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TV holds tense death watch for Saddam
2006-12-30
TV news channels played a tense waiting game Friday as they ticked off the final hours of Saddam Hussein's life, replaying scenes from the former Iraqi dictator's reign as they waited for his death. Saddam's hanging Friday night ended a day of TV reporting fraught with uncertainty and speculation about whether his execution was imminent. "The situation seems to be one of tremendous flux, but you and your viewers already know that," Feisal al-Istrabadi, Iraq's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said on CNN several hours before Saddam's death. At about 10:15 p.m. EST, NBC broke into regular programming with a special report announcing Hussein's execution. NBC attributed the news to three "very credible" Arabic language news stations. A few minutes later, Katie Couric made the announcement for CBS, also breaking into programming. "Saddam Hussein is dead. We have just received word that the former president of Iraq has been executed. No details yet, but Iraqi authorities said they were planning to videotape the death," Couric said. She then went to correspondent Randall Pinkston, who said the network was told by one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers that the execution was carried out just before 10 p.m. Eastern time. ABC issued its report shortly before 10:30 p.m. EST, citing a senior military official in Baghdad. Reports on cable channels Fox News Channel and CNN cited Arab language news stations. After Saddam's death, the issue became whether footage, if made available, would be shown. "American forces across Iraq are bracing for a possible violent reaction to the execution and we should say that NBC News is not going to broadcast videotape of the execution," newscaster Campbell Brown said. But CNN's Anderson Cooper indicated the door was open. "We will be bringing those images to you as appropriate," said Cooper. Video and still photos had been taken of the execution but would be reviewed by the channel before airing, he said. "We won't be showing anything too graphic," Cooper said. But in the hours after Saddam's death, the story was told in words and old footage. There was brief coverage of members of the Iraq community in Dearborn, Mich., celebrating his execution, but otherwise news channels relied on file film of Saddam and war-torn Iraq. Before the execution, news executives were reluctant to discuss hypothetically what they might show if video or still pictures were made available. They said they would weigh questions of tastefulness with the need to illustrate an important story. NBC News will use discretion in what it shows, but people have the right to see proof that Saddam was killed, said Phil Alongi, executive producer, NBC News special events. "We're not going to do it just for the shock value," Alongi said earlier Friday. CBS News discussed general guidelines in the days when it became clear that the execution was imminent. "We need to show Saddam being taken to his execution and we need to show the results of the execution, but we will not see any moving video of him actually being hanged," said Paul Friedman, CBS News executive. Bob Murphy, ABC News senior vice president, recalled that when Saddam's two sons were killed, his network showed pictures of their faces after death but showed nothing of their bodies. Several hours after the execution, Murphy said ABC would use its "editorial judgment" in reviewing any footage and deciding whether it was appropriate to air. Based on unconfirmed information, he said, the execution may have been taped in its entirety. If Iraqi TV viewers were glued to their TV sets, as one channel reported, the broadcast networks apparently felt that the news bulletins would hold U.S. viewers for now: All switched back to regular programming Friday, although ABC followed the story on news magazine "20/20." MSNBC, Fox News Channel and CNN stayed with Saddam coverage. Fox's Bill O'Reilly might have taken issue with the broadcast network's brief reports. Saddam's execution represented a "big moment, much bigger than the press in America is portraying it," O'Reilly said earlier Friday, adding: "It's not at the level of (Osama) bin Laden. Bin Laden would be off the chart, great."
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