Fox Journalists Nabbed in Gaza

USA Today reports that a Fox correspondent and his cameraman were abducted today in Gaza City. According to the paper,

Palestinian gunmen ambushed a car carrying a Fox News crew in Gaza City on Monday and kidnapped two of the journalists inside, according to witnesses and Fox.

"We can confirm that two of our people were taken against their will in Gaza," Fox News said in a statement.

This incident, coming hard on the recent press coverage of the arrest of Jill Carroll's alleged abductors and her descriptions of her ordeal, is sure to inspire commentary on the dangers of covering the news in the unstable parts of the world.

I regard the usual dangers of the war zone - - flying bullets, shrapnel, errant bombs - - as part of the job. The use of journalists as trade tokens in violent political struggles, however, strikes me as particularly distasteful. Daniel Pearl's abduction and murder was the first one that brought it home to me, though just a little Googling reveals journalist abductions and murders go much further back than that.