Not that news organizations exploiting human tragedy for financial gain is anything new, but I find this distasteful.  ABC News Radio is airing segments called “Countdown to 9/11: Ten Years Ago Today” in which Brian Ross recounts what the attackers were doing that particular day, and what asleep-at-the-wheel Americans were preoccupied with instead.

The radio spots are echoed on the ABC News website.  On the page for August 26, 2001, for example, we learn that at the same time the American Flight 77 hijacker was practicing flight maneuvers, Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs belted his 50th home run of the season. A photo of Sammy and his lovely wife Sonya accompany the story.

I wonder what Dick Cheney was doing August 26, 2001.  Thinking about invading Iraq?  Or looking forward to bombing Syria?  If ABC News wants to jerk a few tears (and the operative word here is jerk), they might interview some 9/11 families to see what they were doing those August days, what they had planned for the rest of the summer, and whether they trusted their leaders were protecting them from terrorists determined to strike in the U.S.