Myth and Terror on the Editorial Page: The New York Times Responds to September 11,2001

Abstract

This article studies New York Times editorials in the aftermath of September 11 from the perspective of myth. After defining myth and reviewing a wide range of scholarship that approaches news as myth, this article considers the ways in which editorials can be understood as myth. Textual analysis shows that over the course of four weeks, the New York Times drew from four central myths to portray events: the End of Innocence, the Victims, the Heroes, and the Foreboding Future. More than editorial “themes” or political “issues,” these were myths that invoked archetypal figures and forms at the heart of human storytelling.