Will Media Report Baghdad's First Public Christmas Celebration?

December 22nd, 2008 11:43 AM

An astonishing thing happened in Baghdad on Saturday: Christians, apparently for the first time in the city's history, publicly celebrated Christmas.

CNN's Jill Dougherty published an article about this extraordinary event at the network's website Sunday which included a video of her interviewing Iraqis of varied religious beliefs at the scene.

However, from what I can tell, this extremely charming report has not been aired yet by CNN television, nor has it gotten much coverage by other outlets here in America (video embedded below the fold, photo courtesy AFP via British Telegraph):

One notable exception to the lack of media coverage of this event is the Los Angeles Times "Babylon & Beyond" blog which began its report on this subject Saturday (emphasis added):

Trying to prove just how much safer Baghdad is these days, Iraqi officials threw a party for Christians on Saturday, complete with huge event posters featuring pictures of Jesus Christ.

Gotta love that opening word "trying" dontcha think?

With that in mind, it will be interesting to see what other coverage this event gets here in America, and whether CNN will actually air Dougherty's report.

Stay tuned.

(CNN.com is having some problems with embedded videos. If above embed isn't working, try this. If that doesn't work, go to the actual article, and click on "Watch the celebration in Baghdad" at the end of the fourth paragraph.)