Lol it's hard to convey just how bad TV was after 9/11 for quite awhile. Everything was over the top sad. Also while on the topic I'm pretty sure if I recall correctly for the entire day of 9/11 every single network besides kids shows and maybe a few others like weather all were showing 9/11 coverage. You literally couldn't find a channel not rebroadcasting the news coverage besides those, it was wild.
That other comment of yours really rings true to me. I know I got a sort of visceral satisfaction from seeing the towers actually collapse after watching them stand and burn for hours that day, and based on your comment I suspect many people felt the same way. I knew it wasn't an acceptable emotion to express, so I've never really talked about it before.
I will note that I was never sure if it was just me or not, hence my silence. I got reprimanded by a teacher that day for mentioning a bit gleefully that the Empire State Building was once again the tallest building in NYC while he was explaining what had happened for some kids who hadn't heard about it yet. (For some reason, as a kid I didn't like the fact that the WTC had outdone the Empire State Building when I learned about it, years prior to 9/11.) But you're right that for most of the US it was simply a spectacle, and one so surreal it was hard to grasp the reality of it. It was more real in my area, not too far from NYC, given that some students had a parent who worked in NYC--myself included, actually, and yet even as I worried about my dad until I got through and found out he was OK, I didn't really see 9/11 for the tragedy it was.
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