Who can forget the fateful images of the twin World Trade Center towers crumbling before our eyes on Sept. 11?

Add to that the live images of firefighters and police officers scrambling to repair New York City and Washington, D.C., so that we can remember what both of those places stood for.

Then pick up your Sunday newspaper and see how the anthrax virus seems to be attacking the very medium that’s bringing you the news.

Needless to say, the media have played a vital role in the country’s recent concern with terrorism and the possibility of war in our future. What isn’t clear seems to be the relationship that may or may not improve between the media and the government if we did enter into extensive global conflict.

As purveyors of the First Amendment, those of us here at the Northern Star are quick to load our free speech weapons and fire at the first person to question our rights. But when our audience can download information quicker than we can say who the next president is, the possibility for incorrect information looms over us even more than it has before.

While the government contemplates the possibility of biological and nuclear warfare, they have to consider that we, the American people, are really hypochondriacs at heart. Every little bit of information feeds our fears, but without it, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about.

Although U.S. officials blamed the media for turning public opinion against the Vietnam War, banning reporters from the Asian countries would have denied our role as government watchdogs. The public didn’t support a war overseas where Americans died by the thousands, defending a cause that most people didn’t even understand.

Fast forward 30 years and read about Americans who overwhelmingly support retaliation against terrorists in Afghanistan after the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. What the media runs into now is the aspect of policing itself so as not to endanger national security.

Although our country’s safety may be in jeopardy, the U.S. government can’t resort to restricting civil liberties and curtailing public information. In the same respects, media outlets shouldn’t compete to reveal the president’s “secret location” when all we’re here to do is inform the public and help the average Joe make sense of a national tragedy.

Media representatives and government officials can’t engage in a game of capture the flag in response the events of Sept. 11. Rather, they should be understanding of each others’ needs and put the guy next door above all else