By DAVID BAUDER, Associated Press Media Writer

They were careful with the explicit imagery — as usual. But did it make any difference?

Traditional news organizations were cautious in their midafternoon coverage of Charlie Kirk’s assassination Wednesday not to depict the moment he was shot, instead showing video of him tossing a hat to his audience moments before, and panicked onlookers scattering wildly in the moments after.

In practical terms, though, it mattered little. Gory video of the shooting was available almost instantly online, from several angles, in slow-motion and real-time speed. Millions of people watched.

Joseph Vogl stands outside Timpanogos Regional Hospital on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (AP Photo/Alex Goodlett)

Video was easy to find on X, on Facebook, on TikTok, on Instagram, on YouTube — even on Truth Social, where President Donald Trump posted official word of the conservative activist’s death. It illustrated how the “gatekeeping” role of news organizations has changed in the era of social media.

Kirk was shot at a public event before hundreds of people at a Utah college campus, many of them holding up phones to record a celebrity in their midst and savvy about how to disseminate video evidence of a news event.

On X, there was a video showing a direct view of Kirk being shot, his body recoiling and blood gushing from a wound. One video was a loop showing the moment of impact in slow-motion, stopping before blood is seen. Another, taken from Kirk’s left, included audio that suggested Kirk was talking about gun violence at the moment he was shot.

For more than 150 years, news organizations like newspapers and television networks have long been accustomed to “gatekeeping” when it comes to explicit content — making editorial decisions around violent events to decide what images and words appear on their platforms for their readers or viewers. But in the fragmented era of social media, smartphones and instant video uploads, editorial decisions by legacy media are less impactful than ever.

Images spread across the country

Across the country in Ithaca, New York, college professor Sarah Kreps’ teenage sons texted her about Kirk’s assassination shortly after school was dismissed and they could access their phones.

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No, she told them. He was shot, but there were no reports that he had died. Her son answered: Have you seen the video? There’s no way he could have survived that.

The videos were posted and reposted at lightning speed. One person on X urged “stop the violence” but then included a clip of the shooting. Several people took to social media to plead for people not to spread the images. “For the love of God and Charlie’s family,” read one message, “just stop.”

YouTube said it was removing “some graphic content” related to the event if it doesn’t provide sufficient context, and restricting videos so they could not be seen by users under age 18 or those who are not signed in, the company said.

“Our hearts are with Charlie Kirk’s family following his tragic death,” YouTube said. “We are closely monitoring our platform and prominently elevating news content on the homepage, in search and in recommendations to help people stay informed.”

Meta’s rules don’t prohibit posting videos like Kirk’s shooting, but warning labels are applied and they are not shown to users who say they are under 18. The parent company of Instagram, Facebook and Threads referred a reporter to the company’s policies on violent and graphic content, which they indicated would apply in this case, but had no further comment. An X representative did not immediately return a request for comment.

It’s an issue social media companies have dealt with before, in equally gruesome circumstances. Facebook was forced to contend with people wanting to livestream violence with a mass shooting in New Zealand in 2019, said Cornell University’s Kreps, author of the forthcoming book, “Harnessing Disruption: Building the Tech Future Without Breaking Society.”

Getting to the other side

Some images seeped out into more traditional media. TMZ posted a video of Kirk in which a shot and a voice saying, “Oh, my God,” can be heard, but Kirk’s upper body was blurred out. A similar video with a blurred image of Kirk was posted on the New York Post’s website.

In such an atmosphere, the care shown by most traditional news outlets may seem quaint or old-fashioned. But news industry leaders are acutely aware of protecting people from graphic images when they are not expecting it; happening upon them is a little harder online, where many people have to search for and click on an image if they want to see it — if it hasn’t already been sent to you or your group chat.

There can also be an important message sent by news outlets being cautious in what they show, Kreps said. “The traditional media can amplify and validate behavior,” she said. “It can be a signal for how things should be stigmatized, rather than validated or normalized.”

But on the day of the shooting in a politically polarized country, the easy availability of shocking images ran the risk of making society’s wound even more painful.

“I don’t see how many signs of how we get — as a people, as a nation — to the other side of this,” said CNN’s David Chalian. “I think we are broken, and potentially beyond repair.”

AP correspondent Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about media for the AP.

