Topic of the Week: The 25th Anniversary of 9/11

The United States will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Friday. Many ceremonies are planned across the country, including in New York City and at the Pentagon, which were two of the targets hit by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. Our analysts rated media coverage about the anniversary in our Topic of the Week.

An article on the NBC News website focuses on Trump’s decision to attend a ceremony at the Pentagon rather than one at Ground Zero in New York City. The article cites reporting by The New York Times that said Trump chose the Pentagon event because he would not be allowed to speak at the Ground Zero ceremony. Analysts found that NBC did not accurately re-report the Times story, however, and placed the NBC News article in the “analysis or other issues” category (in this case, “other issues”), with a “middle” bias.

The New York Post focuses its reporting on comments by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani calling for current Mayor Zohran Mamdani to skip the Ground Zero ceremony. Giuliani, who was mayor during the Sept. 11 attacks, said Mamdani’s decision to attend “offends me” because Mamdani “doesn’t agree that September 11 was an Islamic terrorist attack on the United States of America.” While the article does call some of Giuliani’s claims about Mamdani “baseless,” analysts found that the article still platforms Giuliani’s views. They rated it as “analysis” with a “skews right” bias.

A video from the Fox News program “America’s Newsroom w/ Bill Hemmer & Dana Perino” also reports on calls for Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to skip the Ground Zero ceremony. Perino and Hemmer interview John Gorman, a Port Authority Retired Police trustee, about why he has asked them not to attend. Gorman criticizes Mamdani for maintaining relationships with people who are “anti-American and anti-law enforcement,” and he says he disagreed with Hochul’s decision to illuminate the World Trade Center during Muslim American Heritage Month earlier this year. Perrino plays a clip of former New York Gov. George Pataki stating that Mamdani should not attend because of his association with Hasan Piker, “who said America deserved those attacks.” Although the video includes comments from Gov. Hochul, analysts found the reporting to be mostly one-sided, platforming the opinion of the guest. It was rated as “opinion” with a “strong right” bias.

An article from Daily Wire says in its headline that Mamdani will attend the Ground Zero ceremony “despite awkward ties to terrorist sympathizers.” The article says the backlash against Mamdani has been fueled largely by his giving a ceremonial pen to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem. Kassem served as a defense lawyer for an al Qaeda operative whose brother-in-law helped hijack the plane that struck the Pentagon. Analysts found that the article lacks important context and is “intended to fan the flames of the criticism of Mamdani and is essentially rage-bait” (for example, the main photo with the story depicts Mamdani praying with Muslims). It was rated as “selective or incomplete/unfair persuasion” with a “hyper-partisan right” bias.

A Daily Beast article says that Trump is “snubbing” the Ground Zero ceremony for a “typically petty reason” — because he “would not be allowed to deliver one of his rambling speeches.” The article frames this criticism of Trump by comparing him to four other presidents who are expected to attend the NYC ceremony: Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The article calls a Trump social media post that “attacks” a New York Times reporter “vile.” Analysts found that the headline — “Former Presidents Unite to Shame Trump Over 9/11 Diva Fit” — and the article are misleading and misstated reporting by The New York Times. It was rated as “contains misleading info” with a “hyper-partisan left” bias.

The lowest-rated reporting in our content set came from a video from the Farron Balanced YouTube channel. Host Farron Cousins shares his memories of Sept. 11, 2001, and says Trump has decided not to go to a ceremony in New York City because he will not be allowed to speak. He criticizes Trump for bragging about having the tallest building in Manhattan right after the Twin Towers fell. Cousins calls Trump a “horrific, disgusting pig” and says he’s sending the “couch-loving J.D. Vance” to the Ground Zero ceremony in his place. Cousins speculates on other reasons why Trump won’t attend: He says Trump had a stroke during the 9/11 ceremony last year and doesn’t want to risk it again. And he says that his attendance would disrupt air traffic in New York City, and the public would be mad when they realized that the disruption was caused by Trump flying to Ireland to play golf following the Sept. 11 ceremony. Because of the video’s personal insults and its speculation without evidence, analysts rated it as “contains inaccurate/fabricated info” with a “hyper-partisan left” bias.

Want to see if you agree with our analysts? Follow along with our weekly Topic of the Week exercise by visiting our website. New Topics of the Week are posted each Monday. Read the articles and watch the videos yourself, then come back on Wednesday to compare your scores with our analysts. Learn more here.

Beth Heldebrandt is Director of Communications at Ad Fontes Media. She has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of journalism and public relations, and was an adjunct instructor of journalism for 17 years at Eastern Illinois University. Beth has a B.A. in journalism from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and an M.A. in English from Eastern Illinois University. She’s a mom and grandma, and enjoys traveling, puzzles and reading.