Karla Roth-Bardinas was a reporter for News 12 New Jersey on September 11th. She had the day off and was feeding her 20-month-old son when the news broke about the attack on The World Trade Center. She very quickly reported for work, and spent weeks covering the story from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, directly from the devastating site in Lower Manhattan. She had an all too clear view of the smoking remains across the Hudson River. Her most vivid memory was tearful people, begging her to please show a picture of their missing loved ones on tv. Even weeks later, many never gave up hope...maybe their loved one was hospitalized somewhere, too badly injured to call. Eventually, the News Director of News 12 made the heartbreaking decision to stop showing the pictures of the missing.
Roth-Bardinas won an award for a story she covered after 9/11, following the painfully long recovery of Port Authority police officer Will Jimeno who, with his Sergeant, John McLoughlin, was trapped in the rubble of the collapse of the North Tower. Their story was dramatized in the Oliver Stone 2006 movie “World Trade Center”, starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena.