4/9     I am getting annoyed at the coverage of the 3 reporters killed at
        the Palestine Hotel and the Al Jazeera office.  100+ US and British
        soldiers were killed.  Hundreds of Iraqi civilians dead.  Thousands
        of Iraqi soldiers gone.  And the press obsesses over 3 reporters?
        Get a grip and get some perspective.
        \_ Everyone knows the Palestine Hotel is full from top to
           to bottom with journalists, the balconies are brimming
           with cameras covering the war, Al-Jazeera told US Central
           Command months ago where their offices are, and
           the US armed forces can't get it together enough
           to refrain from shelling the hotel?  It says in
           in the Geneva Convention somewhere "Thou shall
           not fire tank shells at journalists, not even Arab
           ones, sayeth the Lord."
             \_ It's still 3 dead out of thousands.  How many apartments and
                markets were bombed?  How many innocents killed?  Let's have
                more coverage of that.  Or is the life of a reporter
                worth more?
                \_ hey we're all on the same side here.  a big issue
                   is the us army claims it heard or saw gunfire coming
                   from the palestine hotel and felt the need to shell
                   it, forgetting that the remaining, alive reporters
                   in the building heard no gunfire at all for hours
                   before they got hit with a tank round.
           \_ I applaud your overuse of linefeeds.
        \_ Hello?  Reporters are human beings, not newsbots.  Their #1
           concern at all times is themselves.  Why do you think they
           *still* talk about Herb Caen in the Chron?
           \_ There is a difference between knowing *why* a story is
              there and accepting that the story *should* be there.
              Perhaps the difference is too subtle for you. -OP
              \_ oh! what a zinger!  perhaps you should re-read the OP
                 and see that, unlike you, I was actually on topic.
                 thanks!
              \_ Adding "-OP" to your post after I reply doesn't help you
                 any.  Go re-read what you said and try not to do any more
                 post-reply editing.  It's cheap and makes you look stupid.
                 \_ Note my original post's use of the term "perspective".
                    It takes no great genius or empathy to appreciate why
                    a story about the death of journalists would be of
                    interest to other journalists.  It requires perspective
                    to place those deaths in the context of the thousands
                    other innocents killed in the war, and to understand
                    over-coverage of the 3 dead at best shows a lack of
                    impartiality and fairness, and at worst diminishes
                    the loss of those thousands other dead.  The question
                    was never why the coverage was there.  The question
                    has always been whether the coverage was appropriate.
                    The other participants in this thread have grasped that
                    distinction.  It is a shame that you have not.  -OP
        \_ Death rate of reporters in current war: 1%
           Death rate of coalition forces: 0.1%
        \_ Yeah, but "full from top to bottom with journalists" doesn't
           mean that people with guns can't be in it too. Also, I bet
           that a camera-man "shooting" you looks similar to
           a dude pointing a rocket-launcher at you.
           \_ there were no guys with RPGs in the palestine hotel.
              I concede that a bunch of cameras sticking out of windows
              on balconies might look like weapons.  It doesn't excuse
              theq us army from lying about hearing weapons fire
              from the hotel.  plus they're still lying around it,
              publically, but privately saying "yeah we might have
              made a mistake and thought those cameras looked like
              iraqi republican guard."
              \_ And of course it isn't at all possible that it was a
                 round from an Iraqi shooting at the Americans?  Nope,
                 can't be that.  Not at all possible for stray rounds
                 to kill reporters IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING WAR
                 ZONE, GENIUS!!!  sheesh.
              \_ It was Geraldo.  He snuck back into Iraq and was shooting
                 wildly with his six gun like a drunken cowboy.