Via WaPo: TV plans tasteful coverage of Saddam execution.

I find that headline snicker-worthy. For one thing, we are talking about TV news. For another, I am not sure that the word “tasteful” and “execution” belong in the same sentence.

Of course, the WaPo reporter could help himself in terms of making a pun in the first paragraph of his piece:

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.

While I think the man is deserving of death, I have to say that silly jokes aren’t in order out of respect for his victims, if not for any other reason.

And there is another question: while the networks and cable channels may decide not to show all of the gory details, how long before unedited video and stills make it to the internet? Will this be another Nick Berg situation, or will the fact that US military is taking the video mean that it won’t leak out?