Before I get into today’s post, I have an update from yesterday’s “An international interview: Gainesville to Karachi.” The ombudsman e-mailed back, saying it was very nice to talk to me and that I “will make a great journalist” because I “know the art of making [someone] feel comfortable during interview.” Regarding the violence in Karachi, he said “it was indeed a very sorry incident” and thanked me for inquiring about his well being. Not only am I relieved by his safety, but I’m also flattered by his compliments.

What I didn’t get to blog about yesterday was an opportunity my ethics professor said that probably no other college class had. Ana-Klara Hering, a current media law grad student, came to our morning class to tell us about her experience as a U.S. Marine with an embedded journalist.

Although the other 14 Marines she interviewed for her research paper said they had good experiences with the journalists embedded with them, Hering didn’t. CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta - with camera crew in tow - came to Iraq to the medical units Hering was in charge of supplying. From the stories she told, he sounded a little diva-like to me.

To be an embedded journalist is to be a non-combatant, meaning you sign a paper saying you belong to the military - you can’t carry a gun and put your life in their hands. There should be a mutual respect between the soldiers and the journalists who both need to do their respective jobs but not get in the way of each other.

The journalists have the luxury of being able to leave whenever they want to - unlike the soldiers - but they should remember something very important: these Marines risk their lives and the lives of their fellow soldiers every time an embedded journalist is brought in or taken out. Gupta broke his nose when their vehicle went into a ditch, and he left Iraq.

The way he acted was a slap in the face of the Marines who have much more important things to do.

There’s even more: filming American soldiers in medical care is prohibited, yet somehow Gupta’s segment that aired on CNN had plenty.

Yet I do give Gupta credit for using his neurosurgery skills to save a child who was shot in the head when no one else around knew how. The entire child’s family was murdered. Gupta said he was a doctor first and a journalist second, and he received a lot of heat for doing what he did. They said it was crossing the line as an objective journalist.

Sure it was. But guess what? Journalists are humans. Journalists have opinions, get angry, get sad and hopefully have compassion. I couldn’t help but be concerned for the ombudsman after the violence in Karachi.

I commend Gupta for crossing that line. I would have done the same - if I was a skilled neurosurgeon.

Plus, if he didn’t, I wouldn’t have anything nice to say about him as an embedded journalist at all.