CBS News Sunday Morning will devote much of its September 6 broadcast to the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, with reports examining the personal cost of the tragedy and the ways communities responded in its aftermath.
Lee Cowan will guest host the Emmy-winning programme, which normally features Jane Pauley. The broadcast will include a report from three sites associated with the attacks: New York’s 9/11 Memorial and Museum, the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Cowan will speak to Harry Handler, who helped a woman escape the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, and Marine Major Dan Pantaleo, who took part in rescue and recovery operations at the Pentagon. He will also meet Laurel Homer, whose father, First Officer LeRoy Homer Jr, was killed when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.
The programme will also revisit the moment George W Bush was told that the United States was under attack. Correspondent Major Garrett will accompany the former president’s chief of staff, Andrew Card, back to Emma E Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, where Card whispered the news to Mr Bush in a classroom.
Another report will focus on the creation of the Tribeca Film Festival, which was launched in Lower Manhattan in 2002 as part of efforts to revive the area after the attacks. Tracy Smith will speak to actor Robert De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal about the festival’s role in bringing audiences and artists back to the neighbourhood.
The programme will also travel to Gander in Newfoundland, where the population expanded dramatically after US airspace was closed and 38 international flights were diverted there on September 11, 2001. Residents provided accommodation and support for thousands of stranded passengers and crew, an act of solidarity that later inspired the musical Come From Away.
A health report by Faith Salie will examine postpartum psychosis, a rare but serious psychiatric emergency that can cause hallucinations and a distorted perception of reality after childbirth. Experts from Mount Sinai and the University of Virginia will discuss diagnosis, stigma and the distinction between the condition and postpartum depression.
The edition will also include the programme’s regular historical almanac, a feature on a Tokyo restaurant’s attempt to create the world’s best Wagyu burger, and a tribute to Gloria Steinem, who died on September 2 at the age of 92.
CBS News Sunday Morning airs on CBS from 9am Eastern time on Sunday, September 6, and will stream on the CBS News app from 11am Eastern time. The full episode will also be available on demand through CBS News, CBS and Paramount+.
