MARTHA RADDATZ:
I think there has always been a careful balance. I think news organizations –print television, radio — look at this very carefully and try to mitigate the risks.
It's why people where body armor, it's why they wear helmets. I always embed when I go over there; I always go with the military. It's because I covered the military.
Other journalists cover Iraqi civilians. Other journalists cover Iraqi security forces. There are a lot of ways to approach this. And there are risks doing it either way.
The risk with the military, you saw with Bob and Doug. The military is a target. Iraqi security forces are a target. If you are not with the military — Jill Carroll was not with the military — you have a much, much higher risk of kidnapping.
It's a very dangerous place to cover news. I personally feel it's important to cover news there as national security correspondent for ABC. I could have stayed in the Pentagon and covered the war. I do not think you get an accurate picture.
And we have over 135,000 troops in Iraq still who are there every day, who go back out there every day and do it all again. And I think it's important to tell their story. I think it's important to tell the story of the Iraqi people.
So it's a very tough decision. And I know news organizations grapple with this all the time. But I see no other way to cover a war than to be there.
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