I suppose that must be an armchair general at work.

I think it shows the seriousness of the whole operation.  Let’s face it: NO one wants to command the killing of someone, even someone as evil as Osama Bin Laden.
Thanks be to God for brave men and women, both there and in the field.

Is it common for photographers to be in the situation room?

Strap hangers, armchair warriors and vicariously motivated ‘wann-a-bes’ should absolutely stay out and away from the tactical execution phase of military operations.

Their presence is unseemly, unnecessary and it endangers the lives of the tactical forces and the success of the mission.

I personally, had a man seriously wounded in a tactical situation just because of the pre-emptive interference of an administratively inclined officer, senior to me in the chain of command, who unnecessarily accompanied a tactical operation and then irrationally decided to exercise his highly indadequate tactical judgement and authority.

Possibly the first time that Mrs. Clinton watched a SEAL operation. 

#4, I could be wrong, but they WATCHED—by that point, they don’t get to comment or direct.

Reply to Bookworm (#4.).

Even passive “real-time” observation is an inhibiting and distracting interference with a special-operations tactical engagement of enemy forces.

Special-operations by their very nature are very high-risk and regardless of how well the operators are selected, trained, equipped and supported, any small distraction that can have a negative impact on the execution can have cascading and deadly serious consequences for the tactical operators.

To quote Shakespeare, “For the want of a nail, a shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe…..........., etc.”

Robert Lundy wrote: “Is it common for photographers to be in the situation room?”

Is it common for assassinations to be visually supervised from the other end of the globe?

Nowadays, yes.

The Washington Monthly had an interesting article on Obama’s leadership here.  I wonder how the Obama / Carter comparisons will stand up.

#6, thank you for the clarification.  I can only hope that anything going on in the Situation Room(comment, etc.) was minimal.  “Keep your mouth shut and let the professionals work” would be a good philosophy.  At any rate, the mission was successful, so thank God for that.