Washington Rather Than Shanksville To Be Site of Flight 93 Memorial Annoucement

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Shanksville is o.k. with plans to unveil the Flight 93 Memorial in Washington, DC, rather than Pennsylvania.

The seeming media blackout of Shanksville in the Pittsburgh market was most dramatically shown on July 1 when the unveiling of the final contestant designs for the memorial were not even covered by a New York media obsessing on Freedom Tower II.

Christopher Martin, of MARC USA, the Pittsburgh public relations firm hired to promote the memorial project said:

It became evident we’d get much more coverage if we took the announcement to a major media center,” said .

The memorial is expected to cost $30 million (as opposed to $500 million for the WTC Memorial) and attempts are being made to raise the funds privately (as opposed to the state announcing plans to subsidize half or more of the WTC memorial with a federal grant).

Even though the plane originated in Newark, the memorial has gotten scant attention in New York City media.

Donna Glessner, vice chairwoman of the commission and coordinator of the Flight 93 ambassadors program at the temporary memorial, supports the move and notes:

There are not the images we have of burning buildings and rescue people [like] in Washington and New York,” Glessner said. “Fortunately, we don’t have 1,000 victims here. We have 40 families.”

The paper said an average of 2,000 people each week visit the memorial.

http://911memorials.org/archives/2005/07/03/washington-rather-than-shanksville-to-be-site-of-flight-93-memorial-annoucement/