For those who don’t know, an embargo on a news story essentially means that respectable news outlets have jointly agreed not to tell a story, or to not tell a story until some future date. It’s the reason that journalists can tell you what the President will say at a speech a day before he says it. It’s also the reason you never see that President Bush went to Iraq until after he has already left. News people know he’s there, but they’ve agreed not to tell anyone else. Why? Because it could get someone killed. Maybe the president, maybe someone protecting the president.
It’s also the reason that no news outlet has told you that Britain’s Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan. There was a fake story run out by the British Defence Ministry that he was training in Canada. Truth is, Harry had been in Afghanistan for months. A lot of journalists knew. I knew. But no one had leaked the information because it would paint a big target on Harry’s back for every Taliban fighter in Afghanistan to take aim. Until today.
Today, The Drudge Report broke the embargo. That was despicable. What followed was worse. Once the embargo was broken by Drudge, major news outlets fell over themselves trying to get the story on-air. Not because it was important for anyone to know. Not because it held significance of any sort. But because they were afraid other places would run the story first. It was one of the most morally bankrupt decisions I’ve witnessed in a decade of journalism.
No one needs to know Harry is in Afghanistan. No one cares when any other soldier is deployed. Why do they need to know when Harry is? There was absolutely no legitimate news value that urged the embargo to be broken. Some news outlets even included the name of the base in Afghanistan where Harry is stationed. The only thing accomplished today was a minor bump in ratings for an hour or so at the cost of endangering the lives of British soldiers in Afghanistan.
The Taliban probably won’t kill Prince Harry, but I bet they will launch an attack that they otherwise may not have. In that attack, some British soldier will be injured or killed. That blood will be on the hands of the media. I hope they have the guts to claim credit for that.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
you knew he was there and it never came up in conversation??? like i tell you the inner workings of what im having for dinner, and you knowing that the reported where abouts Harry were false. You never thought i would be interested to know this? I read gossip sites like all the time and you thought inner industry knowledge would not make me have a better life. Wrong, just plain wrong.