Disaster Affects Features World

By: Dave Astor The features world was among the many worlds affected by Sept. 11's grisly events.

Columnist Bill Tammeus of The Kansas City (Mo.) Star and Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service (KRT) had finished about 80% of a piece on the disaster when he received a call from his wife the morning of Sept. 11. The news: Tammeus' 31-year-old nephew, Karleton Fyfe of Brookline, Mass., was a passenger on the first plane to hit the World Trade Center (WTC). Numbly, Tammeus mentioned this at the end of his piece.

Then, Tammeus devoted his Sept. 14 column to his relative. "Karleton loved -- simply loved -- life," he wrote. "To him it was a puzzle to be solved, a gift to be opened excitedly ... . He looked forward to nothing more than living out a long life with his wife, Haven, and little boy, Jackson ... . But now the killers have made that impossible."

When Tammeus came to work Sept. 17, he had 233 e-mail messages -- many thanking him for the column and offering condolences. "I was able to put a face on the thousands of losses people had suffered," Tammeus said quietly.

'There's So Much Smoke'

Crain News Service Sales Manager Joe Hanley hopes his only child didn't suffer long. "It had to be frightening on the 106th floor. Hopefully, he went quickly," said Joe of Christopher Hanley, who worked for Radianz (a Reuters division) and would have turned 35 last Thursday.

Christopher was at the WTC for a conference when one of the planes hit. Joe said Christopher called his girlfriend on his cell phone to say: "There's so much smoke. I can't really see. But I'm OK."

He wasn't.

'I Watched People Jump ...'

King Features Syndicate Editor in Chief Jay Kennedy was in his apartment six blocks north of the WTC when the buzzing of a plane made him look outside. "I saw the first impact," he recalled somberly. "I saw the second impact. I watched people jump to their deaths and the two buildings collapse." At the time he was interviewed, Kennedy hadn't yet returned to his building -- which for days was unreachable and without phone service or electricity. But Kennedy stressed that staying with friends was "a minor inconvenience compared to the thousands of lives that were lost."

No one at King or United Media, also in New York, was reported hurt.

United staffers couldn't do much Sept. 11, and the office was shut the next day. Editorial cartoonists were asked to send drawings directly to American Color for transmission to newspapers. "We wanted editorial cartoonists to get stuff out to their clients the same day," said United Vice President for Comics and Graphics Amy Lago.

United staffers put in many hours Sept. 13 to catch up on work missed the previous two days, added United Managing Editor Liz Martinez DeFranco.

King people couldn't make long-distance calls, which made it difficult to contact creators and to telemarket. "But I don't think too many papers were focused on buying features that week," observed Kennedy. And, like employees at many other New York buildings, King staffers now have to show identification cards to enter.

King did manage to contact about 300 "Curtis" comic clients to tell them to download a replacement for Ray Billingsley's Sept. 17 strip, which pictured the WTC and discussed an "ugly war" in an entirely different context from what actually would happen Sept. 11. Kennedy said the comic -- created in midsummer -- was "eerily prescient."

Another King cartoonist, Tom Batiuk, is doing a special "Funky Winkerbean" sequence on the disaster that will replace strips previously done for the week of Oct. 1. King's Mort Walker created a special "Beetle Bailey" comic last week that clients could run as a regular or extra strip. And Walker assistant Bill Janocha had his first-ever published editorial cartoon run Sept. 14 in The Stamford (Conn.) Advocate and Greenwich (Conn.) Time. It showed the Twin Towers as twin tombstones.

News Services In Overdrive

At news services, staffers worked overtime to edit and send out content pouring in from papers. For instance, the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service distributed material from Sept. 11's extra edition of The Washington Post, which hit the streets about 1 p.m., said LAT-WP Vice President and General Manager John Payne. Meanwhile, LAT-WP President Al Leeds was stranded in the Midwest, unable to fly back. He eventually drove to Washington from Des Moines, Iowa.

On Sept. 11, KRT moved 224 stories, 78 photos, 13 graphics, and 15 news animations. Scripps Howard News Service and the New York Times News Service also went into overdrive -- as did columnists.

Writers' Viewpoints Vary

Leonard Pitts Jr. of The Miami Herald and Tribune Media Services (TMS) wrote that much of the United States is "rent by racial, cultural, political, and class division," and that Americans can be "frivolous" and "spoiled." Yet, Pitts added, Americans are "fundamentally decent" and: "When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force."

Creators Syndicate media columnist Norman Solomon acknowledged the horrible suffering caused by the hijackers, but wondered why the horrible suffering caused by U.S. government actions don't get similar attention. He wrote that the 1998 bombing of a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant, for example, "deprived an impoverished country of desperately needed medical drugs" and probably led to thousands of deaths.

Others opted not to write about subjects they usually cover. TMS celebrity columnist Liz Smith concluded her Sept. 12 piece: "To hell with gossip and entertainment."

There were also columns by former government officials. For instance, Los Angeles Times Syndicate International offered commentary by Madeleine Albright, Benizar Bhutto, Henry Kissinger, and others (along with non-column content such as various images and a 1999 Time magazine interview with Osama bin Laden).

The purpose of columnists at a time like this? "Newspaper reporters aren't supposed to let loose with emotion," said National Society of Newspaper Columnists President Pete Rowe of The San Diego Union-Tribune. "Columnists can be hurt and outraged and grieving. We're in this like anyone else, we're feeling overwhelmed, but the great thing we can do is attempt to put a tragedy like this into perspective."

Editorial Cartoon Commentary

Association of American Editorial Cartoonists President Scott Stantis said one function of an editorial cartoonist after an overwhelming tragedy is "to reflect the mood of his community and the country at large." The Birmingham (Ala.) News and Copley News Service creator said his mood has been one of anger, shock, and sadness. When cartoonists feel that way, their first few drawings may not brim with originality and insight. "A lot of the [initial] stuff was sentimental and emotional, and I don't make any apologies for that," said Stantis, whose voice-mail now ends with the words "God bless America."

"Cartoons are the medium to express visceral emotions," agreed Daryl Cagle, who said many of the WTC cartoons initially posted on his huge cartoon site (http://cagle.slate.msn.com) showed a distraught Statue of Liberty. Cagle is past president of the National Cartoonists Society, which held its 2000 meeting in the WTC's now-destroyed Marriott hotel.

Stantis said Sept. 14 he expected more analytical and original cartoons the week of Sept. 17, including commentary on why U.S. intelligence failed to foil the attacks.

Cartoons Stream In From Abroad

There was also foreign commentary. Jens and Jerry Robinson of Cartoonists & Writers Syndicate reported that the California- and New York-based CWS, which distributes nearly 250 editorial cartoonists from 50 countries, was flooded with drawings. "And so many cartoonists wrote to say how sorry they are," said Jerry. "For many, we're their only U.S. contact. We represent America to them. Some offered their royalties for survivors' funds." He added that even Middle East-based CWS cartoonists who don't usually support the United States were "appalled" by the attacks.

Smaller firms got involved, too. For instance, CLM Global News Group Editor Carolee Morrison said CLM offered commentaries and excerpts from books about terrorism, and writers agreed to donate proceeds to Red Cross Disaster Relief.

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