Columbia Journalism Review
Kate Zernike finished it in November of 2001. “In many ways, it was strange for me [to read it on Monday], because I was reading it as a regular reader. I did wonder, ‘Does this stand up to the test of time?’ …The lede was largely my lede, because I remember writing it.”
She tells Lauren Kirchner in a Q-and-A:
I have not had a single reader write to me and say, “Why did you waste all this time on him?” My friends who are readers have sort of impressed upon me the historic element of this, more than maybe I realized myself. And I’ve gotten a lot of reader feedback saying that it was great to have this historical background and just sort of understand again—because, again, we’ve stopped talking about bin Laden—so I think it was really important for people to be reminded of just why he came to loom so large over our country.
