Saddam on a Cell phone
Dec 31st, 2006 by Conor McCabe
There is something telling about the fact that footage of Saddam Hussein’s execution should appear on bit torrent sites before CNN, BBC, or even al-Jazeera. On one level it’s just another death in Iraq, and as such is nothing more than the sniper shots, roadside bombs, and rocket attacks that already proliferate web 2.0. But still, when the moment of death of one of the most notorious men on Earth ends up not as the centrepiece of a structured news item but as another piece of user-generated content, the world of media has changed.
I’m writing this at 3.05am, 31 December, exactly 24 hours since Saddam was hung, and I’m actually surprised that it took me this long to find the footage.
(I’ve noticed now that someone has just added the footage to Google video.)
The execution was filmed with a cell phone and is shot from below the scaffold. Saddam is clearly shown with the noose around his neck. A chant goes out , and moments later Saddam drops. There is a scurry of activity and the cell phone finally gets a clear look at Saddam, his neck at a ninety degree angle to his body.
In days of old (ie., last year) this footage would have ended up with Al-Jazeera, who may or may not have shown it, and with the BBC/FOX/CNN/ITV etc, who definitely would not have shown it. Yet now, anyone who wants to take a look at the execution of a mass murderer, can, and for free. A sea-change in how we watch events.
Much the same occurred with the Tsunami, in that the footage came from cell phones and digital cameras. Its broadcast, however, pretty much remained with traditional media.
Saddam’s death, though, filmed on a cell phone. Watched on the internet. No ironic detachment. Just the way the world gets its news these days.
A final note. Fine Gael’s Justice spokesman, Bernard Allen, criticised Saddam’s death, stating that the party does not agree with capital punishment and execution. Quite right. Saddam Hussein did many things, including attempted genocide, but he never walked onto a farmer’s land without permission. Or stole a farmer’s chainsaw. Sure why would you kill him?
fyi, a link to the bbc blog from 30th dec explaining why they chose to show what they did http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/12/saddams_execution.html
I tried to avoid this footage, to be honest. But it seems impossible. There’s an interesting account here:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/31/news/saddam.php?page=2
It was inevitable that the hanging would end up on the web, and my guess is that it will serve both its purposes: to foment further trouble and civil unrest/war in the east and cause outrage among the chattering classes in the west. Is there a conspiracy? Sure.
I don’t believe there is any conspiracy, especially as everyone who was there was Shia. I think what happened is what happens with almost all footage of this kind. Some guy filmed it on his cell phone. Passed it onto his friends and family to show off. They in turn passed it on to people they knew, until it got to someone who put it on the web and then it went global. The process is no different to Star Wars Kid, the content of course being worlds apart.
Welcome HPC. I have to agree with Ben, though. I don’t think there was a conspiracy. Rather a blatant disregard for the consequences - but that’s not surprising as it was so easy to put up there.
I certainly don’t think it was done by a Saddam supporter - taking pictures with your phone seems popular enough at public hangings in Iran (as I noticed in one documentary I’ve seen dealing with what happens when woman fall out of line with Shia law there - a weird mix, from a Western perspective, of the medieval and the modern).
What it revealed is the reality of the situation, a revelation that was only possible because the Internet really can bypass traditional media.