Moving

This blog is moving. Check out Ohio Valley Politics for new posts.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

What Will be Done With The Saddam Hanging Tape?

It's been revealed that the execution was in fact attended by both a photographer and videographer and the Iraqi Government has released tapes of executions before in the past.

I've been wondering what will happen if (and that's a big if) the video and images of Saddam Hussein's execution are released? Will the news agencies rush to show them or will they be edited? From what I'm hearing on CNN it seems that Saddam refused to wear a hood during his hanging, meaning that any video footage would show his final facial expressions. Would these images be considered too graphic to be shown or would the temptation of high ratings win out?

Another interesting possibility that I've heard tossed up is that the video may be shown on Iraqi TV and then leaked on the Internet. In the age of YouTube footage like that would spread like wildfire.

Honestly I'm not sure if I'd want to see it or not.

Edit (1:18 AM): As if to prove my point about how quickly an online video would spread, this post alone has had 14 hits in the last 5 minutes. Not bad for 1 o'clock in the morning.

Edit (1:32 AM): CNN reports that Iraqi television stations are saying that footage of Saddam's execution will be released shortly.

No comments: