Obviously, the tradmed has a vested interest in hyping any fear/terror/panic angles – “if it bleeds, it leads,” as we all know. But I think, as John said above, there’s a huge gap between what we say on TV and what really happened. Thankfully, real live actual New Yorkers have a vested interest in NOT running around like chickens with their heads cut off, as much as the media might like us to. :)

All I’m saying is that, as I descended 42 flights of stairs with absolutely zero information except a truly terrifying, un-ending roar, I didn’t see panic manifest in just about the only way you’d expect in that sort of situation – ie, pushing, shoving, stampeding, screaming, hollering. Everyone stayed under control and just kept marching downwards.

Were people afraid? Most definitely. I was scared, for certain. Indeed, it was fear that motivated me to head for the stairs in the first place – as I’m sure it motivated just about everyone else. But I saw no panic.

As I say just above, my viewpoint was limited to seeing the workers in a large office building on the same block as the explosion try to leave their building. I didn’t see everything, of course, though I’ve read a fair bit in the ensuing day that doesn’t contradict my intial impressions.

If you have a different take on what constitutes panic, obviously we may part ways here. But again I say, no one I saw did anything that made a scary, almost zero-information situation worse, and for that I am glad and proud of my fellow New Yorkers.

But sarabeth didn’t appear to be engaging in media criticism when she referred to “the degree of fear and panic observed” – she seemed to be discussing what she believes actually happened.

the second sentence of my post was meant to be a dead giveaway:

All the initial reports on the news networks focused on fear and panic in the streets.

since I don’t live in NYC I can only infer what happened from media reports. I put that on the table first before I started to comment.

And as I say, from my close-up (but admittedly limited) experience yesterday, I didn’t see any panic. At all. I think that many elements in this country have indeed sought to hype fear and panic for years, for their own gain. But I think it’s quite a testament to New Yorkers that, despite all this fear-mongering – whether by politicians or the traditional media – we showed as little panic as we did. Because I can say pretty confidently that if you had heard what I heard yesterday, you very likely would have been scared, too.

And I have seen no reports of people being trampled in a mad rush to flee any place

There were no reports of people being trampled in a mad rush to flee on 9/11 either. So I guess that means the 9/11 attacks did not cause any fear and panic in NYC?

I’m not sure what sort of “panic” sarabeth is referring to

cable news hosts?

I’m not sure what sort of “panic” sarabeth is referring to, as she doesn’t link to any photos or videos. I mean, surely people fleeing the epicenter of the explosion at high speed is eminently reasonable, no? And I have seen no reports of people being trampled in a mad rush to flee any place – the sort of thing you’d associate with a panicked response in a place as densely populated as midtown Manhattan.

Hence, anytime something “bad” happens, the immediate thought for everyone is that “duh terror” is upon us and we’re all going to die.

It’s like the idiots after 9/11 who were so paranoid they were going to die that they wouldn’t leave their houses. The fact of the matter is more people die annually from accidents in the house than died in 9/11.

If people’s first thought to any event is to believe that it’s related to terrorists, then the terrorists have already won.