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The current nature of the news media is that there is an effort to provide fresh information on a real-time basis, 24 hours per day. We see reporters, live from the site of the WTC interviewing fire and rescue people who, once the camera is upon them, have nothing to say. We see reporters standing in the parking lot across from the Pentagon unable to describe the President's visit because there was too much equipment in the way.

We hear from aviation, intelligence, military, and counter-terrorism experts from studios in Washington and New York unwilling to assign blame for an act no one thought to protect against, and unable to suggest defenses against future acts of which no one can, this week, conceive.

That gets me to Tuesday afternoon, when there was a significant amount of publicly expressed displeasure on the part of several network reporters regarding the whereabouts of the President as Air Force One was flown from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska before returning to the Capital.

I was angry at the reporters as I watched them tsk-tsk the notion of the President in a "secret, underground bunker, somewhere in Omaha."

It turned out there was, as White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer put it, "real and credible information" that Air Force One and the White House were the next targets. The plane that went down in Pennsylvania was not, apparently, on its way to crash into the woods of Camp David.

Then the word came out that, as the Secret Service had been trying to convince him that Washington, DC was not yet safe for his return, the President said "no tin horn terrorists" were going to keep the President of the United States out of Washington. He, in effect, told them to fire up the airplane. He was going home.

President Bush arrived back at the White House at about 7:00 pm - ten hours (not ten days) after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. At 8:30 pm, Tuesday night, the President addressed the nation. From the Oval Office.

Upon reflection, I am inclined to give the anchors the benefit of the doubt. On the air for hours at a time, listening to producers' often conflicting instructions in their ears to throw the program to one reporter or another, while they were watching the footage of devastation and horror on their monitors, they got on a thought track which spun, temporarily, out of control.

The President made a trip across the Potomac River from the White House to visit with people working in the ruins of the Pentagon. He made the expected remarks, but the most telling audio was listening to the President, shaking hands with military personnel and civilian workers saying, "Thank you, sir. I appreciate your coming here."

It's a Texas thing, calling someone "sir" or "ma'am" as a sign of respect. Even when you're the President.

The President and Mrs. Bush went to the Washington Hospital Center to visit with some of the victims and their families.

This is a great hospital. I've been there. The patients will get great care.

They will go to New York City today.

After a conference call with Governor George Pataki of New York, and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the President took some questions from reporters in the Oval Office. One asked him how he was dealing with this on a personal level. Here was how a reporter in the room saw it:

When asked to describe the kinds of prayers he is thinking and how he is approaching this whole thing in his own heart, the President turned away for a moment, his head slightly lowered. When he turned back to reporters his eyes were brimming with tears.

"Well, I don't think of myself right now," Mr. Bush said, his deep blues eyes glazed with moisture. "I think about the families, the children."

Red in the face and blinking away tears, he continued on. "I'm a loving guy. And I am also someone, however, who's got a job to do and I intend to do it. And this is a terrible moment. But this country will not relent until we have saved ourselves, and others, from the terrible tragedy that came upon America."

That's not a Texas thing. That's an American thing.

The workers who had been repairing the brick around our house finished and unbolted the scaffolding which had covered the front for 10 days. I went into the garage and got out the American flag which normally flies outside our front door. As I put it up, the workers applauded. That's an American thing, too.

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