ABC News banned the broadcasting of footage showing the planes hitting the twin towers a few days after 9/11, but now plans to allow the images to be shown on the day of the first anniversary.
CNN has already started to use footage of the planes in a promo for its coverage of the anniversary, but the footage cuts away before impact.
Its reticence highlights the cautiousness of most of the major networks in their approach to using the images for fear of upsetting viewers or being seen to exploit the images for ratings.
According to CBS senior vice-president of news coverage Marcy McGinnis: "Nobody wants hours of replays of the planes going into the building. By the same token, it's the year anniversary. You're going to see what happened to spark this chain of events."
NBC has similar plans and, although it plans to use the images, the network is stressing that it will be "in context" and used only "exceedingly sparingly".
Fox News has yet to decide but it is considering a reading of the victims' names during the memorial service.
The networks, though, have agreed on one aspect of the images' use -- that no footage of people jumping from the buildings will be shown. However, ABC News President David Westin reminded viewers of the healing power of time by commenting: "Given the proliferation of media and the fragmentation, it will be foolish of anyone to predict that it will never be shown."
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