By PHILIP MARCELO, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are marking 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with solemn ceremonies, volunteer work and other tributes honoring the victims.

Many loved ones of the nearly 3,000 people killed will join dignitaries and politicians at commemorations Thursday in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Others choose to mark the day at more intimate gatherings.

James Lynch, who lost his father, Robert Lynch, during the World Trade Center attack, said he and his family will attend a ceremony near their hometown in New Jersey before spending the day at the beach.

“It’s one of those things where any kind of grief, I don’t think it ever goes away,” Lynch said as he, his partner and his mother joined thousands of volunteers preparing meals for the needy at a 9/11 charity event in Manhattan the day before the anniversary. “Finding the joy in that grief, I think, has been a huge part of my growth with this,” he said.

The remembrances are being held during a time of increased political tensions. The 9/11 anniversary, often promoted as a day of national unity, comes a day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a college in Utah.

The reading of names and moments of silence

Kirk’s killing is expected to prompt additional security measures around the 9/11 anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center site in New York, authorities said.

At ground zero in lower Manhattan, the names of the attack victims will be read aloud by family and loved ones in a ceremony attended by Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance. Moments of silence will mark the exact times when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center’s iconic twin towers, as well as when the skyscrapers fell.

At the Pentagon in Virginia, the 184 service members and civilians killed when hijackers steered a jetliner into the headquarters of the U.S. military will be honored. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will attend the service before heading to the Bronx for a baseball game between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers Thursday evening.

And in a rural field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a similar ceremony marked by moments of silence, the reading of names and the laying of wreaths, will honor the victims of Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit. That service will be attended by Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.

Like Lynch, people across the country are also marking the 9/11 anniversary with service projects and charity works as part of a national day of service. Volunteers will be taking part in food and clothing drives, park and neighborhood cleanups, blood banks and other community events.

Reverberations from attacks persist

In all, the attacks by al-Qaida militants killed 2,977 people, including many financial workers at the World Trade Center and firefighters and police officers who had rushed to the burning buildings trying to save lives.

The attacks reverberated globally and altered the course of U.S. policy, both domestically and overseas. It led to the “ Global War on Terrorism ” and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and related conflicts that killed hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians.

While the hijackers died in the attacks, the U.S. government has struggled to conclude its long-running legal case against the man accused of masterminding the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The former al-Qaida leader was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later taken to a U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but has never received a trial.

The anniversary ceremony in New York was taking place at the National Sept. 11 memorial and Museum, where two memorial pools ringed by waterfalls and parapets inscribed with the names of the dead mark the spots where the twin towers once stood.

The Trump administration has been contemplating ways that the federal government might take control of the memorial plaza and its underground museum, which are now run by a public charity currently chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent Trump critic. Trump has spoken of possibly making the site a national monument.

In the years since the attacks, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars providing health care and compensation to tens of thousands of people who were exposed to the toxic dust that billowed over parts of Manhattan when the twin towers collapsed. More than 140,000 people are still enrolled in monitoring programs intended to identify those with health conditions that could potentially be linked to hazardous materials in the soot.

Associated Press reporters Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this story.

Liberals are different from you and me. They have more gobbledygook.

Their pretentious vocabulary is what’s keeping progressives from connecting with everyday Americans, according to a memo prepared by a left-leaning think tank and aimed at helping Democrats regain their common touch.

Titled, “Was it Something I Said?” the memo comes from Third Way and lists 45 words Democrats should never use in communicating with “normies.” Normies, apparently, refers to everyone who is not a bat-scat left-wing lunatic.

Released exclusively to Politico, the memo scolds Democrats and their allies for using “an awful lot of words and phrases no ordinary person would ever dream of saying.” (Like “normies,” perhaps?).

That, the authors warn, makes them “sound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory enforcers of wokeness.”

“To please a few, we have alienated the many — especially on culture issues, where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant.”

Ignoring the old adage, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck,” the memo contends, “most Democrats do not run on wildly out-of-touch social positions. But voters would be excused to believe we do because of the words that come out of our mouths….”

It goes on to list 45 of those words, by category, that distract from the noble work Democrats could do if they would just talk more like the guys at the neighborhood bar rather than the pompous denizens of the faculty lounge.

