September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack Slogans and terms
Various terms and catchphrases
from the recovery workers:
- Ground Zero—the area of the disaster recovery effort, covering Lower Manhattan around the site of the World Trade Center complex
- the pile—the million-ton pile of rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center towers
- the pit—the excavated foundations of the World Trade Center
Media slogans
Various slogans and captions appeared on various media to brand coverage of the terrorist attack, its after-effects, and the response. The slogans for United States media appeared on the bottom of the television screen, in a patriotic red, white, and blue motif, sometimes with an explicit graphic of the American flag.
Examples:
- "America Attacked", "A Nation United" (ABC)
- "Attack on America", "A Nation Challenged", "Day of Terror", "Portraits of Grief" (The New York Times)
- "America's New War", "War Against Terror" (CNN)
- "War on Terror" (FOX News)
- "America on Alert" (MSNBC)
The Onion parodied this phenomenon with their own slogan, "Holy Fucking Shit: Attack On America" and a fake TV schedule parodying the coverage.
US government
- Enduring Freedom—name for US-led military response
- Infinite Justice—original name for US-led military response, dropped after religious overtones were pointed out by a reporter at a press briefing
