Why I would not shoot a News story with Lara Logan or Anderson Cooper.

With reports of the despicable assault on  Lara Logan in Cairo, and Anderson Cooper’s previous dust up with hostile demonstrators I found myself asking, “what the hell happened?”  “How do two world known experienced reporters get assaulted?”  By being there!   This is not to say they shouldn’t have been there. Rather they should not have been there in so naked a manner. In both cases (according to broadcast images) Logan and Cooper were both uncovered. No apparent “incognito” cloaking on their part was evident.  Why would they do this?   Part of the burden of being well known is that you attract all kinds of parasites and predators. This is well documented. To go into a hostile/unstable environment without taking care to use a more “stealth-like” method strikes me a poor judgement at a minimum and one could make the case for recklessness. Logan and Cooper not only endangered themselves but their crews.  A blond (beautiful) caucasian woman in the midst of a 95% arab male crowd of demonstrators? In  the middle east? With no known attempt to camouflage her presence?
 
I have admired Ms Logan’s brilliant and gutsy reporting for some years.  Cooper? Not so much. But as a former long time News cameraman, I would not shoot a story with either one of them based on their apparent ignorance of how to cover news in a hostile, volatile and violent environment.