CANCELLED PROGRAMMING:

Iraqi TV Goes Off Air; U.S. Troops Repel Iraqi Attack (Fox News, March 25, 2003)

Coalition aircraft hit the Iraqi TV station in Baghdad, knocking the state-run TV off the air, U.S. officials told Fox News.

The state-run TV signal was lost after 4 a.m. after large explosions were heard in and around Baghdad. The pre-dawn raid came after a several-hours-long lull in allied bombing.

U.S. military officials told Fox News they were optimistic Iraq's state TV was down for the count. The channel could not be seen in Baghdad after the raid, but satellite transmissions continued with periodic breakups.

U.S. officials also told Fox News that the station's proximity to the Ministry of Information, which also houses foreign media and is located a block away, raised concerns about collateral damage. But the TV station was a necessary target, they said, because it was believed the facility was being used as a meeting place by regime leadership and may have played a dual military/civilian role.

Fox is also reporting that taking the TV off the air was a presidential level decision. Apparently there's some concern that they were using it to broadcast coded messages and anger that they were broadcasting their own violations of the Geneva convention. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 26, 2003 12:17 AM