and Three which used its ABC America coverage began the morning with a 3 News Special at 5am. Not sure what Prime had but I highly doubt it considering it was a minor player and had no national news bulletin until 2004 with the launch of Prime News First at 5.30pm.
@BigVic has PM’d me to share these. I believe the videos come from the poster above^
Australian 9/11 Coverage : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - coverage on the morning of 12 September 2001. 7 had NBC Nightly News and Sunrise, 9 had Today, 10 had Ron Wilson (Cheez TV was abandoned) and ABC had Tony Eastley (children’s programming was abandoned). All regular progamming was abandoned for most of that day with coverage from NBC, ABC America and CBS.
Ten News First at Five from 12 September 2001
60 min edition of National Nine News Melbourne co-anchored by Peter Hitchener and Jo Hall
