Ross>>That's a safety issue...
It's harder for an American journalist (or any other journalist for that matter, beyond MAYBE an Iraqi sympathizer) to tag along wiht the enemy to capture THEIR side of the story....
Occassionally I see photos from the Israli/Palestinian conflict that were taken from the Palastinian, rock thrown against Israli tanks, perspective but I think that's because the photographer shooting the assault has gotten caught in the middle of the firefight.
Generally, if you're shooting something like that, I wanna be where the most firepower is. I'd MUCH rather be among the police snipers surrounding a house in a hostage situation (yes, I've shot those before) than inside the house that's being surrounded.
Granted, being inside that house might make for a MUCH more interesting photo, but there's a point where, even for me, common sense takes over and says, "If you do this, you WILL get shot at..."
Even unbiased journalism has it's limitations.
You may have noticed division insignias and such on the troops in the ABC report were electronically blocked out in the footage that was aired.
An agreement is made up beforehand between the military officials and the network that says, you can shoot this stuff, shoot whatever you want and show whatever you want, however you need to keep the identity of the units hidden for their protection. If you don't, we won't give you opportunities like this in the future, or worse, we'll give it to your competition next time.
That's a line that's generally respected and agreed upon. I shoot that way too. I got to ride along with an ambulance crew this summer with the agreement that I wouldn't shoot patients in a way that they could be identified later on, no faces. Fine. I get to go wheverever the paramedics go and shoot whatever I want as long as I maintain the confidentiality of the patient, that's reasonable and the story isn't about them anyways, it's about the paramedics. I also have to be careful over shooting license plates or the exteriors of houses, especially house numbers and street addresses or other landmarks. There's still plenty to shoot within those constraints.
Chances are, you're not going to find Iraqi insurgents as agreeable with allowing you to shadow them as they fight the occupation. They're going to want to keep their locations secret, their methods secret, their planning secret, their identies and weapons and just about every other aspect of their operation hidden from the general public, especially their opponents, US forces. You certainly wouldn't find an "unbiased" journalist present for the beheading of a hostage taken by Iraqi insurgents... Not unless his head was going to be the next one to get cut off....
