Press notes
Jack Shafer has an interesting article in Slate on the bombing of the Palestine hotel Wednesday. His point, and he makes what I think is a good case, is that the journalists were not deliberately targeted. Indeed, an LBCI correspondent in Baghdad, Sultan Suleiman, tried to trip up a U.S. officer yesterday outside the hotel by asking him whether he knew that what the building was. The officer, who was clearly not trying to be cunning, replied that he did not what any of the buildings around were. If there was a mistake, I think, it was in not telling soldiers where the journalists were located.

Wednesday, I watched the Abu Dhabi channel footage of the tank firing right at the camera. The station's crew deserved credit for catching what were genuinely stunning shots. The correspondent will be able to dine out on that one for awhile. However, shortly before the tanks fired at the building, he said he was clearing out (they left the camera behind), suggesting he knew the danger--something that became obvious when the tank commander started looking straight at the camera.

On another note, Al-Jazeera's Maher Abdullah was interviewed by CNN last night. He had no problems admitting that the Iraqi celebrations were genuine, and his comments on the situation were otherwise quite judicious. He did, however, make it a point to state that he was not a defender of U.S. policy in the region. He need not be, but it was funny that he should have felt a need to say that (to preface another comment).