Responsible kidnapping reporting?

Safire asks if the media are serving their role responsibly or fueling a fire of hysteria vis-a-vis Iraqi kidnappings. It's a tough line to toe, but I tend to think that they are playing into the kidnappers' hands a bit naively. The last few days here in Ireland have had heavy coverage of kidnap victim Kenneth Bigley's family in Ireland, with the focus of the coverage as much his elderly mother's ailing health as the bigger picture of why he was in Iraq in the first place, the objectives of the kidnappers, the implications of his death or release, etc. The mood here now is almost that any American or Briton anywhere near Iraq is "asking for it", and while they don't necessarily deserve what they get, it should hardly come as a surprise. Hard to ignore the human interest side, but easy to overdo.