Shooting War

Just what do those death-defying photojournalists add to the media's war coverage? Are they there to document and authenticate the stories? Are they there to put war in emotional context? Is their purpose simply to draw in readers and viewers? And have we reached a moment where the inevitable bystander with a cellphone camera can shoot and post pictures of a news scene before the professionals can even slip their press passes on?

The starting point for this conversation was a recent Los Angeles Times review of a documentary about the noted photojournalist Eddie Adams.