It's usually not a good thing when a newspaper reporter becomes part of the news, but that's what happened to Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald this summer.

A University of Massachusetts graduate and former freelancer in the Middle East, Rosenberg was hired by the Herald to cover the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. She quickly and aggressively made the beat her own, cranking out a steady stream of stories -- many pointing out flaws in the U.S. treatment of Arab prisoners.

Nevertheless, Rosenberg was continually frustrated by the lack of access given reporters by the Guantanamo authorities and often clashed with Cmd. Jeffrey D. Gordon, the Navy officer who handled public relations.

The bad blood between the two apparently escalated beyond the usual reporter/source conflict in late spring, when Gordon wrote Miami Herald editor Anders Gyllenhal to complain about what he called "sexual harassment" on the part of Rosenberg. When things didn't improve, he filed a formal complaint against the reporter.

According to Gordon, Rosenberg frequently made him the butt of sexual insults and questioned his sexual preference in public. Among other things, Gordon said, she accused of being "hot for" his male assistant.

The story was referred to by several news sources as a "man bites dog" role reversal -- a Navy man being sexually abused by a female reporter.

"Obviously, we're going to try and sort it all out," said Gyllenhal, suddenly on the receiving end of reporters' questions.

In the meantime, Rosenberg remained on the job, and Gordon filed a second complaint.

"Sadly," he wrote in another letter to Gyllenhal, "the unwanted comments of a sexual nature are just a fraction of the harassment that Carol Rosenberg has hurled at me and some of my colleagues."