The Press have assumed that taking up station on a crag of omniscience, from which they can hurl thunderbolts of denunciation onto whomever they like, is equivalent to Olympian detachment from the situation. In the hypothetical quoted, their ideal is that they should be able to "report" the activity of the terrorist cell, thereby titillating their audience and selling lots of soap, without repercussions from either side.
But Olympian detachment didn't work for the original Olympians, and it sure as Hell isn't going to work for human beings with delusions of grandeur. If they don't choose a side and stick to it, they'll either be assigned one or assumed to be the enemy by all other contenders.
True. Then there's this one:
Do you hear that, Walter Cronkite?