Don’t damn me for being insensitive. The deaths of several thousand people at the hands of terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, aren’t images. Hardly. But the response of the U.S. media was about imagery, whether consciously, semi-consciously or unconsciously. Let me explain: The pictures and the headlines were picked deliberately, don’t believe otherwise. But the impact on the public – that gut-wrenching reaction that any good design editor wants – is out of control once the newspaper hits the streets. 

"Here lies a souvenir of horror, a blazing obituary of American innocence," wrote Max Frankel, former executive editor of the New York Times, in the introduction to "September 11, 2001; A collection of newspaper front pages selected by the Poynter Institute."

It’s all about imagery.

Why? Because newspapers around the world struggled with how to present the news, gauge the public’s anxieties and fears, and yet also maybe offer a bit of reflection or hope on a mind-numbing day.

The Poynter Institute – that journalism think-tank extraordinaire in St. Petersburg, Fla. – asked editors to send electronic copies of their front pages from Sept. 11 or 12 to its Web site. According to Andrew Barnes, Poynter chairman and chairman and CEO of the St. Petersburg Times, the response was amazing: "Our computers nearly sank beneath the weight of witnesses to these pages."

With all that in mind, Poynter officials decided to publish a sampling of the pages for three reasons, as Barnes wrote in the preface:

• "to provide a more permanent record as a memorial to the dead, the bereaved, the heroic;
• "to take the occasion … to remind Americans – especially media corporations – of the purpose of a free press;
• "and to help provide funds for the victims."

But that good deed aside, it’s still all about imagery.

The 145 front pages selected are from 37 states and the District of Columbia. Three national newspapers are represented: the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal – perhaps the paper most directly and deeply impacted by the attack in New York City.

There are also 16 international newspapers. Sweden has the most with four, including two from Stockholm, and Canada has three – one each from Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.

There are 11 front pages from California, the most from any state. Included in the 11 are college newspaper 1-A’s from the University of California, Berkeley, and California State University, Fullerton.

In fact, there are nine college papers. Besides the two from California there is one each from schools in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Ohio and South Carolina.

New York state is represented by seven papers, but if The Wall Street Journal is included it has eight. All of those papers are from metro New York City except for the Albany Times-Union and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

It’s all about imagery.

Of the front pages in the book, 29 used the so-called "moment of impact" photo, taken by Carmen Taylor and distributed by the Associated Press, which showed the second plane moments before it exploded into the second tower at the World Trade Center. Perhaps an equal number showed the burning buildings AFTER the planes hit. What makes this interesting is that the wires carried many such photos, but readers in the San Francisco Bay area saw the same picture. In special editions on Sept. 12, the San Francisco Examiner and the San Jose Mercury News each ran a picture taken by Kristen Brochmann (sent over the wires by the New York Times) that showed the explosion and debris after the second plane’s suicide run. The Examiner ran it full on 1-A, with just a giant headline above (more on that in a graph or two) and what looks to be a unifying news sig ("A CHANGED AMERICA") below. The Mercury News ran the same pic above the fold but had an index and two stories under it in a quasi-horizontal layout.

Four papers ran Thomas Franklin’s pic of three firefighter raising the American flag amid the rubble at the WTC, while another 35 front pages had pix of the FDNY or other rescue workers. Perhaps Franklin’s picture soothed Americans or rekindled "The Greatest Generation" memories because four other newspapers had World War II themes:

• A headline in The Daily Titan (Cal State Fullerton) said "Kamikaze attacks rock the country."
• The main hed in the Staten Island Advance called it "The longest day."
• The Journal News (White Plains, N.Y.) had a shot similar to Franklin’s of firefighters gathered around a flag. (This one taken by Ricky Flores.) Editors decided to run it in full on 1-A with the hed "A NEW DAY OF INFAMY"
• And the Skagit Valley Herald (Mount Vernon, Wash.) ran Franklin’s photo along with a story near the bottom of the page titled "Worshippers find solace in tune from World War II era."

Rather, to show the horror many experienced, 14 papers ran pictures of bystanders weeping or comforting each other.

It’s all about imagery. 

Headlines are as much a design element as a front door to the news. Which is why 39 papers used one-word heds (some with exclamation points), ranging from TERROR (six); UNTHINKABLE (five – yet it obviously was thinkable to the planners); ATTACKED (four); ATTACK (three); and HORROR!, DEVASTATION, NIGHTMARE, INFAMY, TERRORIZED (all with two).

The San Francisco Examiner let its feelings be known with BASTARDS! Two papers took a more subtle approach with the simple and stark date used to reflect all the connotations: 9.11.01

And finally, Osama bin Laden was mentioned as a prime suspect in the attack on 24 front pages; seven carried either a thumbnail or a one-column pic of him.

It’s all about imagery. The agenda has been set and the responses that were set in motion were reflected in 145 front pages the day of the attack or the day after. This book is a slice of time that defines us and is an enduring image of shock and horror that, strangely enough, also shows our hope and resolve.

Joe Marren is an assistant professor in the communication department at Buffalo State College. He can be reached at marrenjj@buffalostate.edu