Griper News: Saddam's Execution to be Videotaped

You can't really televise the bread, but the circuses can be broadcast. This Reuters story comes to us by way of TVNewser.

Television networks face a killer of a conundrum with the impending execution of Saddam Hussein, whose hanging could be videotaped and perhaps aired on Iraqi TV.

The timing of Saddam's date with the gallows was unclear, but late Thursday CBS, NBC and Fox News Channel reported that the former dictator, convicted this year in the deaths of 148 people in 1982, would be turned over by the American military to the Iraqi government within 36 hours and hanged before the start of a Muslim holiday on Sunday.

Several sources said Saddam's execution would be videotaped by the Iraqi government, though it wasn't clear whether it would be released to the public or broadcast.

"We will video everything," Iraqi National Security adviser Mouffak al Rubaie told CBS News.

Only ABC and CBS have committed themselves to not airing the entire execution.

It turns out the other networks had better make up their minds pretty quick.

Associated Press:

Saddam Hussein will be executed by Saturday at the latest, an Iraqi judge said Friday.

Lawyers representing him said the condemned former leader is no longer in U.S. custody.