Throwback Thursday: What American News Sounded Like Hours Before 9/11

This Throwback Thursday plays the actual ABC broadcast from just hours before the towers were hit, followed by CNN's coverage a day later, to hear exactly how fast everything changed. The contrast between those two clips says more than any recap could. There is one specific word choice worth noticing in the early coverage, before anyone knew this was intentional. That single shift in language marks the moment the story became something else entirely. Gas cost sixty five to seventy five cents a litre in 2001. The list of what dominated the news also flipped almost overnight, from tax cuts and hockey to airport security and national security. Both comparisons land harder side by side than either one does alone. Topics: September 11th, archival footage, news coverage, gas prices, before and after Originally aired on 2026-09-10