WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): Twenty-five years ago today, the attack on the Twin Towers began reshaping American life. It also, in many ways, reshaped American media. Back with me to talk about that is Memphis political analyst and author Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Good to be back with you.
BLANK: I don't want to reveal any exact ages here, but you and I were in the same place on that infamous Tuesday morning -- the newsroom of The Commercial Appeal. And after that initial shock, I remember thinking, "This is news, and I'm a reporter, but what is my role in all of this sitting here in Memphis?" And I'm guessing you and the other editors at the paper were asking the same question. What was your answer to that?
SANFORD: My answer was this was the biggest story of our lifetime. And it was an international story, it was a national story, and it was a local story for us. So, even though I know a lot of people in the newsroom, probably including you -- well, definitely including you -- were impacted by this from an emotional standpoint (I know I was), we still understood that we had a job to do, to tell our readers what happened, why it happened, and who was impacted, especially if there were any local people who were killed in this horrible event.
BLANK: And there was a Memphian killed in the attack, a a businessman named Gary Lasko. And I do remember every reporter in the newsroom -- before, you know, social media, before even a lot of people had cell phones -- everybody was on a landline trying to to find a local connection. Beyond selling newspapers, why is that local byline on a national news story important?
SANFORD: Primarily because our readers, the local readers, want to know what are the local ramifications of all of this. So, it was important for us in every department, because 9/11 impacted everything that we did, Chris. Entertainment, news, politics, sports, every avenue was impacted.
BLANK: Over the last 25 years, we've seen America go through a lot. And I think some people could make a case that where we are today goes back to 9/11 in some ways. How do you think 9/11 affected the media in general?
SANFORD: I will say that immediately after 9/11, I think we saw the most unity in this country than we had seen, probably in my lifetime. I think what happened is that people started to question the Bush administration's decisions to go into Iraq and do a lot of things that didn't necessarily have to do with what happened on 9/11. And that caused a lot of division, and it just went down from there. The political divisions kept growing, and the news media got caught up in that. That's how I see it.
BLANK: Do you think local media has been affected by political division, the kind you see in mainstream media, you know, Fox News, MSNBC, everybody taking a side on issues? Has there been a trickle-down here locally?
SANFORD: Oh, no question about that, Chris. Every area of news media from the New York Times all the way down to the smallest newspaper, were impacted by this division. And social media is part of the blame for this. People only want to hear what they believe in. They're not really as open to a broad range of ideas and views as they used to be back before social media came along. So, yes, we are caught up in that. Politicians are playing to that because they know that they can now reach their supporters directly. They don't feel as if they need the news media anymore. And they're demonizing the news media, both locally and nationally. And it's really causing an effect with our readers ,who believe that we are just not as reliable as we used to be.
BLANK: And to your point, I think Donald Trump really demonstrated that Twitter could be as useful as a press conference. And in your Daily Memphian column this week, you mention Tennessee GOP candidates refusing to debate, really for the first time. You know, as you were just saying, the more you call this out, the more the media calls this out, the more these candidates say, "Well, look, the media has all this bias against me." So, what would you, as a as a former newsroom leader, say that we should be doing in the local media to get back to, maybe, some of that pre-9/11 trust in local journalism? That we're getting it right and not being biased?
SANFORD: What we need to do is just to continue to seek the truth, report the truth, show up to question, and if necessary, confront politicians who don't want to debate. You know, meet them where they are. Even if they're in front of friendly audiences, be there. And try as best we can to force them to answer questions that they may or may not want to answer. And then the readers and the viewers and the listeners will decide, you know, how credible are they, whether they are sincere, whether they're looking out for my interests. It's still the media's job despite the criticism to show up and try to report what's happening and report the truth as much as we possibly can.
