Journalists who die in Iraq

From today's New York Times:

Ann Cooper, executive director for the Committee to Protect Journalists [link added], said that 36 journalists, plus 18 translators who worked for journalists, had been killed in Iraq since 2003. Of those 54, she said, at least nine died as a result of American fire.

"From our standpoint, journalists are not being targeted by the U.S. military in Iraq," Ms. Cooper said. "But there certainly are cases where an atmosphere of what, at best, you can call indifference has led to deaths and other problems for journalists."

As an example, Ms. Cooper cited the shelling by American troops of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, well known as the residence of journalists, in April 2003, killing two journalists.

Comments

[Sisyphus]

From Cline: Feeling Bad about Blogging:

Why is the Palestine Hotel still being cited? Why is it cited without mentioning statements from Jules Crittenden, David Zucchino, Chris Tomlinson and Greg Kelly? Why no mention of the released Army investigation (pdf, 18.9MB)?

Why has Nik Gowing "advanced the theory in writings and speeches" if no one believes it?

[Joel]

Do you know of any cases "where an atmosphere of what, at best, you can call indifference has led to deaths and other problems for" military personnel where journalists have been more concerned with capturing violence on video than with preventing military (or even civilian) deaths?

[Inigo]

Because some of those guys are lying or not telling the whole truth. The cameramen took pictures from Palestine Hotel balconys that showed no one was attacking the tanks from the building. I met Tomlinson in Baghdad in may 2003. He told me he did not believe the III Division soldiers knew there were journalists living and working in the hotel, but obviously someone in the chain of command made a terrible mistake not telling them about that. And the Pentagon top brass and the generals running the war from Qatar did know Palestine Hotel was the main media center in Baghdad. In fact, Pentagon officials told CNN to get away from Rashid Hotel, and quickly, because that building was a military target. And CNN crews, and all other media teams, went to Palestine Hotel.
So the Pentagon in fact sent the journalists to Palestine Hotel and later did not anything to avoid an attack on it. Who's to blame? Pentagon or media?