Over the weekend, many pixels were expended on W. Thomas Smith’s sloppy reporting from Lebanon for National Review. Most of the responses have focused on Smith’s apparent tendency to pass on unconfirmed, dubious reports from parties with an interest in shaping media perception, while giving the false impression they were based on his own observations. For my money, though, this is rather more appalling than his sloppy reporting:

Speaking of wild, my detractors have claimed that my “public cowboying” — writing openly about carrying weapons, photographing Hezbollah facilities and stealing flags from Hezbollah strongholds — has endangered all reporters in Lebanon. They argue that Hezbollah fighters might assume, based on my reports, that any Western reporter could be armed and hostile to their interests.

Frankly, I’m not concerned with what Hezbollah assumes. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, funded, trained, and equipped by the Islamic (Iranian) Revolutionary Guard Corps. My responsibility is not to concern myself with how Hezbollah perceives me, nor do I feel any compulsion to court them. They are the enemy as far as I’m concerned. My responsibility is to deliver the facts to my readers, which I have always done and will always do.

Now, am I a “cowboy?” Perhaps I am bit of a cowboy. I did, after all, snag a Hezbollah flag while I was there. Was that Thomas the journalist snagging the flag? Hardly. That was Thomas the Marine. And that’s part of who I am, which I suppose makes me part cowboy. But that’s something my detractors will just to have to live with, because that’s not going to change.

My own read of “Semper Fi” is incompatible with so cavalierly risking the lives of your colleagues, but maybe I’m just funny that way. Much as some on the right would like reporters to be an adjunct of the U.S. Military, journalists are supposed to be neutral for a reason. Yes, sometimes they’re kidnapped or killed anyway. But at least sometimes, journalists are able to go places and get stories that an enemy combatant never could, because even morally loathsome people and groups are—again, not always, but sometimes—prepared to observe a norm that press and fighters are to be treated differently.

Thomas says he doesn’t care how members of Hezbollah see things. How lovely for him. The next stringer to find himself on the wrong side of an AK may not have the luxury of that indifference. Thomas distinguishes the actions he performed wearing his reporter-hat from those committed wearing his Marine-hat. (Not literally, mind you: He’s talking about the Marine Inside that gives him license to act like a soldier even when he’s wearing a press badge instead of a uniform.) Let’s hope Hezbollah is attuned to such fine nuances.