The following is the text of a statement by Media Research Center President Brent Bozell, released on Friday, September 14.
Our national news media have answered the call to duty with professionalism and patriotism. Let us cheer the important and inspiring work done by our nation's journalists.
One cannot overestimate the importance of their work, either. All of America was hanging on to their every word during the attacks and in their aftermath as it began to crawl out of the wreckage.
The press responded with fierce professionalism.
It is difficult to fathom the pressure on a journalist, particularly the on-air reporter, at a time like this. On television, the anchors earned their name by staying calm and weighty when hysteria came naturally. Consider one incident, at the height of the crisis, just after the third plane had slammed into the Pentagon and no one, but no one, knew what to expect next. I was amazed as I watched Fox's Brit Hume quietly, soberly, but with the necessary urgency, relay that D.C. police were warning him there was another airplane roaring up the Potomac River at a high rate of speed. If true, its target might well have been the U.S. Capitol, right across the street from Mr. Hume's broadcast booth.
As now our own land has come under attack, as our own citizens have died needlessly, in collapsing heaps of metal and cement, as the crushing reality hits that our very freedom is now imperiled, our national press corps has responded, showing that in a real crisis, they are the best of the best. I know I speak for millions when I offer a heartfelt “thank you” to our entire national media for their sobriety and their sincerity, and their refreshing sense of national purpose. Like all our leaders, they have responded to tragedy by showing us how to display the best of ourselves when we're feeling the worst.
