From that to this.

9/11 CHANNEL HOPPING: TOWERS FALL. PETRAEUS TESTIFIES

By Rick Horowitz

On MSNBC, a tower is on fire. There are early reports of an accident -- a small plane crashing into the tower, but it seems improbable, this collision in a clear blue sky. Nobody knows anything yet.

On Fox, they're remembering the dead, now six years gone.

On C-SPAN, men in suits are listening to a man in uniform.

On MSNBC, a second tower is now on fire. Even as the announcers are trying to make sense of the first crash, a second plane barges onto the screen, and into the tower, and the fireball is enormous. This is a large plane, a jet plane. This is no accident, and the realization dawns: the first one wasn't either.

On Fox, they're reading the names of the dead, now six years gone.

On C-SPAN, men in suits are listening to a man in uniform, explaining.

On MSNBC, the word "hijack" is spoken, and the announcers are speculating about terrorism, about who could have done such a thing. The Pentagon reporter doesn't want to alarm anyone, he says, but he's just felt the walls shake and the windows rattle. He's looked outside the building and he's seen people running. It might have been a bomb, he says, right there at the Pentagon. He'll be heading down the hall, he says, to see what might have happened.

Six years on, we know what happened. We know who could have done such a thing. We know who did such a thing.

On C-SPAN, the man in uniform is still explaining. He has charts. He has statistics.

On Fox, there are flowers for the dead, now six years gone.

On MSNBC, smoke is pouring from the Pentagon, and at the towers, thicker, blacker smoke is curling into that clear blue sky. The announcers wonder about how many have been evacuated from the towers, how many are still there. In Florida, the president is speaking. This terrorism will not stand, the president says.

On C-SPAN, the man in uniform is telling the men in suits how many soldiers and Marines could be withdrawn from where they are, in Iraq, and how many would still be there when the withdrawals are done.

On MSNBC, there's a report of a car bomb at the State Department. There's a report of another plane, another hijacked plane, heading for Washington. The White House is being evacuated, the announcers say. The Capitol is being evacuated. The announcers are talking to terrorism experts. These attacks are too widespread and too well coordinated, the terrorism experts are saying, to have been the work of mere individuals. There's a terrorist network behind these attacks.

Six years on, we know exactly whose terrorist network it was. He's still out there -- and he's not in Iraq.

On C-SPAN, the man is uniform is talking about the progress his soldiers and Marines are making in Iraq. If they keep making progress, the man in uniform is saying, things will improve in Iraq.

On MSNBC, one of the towers is collapsing. The towers have never collapsed before; this is as it happens. All the years of replays are still in the future.

On C-SPAN, the man in uniform is asking for more time to make things better. In Iraq.

On MSNBC, the other tower is collapsing. People are running for their lives.

On C-SPAN, the man in uniform is still asking for more time. In Iraq.

On Fox, the man who runs the terrorist network has put out a brand-new video.

Posted 9/12/07. For award-winning commentary, click to "Rick's"!

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker.

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