Starting with Therapy-Speak, the offenders: privilege, violence (as in environmental violence), dialoguing, othering, triggering, microaggression/assault/invalidation, progressive stack, centering, safe space, holding space and body shaming.

These words, the memo advises, signal, “I’m more empathetic than you, and you are callous to others’ feelings.” Nyah, Nyah, Nyah.

Next is Seminar Room Language, or in my definition, words and phrases that have audience members looking for sticks to poke in their eyes. They are: subverting norms, systems of oppression, critical theory, cultural appropriation, postmodernism, Overton Window, heuristic and existential threat to (climate, the planet, democracy, the economy.) These words say, “I’m smarter and more concerned about important issues than you.” Now, who’s ever got that impression from a liberal?

At this point, the memo pauses to explain, “When we use words people don’t understand, studies show that part of their brain that signals distrust becomes more active, undermining our ability to reach them.” That’s because their feet get the signal to run away as fast as they can.

Organizer Jargon is the next category. Put in there: racial transparency, small “d” democracy, barriers to participation, stakeholders, the unhoused, food insecurity, housing insecurity, person who immigrated. These say, “we are beholden to groups not individuals. People have no agency.” (No what?)

Gender/Orientation Correctness is the real mother when talking about how to talk to regular folk. Words to avoid are: birthing person/inseminated person, pregnant people, chest-feeding, cisgender, deadnaming, heteronormative, patriarchy and LGBTQIA.

Let’s move on to The Shifting Language of Racial Constructs grouping, which, if you mess up, the memo warns, will likely get you labeled a racist. Fortunately, it’s short: Latinx, BIPOC, allyship, intersectionality and minoritized communities.

The memo states, “As we fight racism, we should reflect on whether the words we are using are part of the reason Democrats are losing support from all non-White voter groups.” Sure, that’s the reason.

Finally, in “Explaining Away Crime,” it’s vital not to say: justice involved, carceration, incarcerated or involuntary confinement. Probably better to say, “lock them up and throw away the key” if the goal, as the memo contends, is to connect with those who “deserve to feel safe where they live, work and go to school.”

In conclusion, the memo asks Democrats to “Recognize that much of the language above is a red flag for a sizable segment of the American public.”

Memo to Third Way: It’s not the words that are the red flag. It’s the ideas they so accurately represent.

Nolan Finley writes for the Detroit News.

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Today is Thursday, Sept. 11, the 254th day of 2025. There are 111 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed as 19 al-Qaida hijackers seized control of four jetliners, sending two of the planes into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania. It remains the deadliest terror attack in history.

Also on this date:

In 1789, Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

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In 1814, an American fleet scored a decisive victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.

In 1936, Boulder Dam — later renamed the Hoover Dam — began operation as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a button in Washington to signal the startup of the dam’s first hydroelectric generator.

In 1941, groundbreaking took place for the Pentagon.

In 1954, the Miss America pageant made its network TV debut on ABC.

In 1973, Chilean President Salvador Allende (ah-YEN’-day) died during a violent military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.

In 1985, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds broke Ty Cobb’s MLB career hits record with his 4,192nd hit.

In 2008, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama put aside politics as they visited ground zero together on the anniversary of 9/11 to honor its victims.

In 2012, a mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery nightlong attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

In 2023, over 4,000 people died and thousands more were missing after heavy rain from Mediterranean Storm Daniel caused two dams to collapse, flooding the city of Derna, Libya.

Today’s Birthdays:

Composer Arvo Pärt is 90.
Film director Brian De Palma is 85.
Singer-actor-dancer Lola Falana is 83.
Musician Mickey Hart is 82.
Guitarist Leo Kottke is 80.
Actor Amy Madigan is 75.
Rock musician Tommy Shaw (Styx) is 72.
Sportscaster Lesley Visser is 72.
Actor Scott Patterson is 67.
Actor/director Roxann Dawson is 67.
Actor John Hawkes is 66.
Actor Virginia Madsen is 64.
Musician-composer Moby is 60.
Singer Harry Connick Jr. is 58.
Actor Taraji (tuh-RAH’-jee) P. Henson is 55.
Rapper Ludacris is 48.
Football Hall of Famer Ed Reed is 47.
Country singer Charles Kelley (Lady A) is 44.
Actor Elizabeth Henstridge is 38.
Actor Tyler Hoechlin (HEK’-lihn) is 38.