A Trying-Not-To-Be-Captive Audience

"Most Western reporters have determined that their only option is to turn to the U.S. and British embassies for transportation help," writes the Los Angeles Times' Alissa Rubin from Iraq. "The embassies, with the power to commandeer military helicopters, armed with gunners and personal security details, allow journalists to leapfrog the ring of danger around Baghdad and visit the rest of the country. ... But with the mobility come some hindrances. Western government officials exert control over the journalists' itineraries, set up interviews, and decide who and what will be seen." The Independent's Robert Fisk recently decried "hotel journalism," writing, "Rarely, if ever, has a war been covered by reporters in so distant and restricted a way."