DOJ Holds 9/11 Memorial as UCLA Hosts 9/11 Critic
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What happened
On September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed nearly 3,000 people. Ahead of the 25th anniversary, Attorney General Todd Blanche delivered remarks Tuesday at a memorial ceremony at Department of Justice headquarters; the ceremony came as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of those attacks, was ordered to stand trial. UCLA School of Law marked the anniversary with a symposium titled "25 Years After 9/11: Reimagining Freedom, Justice, and Security," whose speakers included a defense attorney representing Mohammed. The schedule allotted 15 minutes for a moment of remembrance for the victims. University administrators, responding to criticism of the program, cited a "longstanding commitment to academic freedom."
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 2 articles
1 of 2 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
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Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The two sides covered different 9/11-anniversary events and omitted the other one entirely. Left-leaning coverage reported Attorney General Todd Blanche speaking at a Department of Justice memorial and noted that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had been ordered to stand trial. Right-leaning coverage reported a UCLA School of Law symposium featuring Mohammed's defense attorney and never mentioned the federal ceremony. A reader of either account would not know both events were in the news.
One side led with a campus symposium, the other with a federal memorial. Right-leaning coverage opened on UCLA as an "ivory-tower slam on national security." Left-leaning coverage opened on the DOJ ceremony and never discussed the campus lineup.
Was the UCLA symposium the university's official 9/11 memorial, or a law-school conference scheduled near the anniversary?
Bottom line
Skip The Hill and you never hear that Todd Blanche held a 9/11 memorial at DOJ; skip Daily Wire and you never hear that UCLA put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's lawyer on an anniversary stage.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Attorney General Todd Blanche gave remarks at a 9/11 memorial event at DOJ headquarters
- UCLA School of Law hosted a symposium featuring a defense attorney for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was ordered to stand trial
- The UCLA event allotted 15 minutes for remembrance of victims
- UCLA administrators cited a longstanding commitment to academic freedom
- A Yale academic on the UCLA program dismissed U.S. counterterrorism efforts as a racist gravy train
The Left View
The Hill frames the moment around the Justice Department ceremony, reporting Blanche's remarks at headquarters and pairing the memorial with the order that Mohammed stand trial. The coverage treats official commemoration and the criminal case as the anniversary story and does not take up the UCLA symposium.
The Right View
The Daily Wire casts the UCLA symposium as a "deeply offensive" turn of a national mourning day into "an ivory-tower slam on national security" that features "radical activists, terror apologists, and legal representatives for mass murderers" instead of honoring victims or first responders. It stresses "top billing" for Mohammed's lawyer and for a Yale academic who called U.S. counterterrorism a "racist gravy train," the 15-minute remembrance versus an hour for lunch, and that 9/11 family members and FDNY veterans "blasted" the university for "giving a microphone to anti-American rhetoric while ignoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice." Administrators' academic-freedom reply is labeled "standard-issue corporate speak," and the event is presented as continuing campus "Left-wing extremism."
Our Take (balanced)
The Hill's strongest argument is that the anniversary's public meaning is official mourning plus legal accountability, evidenced by the DOJ ceremony and the trial order. The Daily Wire's strongest argument is that featuring Mohammed's counsel and counterterrorism critics, with only a brief remembrance slot, is a choice 9/11 families and FDNY veterans have condemned as dishonoring the dead—supported by the billed speakers, the schedule, and those quoted objections. The central unresolved tension is whether including a 9/11 defendant's lawyer on the anniversary is an exercise of academic freedom or a refusal to treat the day as a memorial.
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