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CNN Sunday Morning

America's New War Affects Journalists

Aired September 30, 2001 - 09:17   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This shot is a live picture from down at Ground Zero. The work continues to go on, 24 hours a day, and the heavy machinery brought in now, increasingly brought in on a daily basis. Still the missing and presumed dead number in the thousands.

Many of us here get paid to do what we do. We're reporters and journalists, but we mostly like to believe that we can separate ourselves from the traumatic events we cover. But as you have seen here on CNN, the attacks back on the 11th of September touched the emotions of many seasoned reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. RODRIGUEZ: I went down, all over the place yesterday, to ground zero, to triage centers, the morgue center. Nobody has really had any luck in keeping a good list going of who is who and where they went, and there is quite a good possibility that she went to New Jersey, but we don't know. You know, we don't know if she's conscious. We don't even know if that was her. I mean, we're just trying.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lieutenant, thank you.

RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.

COHEN: Thank you. In addition to looking for his own sister, Lieutenant Rodriguez and his platoon are helping with some of the efforts here. He was in the Armory today helping other families look for their lost loved ones, and there is just story after story, thousands of stories like this, here at the Armory here in Manhattan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: That was about two weeks ago. Elizabeth Cohen, our medical correspondent, outside the Armory where so many people scouring the city on a 24 hour a day basis, looking for the ones that they had loved and were missing.

Elizabeth Cohen with us this morning live in Atlanta. Good morning to you, Elizabeth, nice to see you again.

COHEN: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Also here in New York, John Schiumo is a reporter at New York One who was there the day it happened and continued to cover it for several days after that.

After a psychologist, Robert Schacter is with us live in New York as well. Good morning to you, gentlemen, as well.

First, doctor, tell us about dealing with the trauma that many people feel. You know, you see these surveys, people talk about depression, loss of sleep. What do you say on that?

DR. ROBERT SCHACTER, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, the trauma effected people all over the country very similarly. The first thing that happened was, none of us could believe that this was actually happening, and that disbelief is a way that the mind protects us, from something that is so horrible. And as the disbelief fades, emotion started coming up, and that's also where we saw this anger, this fear, what everybody started feeling.

HEMMER: I've often remarked that when we cover big stories in our industry, John, clearly they always have a physical toll, and many times a mental toll. But this story had an emotional toll, I think, on just about everybody. You could not be human and not feel it when you were covering it.

JOHN SCHIUMO, NY1 NEWS: Right. We try not to cross the line between coming involved in the story. You try to report on the story and not become a part of the story. But in this case, it's really impossible. I watched thousands of people, 4,000 to 5,000 people die. So, to say that I'm going to have no emotional connection to this story is simply impossible.

HEMMER: Elizabeth, you cover many stories in the medical front. When you hear people talk about the way we're talking, and you hear Robert Schacter talk the way he does, what do people tell you?

COHEN: You mean the people who I was interviewing when I was in New York?

HEMMER: Not just that, but also the people who respond and react to how people can move forward and deal with what we've experienced in this scene.

COHEN: Well, I'll tell you, the response that I've gotten via mail and via e-mail, has been just incredible, since I was in New York in the days following the explosions.

People said that what they saw me do allowed them to grieve, basically. When they saw me interviewing those families and when they saw that I had an emotional and not a robotic response, it allowed them to feel something. Many people said, I didn't cry, I didn't get upset, until I saw you interview those families. So that's what -- that's how I'm hearing people react to what I did in New York.

HEMMER: Yeah, and it's also, it's also my understanding here in New York City, it's clearly different, John, to be sitting in this bureau, in this studio, than it is to be 20 or 30 blocks south of here on Manhattan Island. The difference is enormous. And the difference is obvious, to me anyway. I wonder if you feel the same. SCHIUMO: It's hard to really put into words the devastation, the magnitude of it. I actually had a chance to tour what we call now ground zero on several occasions, and it is stunning. We, as a profession, put things into words, and I really haven't been able to find the word, I'm not sure if the word exists in the English language, to describe the devastation.

HEMMER: Yeah, the thing I noticed also, being down there a couple of days ago, Broadway is open now, doctor, and many people, tourists, can walk by and see parts, catch glimpses, of the former World Trade Center site, and you can see the rubble clearly as you look through.

The thing that struck me, though, going down there, is that many people shuffled past silently, almost like they're inside of a funeral home or attending a wake. Very few words were spoken. One would assume that's a pretty natural reaction to such a huge event.

SCHACTER: Well, people are dealing with their own grief, their own disbelief. And the fact that this occurred inside New York City, inside our country, staggers the imagination. Most people can't believe that it actually happened, and seeing it right up close, of course, makes you believe that it happened.

HEMMER: Yeah. Elizabeth, if you go back to my point that I was making before, the point about being away from it, even if it's 20 city blocks here in New York. How do you feel, being back in Atlanta for a couple of days now, reflecting on what you experienced here?

COHEN: You know, it definitely seems strange not to be in New York anymore. In New York, it was much more apparent, it was much more in front of you, even if you were way on the upper West Side, a ways away from the devastation. You still felt something, something that's very hard to describe.

Here in Atlanta, I don't feel it as much. I think it's interesting. I went shopping yesterday and I -- the only evidence that I saw that this whole thing had happened is that stores are now using this as a marketing tool. I saw lots of American flags in store fronts, I saw a mannequin in a spiffy new dress holding am American flag. So, to me, that was the only thing that even showed me that something had happened. So, it's very different.

HEMMER: You know, yeah, and the thing that strikes me, in talking with some of the rescuers, John, you've been down there, is that some people get really upset when they consider that people are in midtown Manhattan going to bars, going to restaurants. They don't feel like the grief is collective at points. Fair or not?

SCHIUMO: I think it is fair. Having been down there 15 of the first 18 days after it happened, I watched someone come up, a tourist, with a camera, and snap a shot and his little daughter was smiling. At the same time, a construction worker, who spent perhaps 12 to 14 hours sifting through debris, perhaps moving body parts, came out and grabbed the camera, and said this is not a tourist spot. This is not something to smiling in front of. So, you could see the conflicting emotions. People really just don't get it, don't understand it, think it's a spectacle. And those who are actually involved in it have quite a different perspective.

HEMMER: I would image this doesn't probably shock you too much, does it?

SCHACTER: No, I think people have a fascination with this and they're drawn to it. And this conflict, obviously, if they're not there, if they're doing it as a tourist, it's quite a different thing than if they're doing it to help, doing it to save people.

HEMMER: How long does the feeling last? Forever?

SCHACTER: Depends on the person. This can last forever. Anyone who is up close to it, who has seen it, actually may not feel this for many months, or even years. The mind has a way of keeping horror out of its awareness, and as that horror sinks in, people often will feel it later.

HEMMER: Robert Schacter, a psychologist here in New York, John Schiumo with New York One, appreciate your thoughts. In Atlanta, my colleague Elizabeth Cohen, good to see you again, too, Elizabeth. We'll see you again soon, all right? All right.

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