Obviously Prince Harry is a man (man! wow – I feel old) who honestly wants to be in the military. He honestly wants to feel like he’s contributing to his country’s army as opposed to just having the title but not actually doing anything. He and his superiors obviously worked VERY hard to allow Harry to go into battle without threatening his safety due to publicity around his deployment.
It worked for ten weeks. During those ten weeks, I can’t help but think that Harry was having a ball in Afghanistan – doing the very thing he’s been training all these years to do. I imagine he was extremely ticked off when he found out that news of his location was leaked in the press. Despite all that hard work, Matt Drudge, an online tabloid journalist, decided to break the story, effectively putting Harry and his men in danger while the British military scrambled to get him out of there for fear of terrorists coming out of the woodwork to kill him.
Back in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt lived in a wheelchair. And yet hardly anyone in the country knew, because the press was asked NOT to photograph him in the chair. And the press abided by that request. As a result, FDR was a highly respected politician without the specter of being known as “the one who can’t walk” and thus be seen as weak not only physically but as a President. Pity that the press nowadays refuses to do the same thing, under the guise of “freedom of the press.” It’s a pity that today’s press (and by this I mean Drudge in particular) wouldn’t allow this young British man serve his country – something he’s wanted to do for years.
Uh, hate to rain on the parade, but according to that far right wing newspaper The Washington Post:
“The story was leaked by an Australian magazine and a German newspaper. “
No rain here, since the “Independent” newspaper in Britain had this to say in an article on the situation:
“It is thought the source for the Drudge Report article was a story printed last month in an Australian women’s magazine, New Idea.”
So, why pick on Drudge? The story was broken already, posted on two websites in Australian and Germany. If you want to attack someone, attack the guilty. Your OP said, falsely, “Despite all that hard work, Matt Drudge, an online tabloid journalist, decided to break the story…” Before you rant about class, get the facts straight.
In Australia is was written about in a women’s magazine. I don’t think many Al Quaida or Taliban operatives will be reading that. That’s how it was able to go relatively undetected for over a month. But it was Drudge’s reporting on it that blew it wide open into the spectacle it became. And I’m sure if he had contacted British authorities they would have asked him NOT to publish anything in order to ensure Harry’s (and his fellow soldiers’) relative safety from being specifically targeted. And if he did contact them to verify the facts, and DID ignore any request they might have made, then I think it’s okay to pick on Drudge. Regardless of whether an Aussie women’s magazine truly “broke” the story first.
I’m comfortable in my rant against Drudge.
I agree with you Jaynee. It’s one thing that Drudge broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal, there were no lives in danger. Even though Harry’s back in the UK, he’s still in danger from home-grown terrorists who know now that he was actively fighting in Afghanistan.
cristan’s last blog post..I’m back!
If people weren’t so hard pressed to know what celebrities were doing every waking hour, then the Press wouldn’t report on it and the News could start being “THE NEWS” again.
We as people created the monster and let it out of its cage, and we can’t seem to get it back in.