Under what circumstances would this be considered okay by anyone?
When I first heard “journalists hit with tear gas” my assumption was that it was, for lack of a better description, an embedded journalist in the middle of a crowd during the riot. I’ve seen that kind of thing before, particularly journalists of the local-alt-weekly variety. In one local case, the only way to know the guy was a journalist was to have known who he was beforehand–he carried no credentials and had only his iPhone as a recording device.
But that’s clearly not the case here. This is a professional camera crew not in the vicinity of anyone else. This is obvious, and cannot be explained away by any sort of benefit of the doubt.
This is stuff I’d expect out of Iran, not St. Louis.
The David Gregory Syndrome is alive and well. If journos want to get close up and personal with the action, they will get caught in the action. It happens; man up and get on with doing the chosen job. Don’t ask other professionals trying to stem hundreds bent on death and destruction to “time out” when your media ass gets too close.
I agree, but that doesn’t appear to be what’s happening here. The video shows no protests, and no one around else the film crew when tear gas lands literally at their feet.