This is one area where I disagree with the mainstream view. IMO, the revenge-driven response is what changed the world. It has also killed far more people, while making the world an even less stable place.
Anyway, to the topic at hand. I was watching the West Wing. Somehow, Mrs Landingham's death seemed more "real" than the images out of NYC. And, from memory, at that stage the images were coming from NYC only. Maybe just the scale of the thing made it hard to take in.
Memory is a bit rusty now, I think TWW episode finished between the first and second hits on the WTC. I do recall quite vividly recognising at as an attack as the second WTC tower was hit. Whichever coverage I was watching caught on to that a little later. After the first strike it still seemed a highly improbable accident.
And, again maybe because I couldn't process the scale, being amazed at how well it was organised as a media event. There was just enough time for all the networks to cross live and get cameras set up pointing at the WTC, then just a couple of minutes before the second plane on that site. It seemed (and still seems) to be timed to maximise the visuals, and resulting fear.
It was only in the minutes and hours that followed that scale of the tragedy started to hit.
The speed, and certainty, with which al-Qaeda were blamed seemed suspicious over the next few days. They were always the most likely candidate, and in the end it does seem it was them. However, there were other organisations capable of such a thing and with the motives.
