TV Networks Take Safety Measures in Iraq

[PfcHammer]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040413/ap_en_tv/tv_iraq_pool_2

TV Networks Take Safety Measures in Iraq
Tue Apr 13, 8:14 AM ET

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - Concerned about the safety of their personnel, five American television networks have taken the unusual step of pooling resources to cover fighting in Iraq (news - web sites).

ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News Channel have agreed to share the reports of a single camera crew embedded with the U.S. military in Fallujah, the city that's been at the center of Iraqi violence since four American contractors were killed March 31.

Illustrating the danger, a CNN assignment editor in the pool, Tomas Etzler, was slightly wounded in the head and back during an attack Monday, said Eason Jordan, CNN's chief news executive.

"There's no police force to speak of, civilians are engaged in military efforts, it's a very unstable situation," said Bill Wheatley, NBC News vice president. "There's not much law and order."

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Fox News Channel's participation in the Fallujah pool was briefly threatened after Oliver North, working as a correspondent in Iraq, traveled with the U.S. military to Fallujah and reported from there just for Fox over the weekend.

After a conference call Monday, the networks agreed that any future material gathered by North in Fallujah would be available to all five, according to executives at two networks who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A Fox News spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.