I think this started before 9/11. OJ's white Bronco was before 9/11.
We watched the first gulf war in social studies class, putting it in league with the space shuttle challenger disaster. It was a classroom topic for a few months, and then gone.
Next year it was Rodney King and Amy Fisher or something. More irrelevant popcorn.
Not an air disaster that demolished two buildings filled with people. 9/11 had teeth that other stories couldn't come close to.
Like JFK, it was on another level, and hard to not watch.