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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2008-03-01

Not Just The "Professionals" Who Are Dangerous 

Prince Harry has been serving on the front line in Afghanistan with the British Army, calling in airstrikes on Taliban positions and going out on foot patrols, the Ministry of Defense announced today. . . .

"The planned deployment had been disclosed to reporters, with no specific date, and was not reported previously under a pool agreement between the Ministry of Defense and all major news organizations operating in Britain, including The Associated Press. The news blackout was intended to reduce the risk to the prince and his regiment.

The news embargo was broken, however, after reports of the prince's deployment were leaked by an Australian magazine and a German newspaper, and then reported on a U.S. Web site, the Drudge Report.

One wonders which was the camel that broke the prince's back: the magazines or Drudge. In either event, this good and honorable service was cut short by irresponsible SELF-service by various media.

The good news, I suppose, was that the notoriously tabloid British "professional" journalists managed to kep the secret safe for ten weeks, which, presumaby, means at least a few of their American colleagues also kept it secret.

It's just sad that the others couldn't. What does it say for those of us who have been highly critical of the American "professionals" that Drudge couldn't even keep a secret that they had? The magazines we have no control over, but conservatives who value military service should repudiate Drudge for running this story. Sure, it had already broken--but one of the favorite "news" sources for conservatives should recognize that he DOES NOT have to be a party to operational leaks.

And, by extension, we out here in the 'sphere DO NOT have to be a party to such actions, either.
Posted by: Michael / 3/01/2008 07:36:00 AM

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