“The New Pearl Harbor” is how the terrorist attack of September 11th, 2001 is called in the United States. This horrifying act of terror claimed more than 3 thousand lives. On September 11th, 2001, suicide bombers of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization hijacked four passenger planes in the United States. Terrorists aimed two of the planes at the business symbol of New York – the World Trade Center towers, and the other two – at the Pentagon and, presumably, the White House or the Capitol.
All planes, except the last one, reached their targets. The fourth hijacked plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This terrorist attack became not only the largest in the history of the U.S., but also the first “live catastrophe” in the world history: millions of people around the world watched the events unfold live. History has changed, and September 11th became the starting point, from which serious lines of transformation of modern society and modern politics began.
The documentary 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room tells the story of the day that changed America from the perspective of President George W. Bush. The events that occurred in the twelve hours that followed the attack portray the hardships of making decisions during such a precedent. It is worth noting that the President and his Cabinet reacted almost disbelievingly to what had happened – their confusion is almost visible in the film. At the time that the attack was unfolding, the President was attending a primary school, and it is clear that he did not react very well to the news about it. Perhaps one could call it a failure of public relations management of the government, as they did not have a reliable plan for such occasion, and this is, indeed, a lesson to be learned.
Another interesting lesson lies in the way the public relations with other concerned countries were managed – for example, how Condoleezza Rice took time to brief the Russian President Putin on the issue. Moreover, the film makes a brilliant PR move, as it gives a quite sad narrative of how the beloved wife of the U. S. Attorney General died, being on one of the planes. The documentary portrays President Bush and his subordinates in a way that speaks of an aspect people often forget – that they are all human, and their reactions are valid, too.
Additionally, the interviews with Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Ted Olson, and other staff also show just the extent of pressure they were put under in the short span of twelve hours. I think that, from the view of public relations, this is a crucial point that gives valuable conclusions: when talking of such crises, it is important to be honest with people. The PR narrative the film gives provides a feeling of empathy and takes one’s understanding of the events and the Presidential staff’s role in them to a new level.
When a state is implementing a long-term program of countering terrorism, special services, power structures, and institutions of civil society must cooperate to achieve real results. In my opinion, the involvement of domestic mass media in the work on prevention and countering terrorism is of particular importance to the issue of counterterrorism. Documentaries such as 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room give the events of September 11th not only the factual, objective context. More importantly, they provide an emotional connection to the people who have to make decisions during such times – the government, who reveals to be not a soulless machine, but real people with their own feelings.
September 11the affected the way people talk about themselves and the history of the country they live in – in many different ways. In general, the influence is negative, pushing forward the reverse side of patriotic upsurge and the desire to declare war on “evil terrorists.” Mostly, it was due to the unwillingness to somehow fit what had happened into the historical and political context. As a result, there was, and still are active attempts to censor and punish those who indicated that the attack on America did not happen in a vacuum. People are still not ready to accept that this act was associated with the foreign policy that the United States has been pursuing for decades. Unfortunately, the film does not really draw on the factual evidence behind the attack, instead focusing on retelling the flow of immediate actions after the attack.
However, this approach is also valid and important – mostly, to the public image of the government and the structures such as CIA and FBI. The latter had to make a lot of public relations amendments, as it was precisely their reputation that suffered great damage after the attack. The film does not, in fact, by any means justifies the actions of CIA and FBI – or, rather, their inactions – but with its emotion-filled narrative, it calls to the understanding of the difficulties in human interactions. As far as I can see, this documentary is a great PR move with an excellent timing – perhaps, it even has the potential of changing the nation’s attitude towards the events of 9/11 and the government’s decisions regarding them.