Download issue (PDF) - Nieman Foundation - Harvard University

Coverage of Terrorism
Asking Probing Questions in a Time of National Crisis
Are journalists asking ‘the right question?’
Charles R. Nesson, the Weld
Professor of Law at Harvard
Law School, moderated a panel
of journalists who spoke about
the job of asking critical
questions in the aftermath of
the attacks on September 11.
Nesson directs the Berkman
Center for Internet and Society
at the law school and for many
years worked with the late CBS
News producer Fred Friendly in
the PBS series “Media and
Society.” What follows are
edited remarks of the
journalists and moderator.
I’m Charles Nesson. The
question is how do you ask
the right question? The way
we teach at Harvard Law School,
the answer to the question is the
process of answering. But that
leaves you with the question: If
the answer to the question is the
process of answering it, what’s
the question? That has been puzzling
me for years. After September
11, I wondered what’s the
question. Then, five days after
the attack, The Boston Globe in
their Focus section asked, “Why
Do They Hate Us?” That sort of
question hit me when I saw it.
So what went on at The Boston
Globe to come up with this question?
What was the resistance to this question
being asked earlier? We obviously
don’t know. But my guess is that’s one
of many questions that came up in
asking what is the question. Someone
had the wisdom to say let’s get to the
heart of it. So here we are. We’re journalists,
sitting around, and we’re trying
to figure out, what is the question?
What’s the right question for us to ask?
The Boston Globe, September 16, 2001.
Alex Jones: A lot of stories have
addressed this question, and it was the
obvious question given the magnitude
of what happened and also what was
clear from day one was that it was a very
well thought out, very calculated operation
that took place over a long
period of time. So given the facts we
knew, it was the only question because
of the devastation. We knew that they
wanted to kill a lot of people. We knew
that they wanted us to watch it on
television because of the 20
minute lapse between the destruction
of the first trade center
and the second, so we knew how
methodical it all was. Obviously,
these people really hate us.
Charles Nesson: That was the
evidence that they did this, that
they hate us. But why do they
hate us? You don’t consider that
a loaded question? You don’t
consider that, in lawyer’s terms,
a question that assumes the answer
to facts not yet in evidence?
You think this has been proved?
Ellen Hume: I think it’s a
very narcissistic, American-centric
question, and I think it’s the
wrong question. For many
Americans who have never
thought about this before it’s
the right question, but for those
who have lived abroad it’s pretty
obvious that this is something
other people think about a lot.
For me, the correct question,
which I’m very eager to hear
more about from people who
know about this, is what were
they trying to accomplish? Because
that encompasses why do
they hate us, but it also carries
out, so what do they think will
happen next, and how do we
play or not play into their hands
with our own behavior? Because
that to me is the crucial question: “What
were they trying to accomplish?”
Michel Marriott: I don’t think that
question [“Why do they hate us?”] is
one that germinated within newsrooms.
I think it was one of the times
when the newsroom tries to serve the
readership, and they think that is a
question that is germinating among
the readers. It speaks to a certain
naiveté. For people who have not been
Nieman Reports / Winter 2001 39