TVSquad

(S10E09) Almost immediately after the events of 9/11, conspiracy theories began to crop up, and probably faster than ever before now that we had the internet and a way to instantaneously transmit gross misinformation and conclusions rife with logical fallacies. I think Cartman best summed up this episode with a line from his song about finding the truth behind 9/11: "I can't base my logic on proof."

While Mr. Macke tries to find out which boy took a crap in one of the urinals, Cartman decides to finally get to the bottom of 9/11. He presents his finding in class, and by using tortured logic, doctored photos and actually 9/11 conspiracy theories that are easily debunked by anyone with the ability to think rationally, he proves to the class that it was in fact Kyle who was behind it all along. What's especially funny about this is that Cartman hates Kyle, and obviously began his research wanting to prove Kyle's involvement. The same bass-ackward approach is exactly what causes anti-Semites to blame 9/11 on a Jewish plot, and every kid from a liberal arts college with a DSL connection and a gravity bong to blame the event on a government plot meant to increase public favor for invading the Middle East. When Cartman points out that one fourth of the population believe there was a conspiracy behind 9/11, Stan wisely points out that one fourth of the population is probably retarded.

It's been four and a half years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I don't know about you, but I still get a little emotional when I think too hard about how that morning unfolded. But, if you're interested in looking back at it from a journalistic point of view, here is a good place to do it.

The non-profit television library called The Television Archive has amassed Canadian and American media coverage of that morning over a 15-minute time period from when the first plane hit, through the second plane hitting the towers, and to the first reports of a third plane hitting the Pentagon. You can see how the news outlets responded, who got it right, who got it first, and who, initially, got it totally wrong. For example, Charlie Gibson of Good Morning America, remained totally calm as he reported what he was seeing. While Bryant Gumbel, who was at The Early Show on CBS at the time, saw phantom planes after the first two crashed into the towers, and he got all panicky on air. The entire video montage is about 30 minutes, but you may have to wait a few days to watch it, because now the website is timing out, probably from so much traffic.

[Via Digg]