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American Morning
Words Fail Us: What to Call America's Most Recent 'Day of Infamy'?
Aired November 05, 2001 - 09:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The events of September 11 left lumps in our throats, tears in our eyes, and many questions and doubts.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Although media coverage has been virtually nonstop, the events of that day have defied a simple label.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on how we speak about events that leave us speechless.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It seems the bigger the loss, the more likely we're left at a loss for words. From "disaster" to "acts of mass murder," even our vocabulary seems "jolted by attack."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The World Trade Center catastrophe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lost in the tragedy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you start looking for words like "tragedy" or "catastrophe" or what have you, it just seems so kind of insufficient.
MOOS: Other calamitous events have been identified geographically. All you have to do is say "Oklahoma City" or "Waco" and everyone knows what you mean. But in this case...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some people who want to call it "World Trade Center" sort of neglect everyone else who gave their lives in other places.
MOOS: From the Pentagon to a Pennsylvania field.
Leave it to a linguist to wonder what's in a name.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People need something short that everybody can immediately recognize, something that's iconic.
MOOS: That something seems to be emerging.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And after September 11...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On September 11...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Since September 11...
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The acts of September 11.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My father was lost in the September 11 accidents.
MOOS: There seems to be little doubt that this too is a date...
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... which will live in infamy.
MOOS: Though Pearl Harbor is remembered by place.
The ongoing violence in Northern Ireland has an almost euphemistic name.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The Troubles" is what's used in most media reports about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It comes from an expression of condolence, "I'm sorry for your troubles," which people use when someone passes away.
MOOS: The diplomatic correspondent of the French newspaper "Le Monde" has her own favorite word for what happened on September 11.
"The atrocities," usually. I usually call it "the atrocities."
But from Finland...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: September 11.
MOOS: ... to Britain...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "September 11" is the encapsulating thing, I think.
MOOS: ... or even...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 911.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband keeps saying 9-1-1.
MOOS: Charities have even adopted the name. No one is needier for a shorthand title than the media.
PETER JENNINGS, ABC NEWS: The events of September 11.
TOM BROKAW, NBC NEWS: Since the attacks of September 11th...
MOOS: And September 11 seems to be rippling through the media. The "Le Monde" correspondent knows a California poet who's taken it a step further.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He uses the terms "BS" and "AS," before September and after September.
MOOS: The question is will the weight of the date September 11th be outdated after 100 Septembers have come and gone?
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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