Trump calls off livestream of Fort Hood shooter's execution
- Trump pulls plug on the Dec. 3 firing squad webcast after blowback from both aisles and the Vatican.
- Hasan still gets the bullet, but the gawkers will have to settle for the 1999 TV movie instead.
- Hegseth pitched live-streamed execution as deterrence; critics called it a death-porn state spectacle.
- The 'World' will have to imagine America's justice instead of watching pixels of it pop.
- No word yet on whether the popcorn order for the Pentagon briefing room has been cancelled.
Brief Summary
In a shocking pivot that surprised exactly no one who understands the phrase 'quiet part out loud', President Trump pulled the plug on the Pentagon's grim plan to livestream Nidal Hasan's execution-by-firing-squad. Waving away the proposal as something that might upset 'well meaning people'—and, more importantly, his own poll numbers—Trump dashed the hopes of death penalty fetishists who wanted a 4K, multi-angle snuff film to go viral. Defense Secretary Hegseth's idea of broadcasting state-sanctioned killing as a 'deterrent' went over like a lead balloon, with the usual suspects joining a rare bipartisan chorus of 'maybe don't make a gore-stream the official government feed.'
Why This Matters
For the average reader, this means you can now safely avoid the gruesome spectacle of a man being executed on your taxpayer-funded device. More importantly, it signals the limits of the administration's shock-and-awe marketing: even a crew that loves a good public humiliation draw the line at live-broadcasting the last moments of a terrorist's life as prime-time entertainment. The whiplash from 'let’s stream the killing' to 'never mind' underscores how these decisions are made on the fly, based on who yells loudest on cable news. It also leaves a nagging question: if they thought death-by-livestream was a good idea even for a second, what other unholy programming are they cooking up for your next news cycle?