At Ground Zero: 25 Stories from Young Reporters Who Were There

Newsday reporter S. Mitra Kalita was at the dentist when she heard the news; she went to a market in Queens to hear the fears of a local Muslim butcher. Columbia School of Journalism student Matthew J. Mallone ate his Raisin Bran, watching CNN, before racing into the city to interview dazed survivors. The journalists whose stories Advocate correspondent Bull and Thunder's Mouth editor Erman gather together in a volume designed for the backpacks of j-school students and cub reporters muse on the powerful and conflicting feelings they experienced as they "struggled to reconcile the opportunities this story afforded them with the enormity of carnage and suffering they saw all around them."
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the aftermath of September 11, publishers have released a plethora of books on the event, most of which have been glossy tributes to the victims and rescue workers. This work provides a somewhat different perspective of that horrific day. Edited by Bull, a writer for the Advocate and coauthor of Perfect Enemies, and Erman, an editor at Thunder's Mouth Press, this is a collection of heartfelt narratives told by journalism students and fledgling reporters not seasoned professionals who contribute to various publications, including Slate, the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Daily News, the Wall Street Journal, and many more. From the chilling and poignant diary notes of Petra Bartosiewicz in "From Nightmare to Redemption" to Chris Williams's moving "Facing the Fear," these firsthand accounts offer a glimpse into how these young reporters coped with and wrote about this terrifying attack on the nation, as well as its emotional consequences. Although worthwhile for anyone wanting to read more about September 11, this collection is most suitable for journalism school, academic, and larger public libraries. Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

*Starred Review* For many people, September 11 was a day of tragic endings, but for these young reporters, it was also a day of career beginnings. The essays here, almost all with detailed accounts of Ground Zero on 9/11, are written by current and recent journalism majors (many from Columbia School of Journalism) and beginning writers in their first years of professional reporting. The emotional essays describe the chaos and destruction, but they also show and explain why so many of these contributors risked their safety, spoke with editors well before reassuring worried loved ones of their well being, and strove for on-the-spot interviews of survivors and workers in the midst of the site. They wanted the story--not to please editors or to get better jobs or the big byline, but to find out what was really going on and to report the factual accounts of that day. Anyone outside of the journalistic community may see their driven behavior as heartless, but Nick Spangler explains: "If I were the sort of person that did not care about the particulars or trusted others to get them for me I would probably not have chosen reporting as a career." These essays are absorbing. One writer snuck into Ground Zero on Tom Brokaw's coattails, others hitched rides with ambulances, and all found ways of phoning in their quotes. Many describe the atmosphere and people of New York during the surprise attack and the sadness and grief that followed. An excellent collection from a talented group of up-and-coming journalists who shrugged off inexperience, doubts, and fears to bring us the facts. Michelle Kaske
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