The return of '9/11': Yes, it's worth seeing again

BY VERNE GAY | Newsday Staff Writer

September 8, 2006

Like the Statue of Liberty, one of the enduring monuments to 9/11 was crafted by a Frenchman - two, in fact, brothers who had begun that September day filming a documentary on the FDNY and instead recorded history.

Jules and Gédéon Naudet's "9/11" was the only video testament to firefighters in the lobby of the north tower, but - in truth - it was much, much more: a magnificent tribute to a magnificent fire department and a deeply emotional tribute to the brotherhood of humanity. It aired on CBS in March 2002 and was instantly a signal moment in the network's long history.

And now it's back. (Sort of.) CBS will re-air "9/11" Sunday night at 8, and about a dozen CBS stations have announced their intentions to preempt the program. The problem? Words, harsh expletives spoken in the moment by people who thought they were going to die. (The program got more or less complete network coverage back in 2002.) Why such skittishness now? That can be traced back to Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction," which led to record indecency fines imposed on stations by the Federal Communications Commission.

Is "9/11" worth sitting through again? (No commercials, by the way.) The answer is a simple yes: While there may be more informative documentaries over the next few days, or more thoroughly reported ones, there is nothing quite like this, with its eyewitness-to-history immediacy and impact. There are also fresh interviews with some of the firefighters from Engine 7, Ladder 1 - the very same whom the Naudets had been following in the summer of 2001 for a documentary about life in the FDNY. It would, of course, turn into something entirely different.

Meanwhile, Ted Koppel's inaugural effort for the Discovery Channel (a tape was unavailable for preview) also airs Sunday at 8. "The Price of Security" is one of those aforementioned "thoroughly reported" docs - with Koppel debriefing current and former administration officials as well as members of the military about the challenges that remain in the war on terror. Following is a Koppel speciality - the town hall meeting - in which 9/11 family members and many others debate how to balance national security with personal freedom.