Princess Di's Sons Beg For Mercy From Network

Princess Di's sons, William and Harry, asked Channel 4 "Would you like to see your mom dying on TV?". Apparently, the answer from the network was a shoulder shrug and a "sure, if it paid well".

Despite a year of begging the network not to air explicit and gruesome photos of Princess Di in her last moments alive - photos that include the Princess' damaged face as well as medics administering CPR - the network decided Tuesday that they will go ahead and air the photographs anyway.

The disturbing photos are to be part of an upcoming documentary, Diana: The Witnesses In the Tunnel.

Kevin Lygo, Channel 4's director of television and content, announced Tuesday that it "is in the public interest" to show the pictures.

(Kevin, mind if we call you Dick?)

It is hard to imagine that the network could read the following plea from the Princes and yet still come to this horrid decision.

The Princes' letter and a tame accident photo after the jump...

The Princes wrote:

"Despite the support shown to us and our mother's memory by so many people over the last eight years, we feel that, as her sons, we would be failing in our duty to her now if we did not protect her - as she once did us."

The Princes' attorney added:

 

"Therefore we appeal to all forms of media throughout the world to appreciate fully that publishing such material causes great hurt to us, our father, our mother's family and all those who so loved and respected her.'

But the pictures are another matter. I must ask you not to broadcast those photographs that depict the crashed car whilst the Princes' mother lies dying in its wreckage.

Also, I ask on the Princes' behalf that the shot of the ambulance, with a medic clearly administering emergency treatment to the unseen figure of the Princess, not be broadcast.

These photographs, regardless of the fact that they do not actually show the Princess's features, are redolent with the atmosphere and tragedy of the closing moments of her life.

As such, they will cause the Princes acute distress if they are shown to a public audience, not just for themselves, but also on their mother's behalf, in the sense of intruding upon the privacy and dignity of her last minutes."

Do you think the network made the right decision? Would you watch the documentary?

Below is the least offensive of the accident scene photos.

*As an aside, I have regrettably seen all of these photos and I will never be able to forget how truly horrid they are.

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