[thegreatbeast]

This is all inside baseball stuff. Journalists have always hired locals to give them safe passage to and through dangerous areas. And what that CNN guy Jordan reported in the NYT the other day was well known as SOP and well-reported.
Save your ire for the important stuff.

[John H K]

PJ O'Rourke talked about these in his articles from Somalia; "Fixers" or what he called "Combat Accountants."

I don't know if it's always normal for them to be armed when they're out with them on a story, though.

[litany_of_lies]

I'll accept your first contention, but I won't accept CNN's failure to report torture and murder in the midst of a supposedly informed debate about whether to go to war. Their failure enabled The Left to contend that it was only right-wing talk shows that couldn't be trusted who were relaying what was leaking out of Iraq about its horrors.

This is no different from the NY Times stooge who covered for Stalin in the 1930s while he was killing and starving millions. Or was that also "well-reported SOP"?

And the "SOP" continues. I believe CNN has compromised itself in return for access with the Palestinians and with Cuba. CNN will never tell you about the PLO hanging anyone who speaks to an Israeli soldier as a "collaborator," and probably hasn't said a word about the recent Cuban crackdown.

CNN--the Compromised (and Cowardly) News Network.