From StudioBriefing today:
Cell-Phone Video of Saddam Execution Results in Arrest
In what could very well turn out to be a case of shooting the messenger -- or something close to it -- a security guard who used his cell phone to produce the video of the execution of Saddam Hussein that was broadcast throughout the world has been arrested by Iraqi authorities. The Washington Post, which reported the arrest, identified its source as Sadiq al-Rikabi, the political adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who told the newspaper that the release of the footage was "not something proper or acceptable. ... We needed just a small piece [of footage] about the execution, just to show the people this is Saddam." On Tuesday, former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, appearing on the Don Imus program, observed that until the execution, Saddam had "disappeared, in effect, as some kind of a symbol over there." But the video, Brokaw said, changed all that. "He's able to stand up there with the hood off and invoke prayer and even invoke the Palestinians, and go out in the eyes of his people at least as a martyr." Brokaw agreed with Imus's comment that it is "difficult to imagine how this could have turned out worse." Meanwhile, CBS on Tuesday defended its decision not to show the actual execution either on the air or on its website. "Consumers are starting to realize that what television standards may deny them, the Internet readily provides," the CBS News blog Public Eye acknowledged Tuesday. Asked about the availability of the execution video at other websites, CNSNews.com Senior Producer Dan Collins replied, "Anyone with a mouse can get to pornography, too, but we're not going to show that, either."