Reporter harrassed on New Orleans street

"I did not actually count the number of automatic weapons pointed at me, but there were at least five, and I was certain they were all locked and loaded, or whatever that military phrase is signifying that a gun is ready to blow a hole in somebody ...

"The Army has been patrolling this street for a week, and they know what's going on here. All the police had to do was ask them, and they would have known everything they needed to know about this street."

A San Francisco Chronicle reporter writes of being surrounded by armed forces who treated him like a criminal even though they knew he was in the yard of a home where 17 journalists were staying, covering the police state of New Orleans.

Perhaps most chilling was this sentence: "Hearst Corp. hired six armed military contractors, led by former Navy SEAL Chris White, to protect the house and journalists, presumably from looters, but also from arrest by police or the military."

Now newspapers feel compelled to hire armed guards to protect their reporters from forces of the U.S. government? Anyone else wonder what's wrong with this picture?