After several years, the New York Times has won its legal battle against the city of New York, compelling the government to release hours of audio tapes and oral histories detailing the events of September 11, as they happened. Details of the mountain of data they’ve acquired so far are trumpeted all over their website, including a special section on September 11, where you can actually access the dispatch tapes, hearing everything that was said over fire dpeartment radios as the events unfolded. Chilling.
I guess fighting for open records means having the stomach to wade through what you’ve fought to gain access to. I applaud the New York Times for fighting the good fight, but at the same time, I wonder what the use is in gaining these materials, now, almost four years later. Factually speaking, I’m not sure the release of these records will give tell us things we don’t already know; how the radios didn’t work very well, how communication lines broke down, how some firefighters never made it because they didn’t know the towers were coming down, and others knowing and still choosing to stay, choosing that day to exercise a hero complex.
In a way, the city got its wish anyway, and withheld these records until long after the public has mostly gone on with life, and is really uninterested in reliving those horrifying moments, all over again. It was bad enough seeing the planes crash, people fleeing and the towers falling, repeatedly, instant replay after replay, for days on end after the fact while newsgathering agencies tried to syntheszie new information to keep us glued to our TV sets and to the websites, while grappling with the concept of when enough attention is enough, and when might be a good time to finally move on to other events.
I will say though, the city’s case for witholding the documents as long as they did doesn’t add up:
Early in his administration, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta refused to release the oral histories because he said he had been advised by federal prosecutors that their publication might impede the prosecution of Mr. Moussaoui.
How does the utterances of a dispatcher and fire crews hinder prosecution? Moussaoui didn’t carry out the attacks, even though it is alleged he probably would have taken part if circumstances hadn’t conspired to prevent it. While the intent may have been there, the interaction was not. The city needs to stop insulting our intelligence.