The right side of the blogosphere today is rumbling with outrage over this picture that won the Pulitzer for breaking-news photography. Powerline, Michelle Malkin, posters to LGF and others are screaming that the photo was staged for the Iraqi photographer, who was in cahoots with the insurgents.

I’m breaking with the pack to state loud and clear that there is no conspiracy here that can be proven. This is not an MSM plot.

Let us dissect the questions being brought forward today:

1) What was the photographer doing there?

He’s a photographer in a war zone. That’s what they’re paid to do. If you are in a war zone over a period of months or a year, the odds favor you sooner or later being in the right place at the right time. But, yes, some source somewhere said the guy was “tipped off” to an event. That will be addressed later.

2) Why didn’t the photographer take off running? I mean, people were getting killed.

Why didn’t cameramen in New York City run when the Twin Towers came right down the street at them? See question one. Photographers aren’t paid to run, they’re paid to take photos. One of my best buddies spent thousands of dollars out of his own pocket to shoot photos in notoriously dangerous parts of Palestine.

News photographers share a small commonality with Soldiers and Marines — they are paid to be where the danger is. That’s what we do, and we understand the job is dangerous.

3) Why didn’t the terrorists kill the photographer?

Common sense, that’s why. They want the West and the Iraqi people to see these images. Intimidation by word of mouth doesn’t hold a candle to seeing photos of election workers being executed in broad daylight. The MSM has been the insurgency’s best friend, and aside from an incident here and there, most terrorists realize that greasing journalists, who tend to cast U.S. forces in a bad light, would be counterproductive.

4) But aren’t the terrorists afraid of being identified in a photo, and therefore being hunted down and killed?

If terrorists were afraid of notoriety and death, would we be at war right now? I mean, c’mon.

5) Isn’t it despicable for a news photographer to allegedly be “tipped off” by terrorists?

That depends solely on what the photographer was told. Being told of “a demonstration” is one thing — journalistic code be damned, you can’t knowingly be a party to murder. But there is no proof that the photographer was told that people would be shot and killed.

We at Rathergate have damned the media repeatedly during Memogate and the Washington Post’s coverage of the bogus “talking points memo” for the same attitude being displayed in the blogosphere today. It is not up to the GOP to prove themselves innocent of MSM charges, it’s the MSM’s job to prove the GOP guilty with solid evidence.

The same principle applies here — it is not up to the photographer or the Associated Press to prove him ethical when presented with rumor. Without talking to the photographer or getting a tape of the phone call, we will never know what happened.

Don’t get me wrong — the media has done a terrible job of balanced news coverage from Iraq. The MSM wants to be the voice of oppposition, hence why coalition accomplishments are not news and every little incident where a grunt gets hurt is front-page news. And I oppose the AP’s argument that terrorists want their side of the story told. Would journalists do that for a concentration camp commandant or Hussein thugs shooting Shi’ite women and children outside of town? Heck no.

But the allegations flowing over this picture cannot be proven. It’s not like these Web sites to go off half-cocked with such limited information. The MSM are the experts at rumor, speculation and innuendo — let’s not follow their example.

Besides, it’s not a particularly spectacular picture anyway. It likely got the Pulitzer because it reinforces the MSM’s agenda. Or given the arbitrary method with which Pulitzers are chosen, maybe it was drawn out of a hat.

If you’re hunting for a Pulitzer Prize to get mad about, Walter Duranty always does it for me.

UPDATE: Paul at Wizbang, a former news photographer, seems to be on the same frequency I am.