There has been widespread condemnation of the violence directed against journalists covering events in Egypt–and there should be. But honestly, I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for those who have been attacked.
Journalists have a job to do, but when they take huge risks for the sake of ratings and then find themselves in trouble, it’s hard to take seriously any “shock” that media executives express about their journalists being targeted. A journalist walking into a crowd of tens of thousands of protestors facing off against tens of thousands of other protestors is akin to the foolish hikers you read about from time to time who end up getting trapped in a snowstorm and have to be taken off the mountain by helicopter. They made a foolish decision to ascend a mountain and simply were not prepared.
The world is a brutish, dangerous, and nasty place. Don’t expect people in the developing world to smile and be friendly just because you have a press pass. Journalists should use judgment and not race into the middle of what amounts to a massive bar room brawl without expecting something bad to happen.