Jeffrey Gettleman writes about the dangerous and deserted Baghdad Palestine Hotel in the New York Times today, and makes a surprisingly fair and righteous observation, singling out those in FNC's Baghdad bureau for their bravery in staying:
The violence outside its gates finally crashed in, and now the Palestine joins the rest of Baghdad, struggling to survive and hoping for better days.
The lobby is a mess, with wires dangling from the ceiling and glass crunching underfoot, the leftovers of a suicide attack last fall.
Of the 420 rooms, fewer than 100 are occupied. Many of those will soon be vacant as more journalists retreat to rented medieval-style forts with huge walls and armed sentries.
...Now, just a few brave foreigners remain, mostly journalists.
"The place is definitely a little weird," said John Fiegener, bureau chief for Fox News, which rents an entire floor. "But you've got to give it to the staff. They put on a smile every day and try their best."
It's nice to see credit where credit is due. 86 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began: any reporter still operating anywhere in Iraq is, to put it mildly, gutsy.
