WSJ.com - War Produces Rift in Media Between U.S., Other Nations

It's worth checking out this story, from today's edition of the European Wall Street Journal.

When a U.S. general in Qatar recently condemned the televised pictures of captured American troops....British television reporter Geoff Meade asked the officer what he would say to Iraqis and other Muslims who might welcome such images.

Some U.S. reporters looked stunned at the aggressiveness of the question. A hush fell on the room. The general eyed him coldly and parried the query. Afterward, says Mr. Meade, a veteran correspondent with Sky News, a service of British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC, "Somebody joked to me that I'd find myself at the back of the room along with the French and the Germans."

While voicing "great respect" for U.S. journalism, he says the British media tend to be "more robust, a little more barbed" in covering the news. U.S. journalists, he adds, are loath to risk their front-row seats by posing tough questions, "whether in Qatar or the White House."