The Viral Spread Of A Death On Video
The New York Times wrote yesterday that while portions of the video had been shown on various networks, up to that point "no national American television organization has thus far allowed the moment of the drop [the moment in which the trap door opens and Hussein's body falls] to be shown."
Of course, as you well know (you YouTube watching, Web-surfing, I-Pod listening, Time Person of the Year), regardless of the networks' editorial decisions, those interested in the entirety of the footage can find it easily enough elsewhere. The video – believed to have been shot by a guard or witnesses cell phone camera – is readily available on YouTube and many other sites.
The story raises an inevitable quandary highlighted by many a media watcher in recent days: The video's existence and mouse-click-away availability on the Web "spotlighted the challenge that faces news organizations as Internet sites continue to supplant the traditional media as a source of information," as the Los Angeles Times' Matea Gold put it. In other words, consumers are starting to realize that what television standards may deny them, the Internet readily provides>. This is because such Web sites and blogs are missing what exists – and what is often maligned by many a blogger – within traditional mainstream media: an editorial filter. For his part, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper thinks that distinction is what will ultimately harm the networks: "Of course you don't want children to see something like this -- but until the networks start broadcasting such raw images, they'll continue to lose viewers to the ultimate network, the Internet."
CBS News' filter extends, of course, to its own Web site, where you won't find video of the actual execution, either.
"Anything that shows the actual execution is verboten [by CBS News standards,]" says CBSNews.com Senior Producer Dan Collins. What of the reality that anyone can simply click on over to another Web site and see the video there anyway? "Anyone with a mouse can get to pornography too, but we're not going to show that either," says Collins.