New York and Documentaries

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Pam Fessler reports that President Bush is pleased with the progress of his conversations with foreign governments as he starts the process of tracking down the authors of the attack on the World Trade Center. Reporter Margot Adler describes the small memorials and shrines that have appeared in Manhattan, including a chain link fence strewn with ribbons, notes and poems. She describes people holding bouquets of flowers at the scene of the destruction. Ric Burns joins the conversation and says the loss of the twin towers as a metaphor for the loss of life. A caller warns “we shouldn’t turn Islam into yet another criminal community”

Filmmakers and photographers consider the worldwide implications of the September 11 attack on New York and describe the act of recording horrifying scenes through the eye of a lens. “Frontline” producer Lowell Bergman says he is thinking about people in Islamic communities around the world anticipating a military strike. He asks how destabilizing it will be for those regions. AP photographer Richard Drew describes recording the collapse of the twin towers and callers applaud his work to “honor the dead and warn the living.”

Guests:

Mario Cuomo, former Governor of New York, Dorothy Samuels, Editorial Board, New York Times. Gay Talese, Best-Selling Author, The Very Reverend, Nathan Baxter, Dean of the National Cathedral. Lewis Lapham, Editor of Harper’s Magazine, Ric Burns, Producer of “New York,” a documentary for PBS, Richard Drew, AP Photographer, Lowell Bergman, “60 Minutes” Producer and producer of a “Frontline” documentary about Osama bin Laden, and Jon Alpert, journalist and documentary filmmaker.