Saddam / December 30, 2006 // Baghdad
I am surprised at the amount of news outlets that are using photos and/or video showing the minutes before and after Saddam’s execution in Iraq.
It’s a good surprise… I think that this is one of the most important news events in years. This sounds so cliche, but we are watching a major chapter of history unfold… I’m not here to tell you whether it is good or bad — that’s for you to decide.
I chose to run this today because none of the local media outlets are going to show it to you. You might be able to see glimpses of it on TV, but it’s different to see it in print.
The decision to run photos like this has been talked about a lot today… here is a story from the NY Times about mostly TV networks and their decisions.
The Poynter Institute had a great online discussion about it earlier Friday.
Here are some examples of sites using the photos…
Yahoo! News / news.yahoo.com
Washington Post / washintonpost.com
The New York Times / nytimes.com
Al Jazeera / english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
And not to be outdone, the always “fair and balanced” Faux Fox News:
Fox News / foxnews.com
I think Fox News is the only major outlet showing Saddam’s dead body… what are your thoughts about it? Should media outlets show the dead body? Should they show the execution itself? How much is too much, or is there such a thing?
