Should Journalists Carry Weapons? - The Pen And The Sword In Combat

Subject line is the title of an interesting article in the
March 2004 issue of Soldier of Fortune Magazine
(http://www.sofmag.com/).

The author is Bob Poos, former Associated Press correspondent and
later Managing Editor at Soldier of Fortune.

In his article, Poos jumps immediately to the embedded journalists
of Operation Iraqi Freedom;

"Civilian war correspondents in the U.S. military's "embed" program
for Operation Iraqi Freedom were forbidden to carry defensive sidearms,
a dramatic change of policy in place since at least World War II."

"It was a decision not made lightly, said a general officer who
participated in talks with correspondents and bureau chiefs
immediately prior to the outbreak of hostilities between the U.S.
and Iraq. 'Some of them wanted to be armed,' he said, 'and it was
difficult to deny them that. But we told them, "look, al-Jazeera
and other Arab world news outlets are going to be embedded as well
as Americans and British. And the first time one of them sees an
armed American news reporter, he'll be able to tell his readers
or viewers there is no such thing as objectivity in the U.S. media."

Bob Poos quotes Joe Galloway's selection of journalist's weapons,
Galloway wrote "We Were Soldiers Once And Young".

The article has four photographs and Poos ends his piece
with some very sound advice; "So I guess my advice to "embedded"
correspondents would be: If the stuff has really hit the fan,
pick up a weapon from someone who doesn't need it any longer
and become a participant. Don't get captured - and get hold of
a short-barrelled revolver when you're in town."

My advice: Make sure it's one of those short-barrelled revolvers
that is so hated by Sarah Brady and all the other ghoulish
gun grabbing goblins of gun control - even a Saturday Night
Special will do in a pinch.