cnn reported that Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging. the email was sent Fri, 29 Dec 2006 22:10:02 -0500 (EST) and arrived in my inbox from turner.com at Fri, 29 Dec 2006 19:17:09 -0800 (PST) this was quick breaking email. He was executed at 06:10 localtime and R5Live quoted reuters at about 03:17. I was watching output of TV yesterday and it seems CNN were in no doubt (and others were confused, F24 BBC AJI) that the execution would happen. They even knew when it would happen. They were also quick to air the tapes (a slur usually reserved for Al Jazeera), so is this praise of CNN? I don’t know. They called it right, they had the sources. So who was whispering in their ear. Larry King fielded criticism of the USA’s dealing with propping up Sadam for years from Tony Benn. Their coverage was clearly ahead of the pack, but I suspect they had better sources. no surprise that the TV to break the news first was Al Iraqia.
wikipedia says:-
Al Iraqiya (Arabic: العراقيّة‎ al-Ê¿IrÄ?qiyyä) is a terrestrial television network in Iraq that was set up during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq in 2003 and is supported by the United States military. It is an Arabic language network that serves upwards of 85% of Iraq’s population, and is viewed by a significant percentage (about 40%). However, people equipped with satellite dishes often prefer to watch Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.
that’s better figures than the USA propaganda station Al Hurra which get 0.02% choosing it as they preferred news source in the region