WABC 7 Tries to Explain 9/11 Telecast Mess

After the outcry from families of September 11 victims as well as other members of the public, WABC 7 reversed its decision not to air the reading of 2,749 September 11 victims' names by yesterday afternoon and will now air the ceremony in its entirety.

WABC 7 news director Kenny Plotnick had originally explained that the move would have given its audience a choice - and that the entire reading could be seen on the digital channel as well as online - but that didn't sit well with victims' families, who believed that the move to air Live With Regis & Kelly, Rachael Ray's show, and The View on channel 7 was motivated by ratings and money. After deciding to air the reading once again, Plotnick told the Daily News yesterday, "I spoke to families, we got some e-mails People were upset and confused... Most of the families were telling us they can't get the digital channels. If they can't get it on Channel 7, they can't get it at all."

Plotnick also told the AP, "I felt a lot of pain in these conversations that I had. That's now our intent, to hurt our audience. We were not cutting our coverage. All we were doing was changing the venue." Right - and expecting people to have digital cable or decent connections to stream hours of telecast.

This became an opportunity for all other news stations - WCBS, WNBC, WNYW (the Fox channel), WWOR, and WPIX - to emphasize why it's important to air the reading. WPIX news director Karen Scott said, "We're doing this for the community that we live in. It touched a lot of people's lives in the tri-state area. We needed to do a service for our viewers."

Yesterday, we found that 84% of our readers thought that WABC 7's decision to take the reading of the names off the air and moving it to digital and online was understandable, which seems to indicate some 9/11 fatigue.

Photograph of a police officer and child during the 2006 September 11 commemoration ceremony from the City of New York

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 8, 2007 1:23 PM

Comments [rss]

guest

"I felt a lot of pain in these conversations that I had. That's now our intent, to hurt our audience."

classic gothamist.

Dude69

It's official, the 9/11 families are the most annoying group in NYC, and any more sympathy NYers have for them is totally used up. It's time we brush them aside, or our grandchildren will be reading the names of 9/11 victims!

guest

Its normal that commemmoration events become reduced as the years go by. The "9/11 Families" need to recognize that, and ease the transition to a less all-consuming remembrance.

There's a noon concert at the British Memorial Garden - beautiful music for office workers on their lunch hour. It remembers the dead, gives inspiration to the living - and a few minutes of pleasure and entertainment to harried workers. An ideal way to mark the day.

I don't understand the need to take up ALL the broadcast channels.

- LBNG, a 9/11 survivor

guest

Doesn't the fact that they are complaining that ABC would do this for RATINGS mean anything??? If more people would watch Regis & Kelly or Rachael ray than the damn reading of the names, doesn't that tell them anything? Most people could care less!

guest

You want to be a news blog?

At least spell the WABC news director's name right.

PLOTNIK.

Kenny Plotnik is his name.

He's the Vice President and News Director of WABC-TV.

What an effing joke this website is.

guest

haha Who called it last night? Give the man a cigar!

guest

The families want us to wallow in their misery forever. I'm sorry, but I didn't personally know anyone who died on 9-11...and I've moved on a long time ago. I have 2 friends who celebrate their birthdays on 9-11, and that's what I choose to celebrate on that day. I'm not saying that I'll forget what happened that day, but come on. Enough is fucking enough. Are we going to be doing this 37 years from now? When will the media stop kowtowing to the 9-11 Families Mafioso?

guest

Aren't the loudest complainers going to be at the ceremony anyway? Do they feel better knowing that nobody at home can watch anything but 9/11 on the broadcast channels? As if the bored won't flip on Law and Order reruns on cable.

guest

When will the powers that be (media, politicians, WTC site development teams, etc.) stop bending to the complaints of these '9/11 families'? For many of these people, being a '9/11 relative' seems to be their new raison d'etre and occupation. Enough already!

guest

MOVE ON PEOPLE, WE AREN"T GOING TO READ THOSE DAMN NAMES FOREVER!!!

guest

I'm sick of these families controlling the media and all New Yorker's. Outrage... a few emails and calls and WABC crumbles. Next is the apology, right? Isn't it time to quit being a crybaby over 9/11 and get on with our lives and be able to re-build downtown and move on? Where is our strength?