Friday, December 29, 2006
Fox: Al Arabiya television says Saddam is now dead
At 10:05 p.m. EST, Fox announced that Al Arabiya television has broken the news that Saddam Hussein is dead, having been executed by the government of Iraq.
MORE: The Guardian's first three paragraphs put it rather well:
Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi despot who menaced neighbours and murdered his own people during a quarter century of wretched tyranny, died ignominiously on the gallows shortly before dawn this morning at the hands of his former enemies.
Saddam, who was convicted last month of crimes against humanity in one of many episodes of brutality laid at his door and ordered to hang on Boxing Day, was executed at around 6am (3 am GMT) at an undisclosed location, according to local television reports.
The execution removed one of the great hangovers of 20th century brutality, a dictator with more than just a physical resemblance to Stalin who ruled through fear, vengeance, cunning and terror.
Compare the clarity of the Guardian to the New York Times:
Saddam Hussein, the dictator who led Iraq through three decades of brutality, war and bombast before American forces chased him from his capital city and captured him in a filthy pit near his hometown, was hanged just before dawn Saturday during the morning call to prayer.
The final stages of Mr. Hussein’s life came with terrible swiftness after he lost the appeal, six days ago, of his death sentence for the killings of 148 men and boys in the northern town of Dujail in 1982. He had received the sentence less than two months before from a special court set up to judge his reign as the almost unchallenged dictator of Iraq.
His execution was announced on Iraqi state television and was confirmed by a senior American official in Baghdad and a Bush administration official in Crawford, Tex. No details were disclosed and Iraqi officials had said it would not be shown publicly.
Suppose you wanted to read a left-wing high-brow newspaper. Which has the more crackling prose?
There's a reason why the New York Times is losing readers.
STILL MORE: For the lefty-activist reaction, see the comments at AMERICABlog. If it weren't so harsh, it would be comedy gold.
8 Comments:
By 
allen, at
Fri Dec 29, 11:06:00 PM:
Excuse my absence from the site while I take time to grieve. OK, I'm back.
By GreenmanTim, at
Fri Dec 29, 11:17:00 PM:
Intriguingly, according to Google The Guardian had it three hours ago. Didn't mince words, either.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1980225,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1
By William, at
Sat Dec 30, 12:08:00 AM:
Suddam is executed and you use the event to critique the NYT's writing style?
I mean it as a compliment to your own writing style when I say I expected better.
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Dec 30, 12:21:00 AM:
Well, William, it was sort of a whimsical afterthought. I read the Guardian piece that GreenmanTim cited, and then wondered how the NYT led the story. Just thought the contrast was interesting.
By GreenmanTim, at
Sat Dec 30, 12:56:00 AM:
And so it is. But what in blazes are the two of us doing up at this late hour? (No, dear, blogging is NOT an obsession!) G'night, Birthday Boy. Deconstructing Saddam's execution will keep until morning.
By William, at
Sat Dec 30, 12:41:00 PM:
Heh. Good morning. It is a habit of mine to not only be denounced on rightist blogs as a hippy, but also leftist ones as a neo-con.
Thus, after my habit, after coming here I decided to visit the Kos to gauge the left's reaction to the execution. If you follow the link (and look at the poll), you'll discover the left, or at least the far left, needs no help when it comes to making fools of themselves.
But I don't come here for the left nor right but rather intelligent analysis and some intelligent debate. That's why I was disappointed to be greeted by a cheap-shot at the NYT over what seems to me a triviality.
Yet, while we're on the subject of the media, if you look over the Kos comments, you will find that the far left also has very little respect for it. Another disproof the axiom 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Dec 30, 01:57:00 PM:
I don't think that many people in American anywhere have much respect for or trust in the mainstream media anymore. Let me go dig something up real quick...
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmoral/articles/20060320.aspx
"A recent Harris Poll, asking Americans which "institution" they admired the most, the military came out on top, with 47... where we find the media (14 percent), large companies (13 percent), organized labor (12 percent) and, in a tie at the bottom, the legal profession and Congress, each with ten percent."
By Georg Felis, at
Tue Jan 02, 04:08:00 PM:
I tried to read the AmericaBlog comments. I really need to update the questions on my Moonbat quiz, some of these guys would ace it.
It’s a weird day when the DailyKos comments seem to be more moderate than the last blog you read.
I was always told to say something good about everybody.
Saddam is dead.
Good.
