So the former Iraqi leader is dead. While his execution for crimes against humanity was expected, the speed at which it was carried out appears to have shocked many across the world.
What is interesting though, is the rather low key reaction from the US and UK governments - compared to the glee with which they welcomed his capture three years ago.
What is interesting though, is the rather low key reaction from the US and UK governments - compared to the glee with which they welcomed his capture three years ago.
I was trying to steer clear from discussing the political trends that may influence PR. But today's events have prompted me to get into politics.
President Bush has hailed Saddam's execution as an "Important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the War on Terror."
Observers are already asking what Saddam's execution means for democracy in the wider Middle East? So in our PR world, how is this apparent growth of democracy around the world likely to impact on Public Relations? The need for more spin perhaps? How does the Iraqi government explain the filming of the execution of Saddam Hussein? What did they hope the gruesome footage of a dying dictator would achieve?
Curiously, I've also noticed that these "big" Iraqi stories appear to happen on weekends. The day he was paraded on Television soon after he his capture three years ago, I remember I was lying in my bed on a Sunday morning. Then a few weeks ago, he was sentenced to death on a Sunday morning. Now he has been executed at dawn on a Saturday.
Is this a coincidence or are these events carefully designed by the spin doctors concerned to ensure that such big stories break over the weekend, in order to cushion the effect of the news amongst the public? Afterall most people take it easy on weekends.
And of course, President Bush was asleep while his adversary was sent to the gallows. The Iraqi government was fully in control of the legal process till the execution early this morning.
The whole operation has got me asking several questions. Why the video in the first place? And why did it not have any sound? Was it really as dignified as we saw on TV? Or was the sound edited to give some false impression of Saddam's final moments?
I can sense three PR trends here; spin, spin and more spin.
2 comments:
I agree, the war on terror or so called growth of democracy has led to an increase in propaganda, or what you're calling spin.
Ofcourse where there is war, there is propaganda. As journalists like to say, truth is the first casualty of any conflict/war.
The Saddam execution has indeed shown that with the rise of new media technology, spin will constantly keep returning to haunt the spin doctors.
Susan Collins
Kampala Uganda.
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