Thanks to that asshole Drudge, Prince Harry is being sent home early! (no regrets from Drudge)

[LynneSin]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/5583623.html

Royal debate on silence over Harry at war
Prince ordered home after news embargo on his deployment to Afghanistan is broken

By KIM MURPHY
Los Angeles Times

LONDON — In a news town that lives and dies by the scoop, this was one of the juiciest stories around: Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth's fun-loving, red-headed grandson, was going to war on the front lines of Afghanistan.

But wait, the Ministry of Defense said. Hold off on reporting it for a while — three months, to be exact — and you not only can have the story but the works: Interviews with the prince in his rough desert troop quarters; video of him peering at Taliban positions and handling a machine gun; thoughtful comments from him about how the queen gave him the news he was going to war and what it felt like to go without a royal shower for four days.

From the hallowed BBC to the raucous Sun, from the elitist and liberal Guardian to the conservative Telegraph, they agreed. Prince Harry would have his war in secret.

The almost unprecedented news blackout lasted 10 weeks.

But secrets, in the end, have a short shelf life in the news business. A hint of the news trickled out on a German Web site Wednesday, and by Thursday, it was all over the U.S.-based Web site Drudge Report.

"Prince Harry Fights on Frontlines in Afghanistan: 3 Month Tour," Drudge proclaimed, sending British editors flying to remake the next day's pages.

On Friday, the Ministry of Defense announced Harry was coming home — the flood of news that followed the breach of the embargo had compromised his safety and that of his fellow troops.

Following the huge splash of stories with a camouflage-clad Harry on nearly every front page, a new skirmish broke out. Should the media have agreed to keep quiet? Was the embargo an act of collective censorship in exchange for the right to print military propaganda at the end? Or, as the British public seemed to think, was the media that former Prime Minister Tony Blair famously described as "feral dogs" exercising a rare degree of responsible restraint?

How does Matt Druge feel about exposing a high profile person serving on the front lines in Afghanistan near enemy lines including terrorists that could use someone like the Prince from a high profile nation as fodder for terrorist activities?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/29/wdrudge229.xml

Matt Drudge expresses no regret for Prince Harry report
By Duncan Gardham
Last Updated: 2:19am GMT 01/03/2008


Matt Drudge does not do apologies and there was no sign today of any regret on his part for exposing the well-laid plans of the

On his website, the Drudge Report, the man the Telegraph's US editor has described as "the world's most powerful journalist" revelled in the controversy he provoked by breaking the news blackout on Prince Harry's deployment.

<<<<snip>>>>

Angry internet users have changed an entry on online encyclopaedia Wikipedia to describe the Drudge Report as an "irresponsible and ill-advised 'news' website that has seen fit to put the lives of many soldiers at risk by publishing reports of Prince Harry's deployment in Afghanistan".

BTW, when I went to his website I saw that Toyota was featuring an add on his page for one of their cars. That pissed me off because I have a Toyota and honestly, I feel like boycotting them an anyone who sponsers Drudge. I realize this is an asshole whose 15 minutes died out a decade ago, but this little bone-headed move could have jeopardized not only an extremely high-profile person but those who were serving with him in his regiment. What if that was Jenna Bush (stop laughing) serving in Afghanistan and DailyKos or RawStory exposed her deployment. Hell there would be massive outcries across the country (probably a white house investigation). But I suppose since it's a Prince who is doing this it doesn't matter - go ahead and expose him and risk even more danger that what he is facing today.

[Historic NY]

1. Drudge is an asshole.............

he would have liked it better if his gossip column got him killed. I hope the English press screws him.

[ben_meyers]

18. The sure are ripping him a new one.

Matt Drudge: world's most powerful journalist

Drudge is still an outsider, contemptuous of the cosy relationships and closed-door deals that keep the ordinary person from being privy to the secrets of the Establishment. He is the reason why people across the globe are now reading about Prince Harry serving in Afghanistan after he shattered a blackout agreed between Fleet Street and Buckingham Palace.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/28/wdrudge128.xml

[Historic NY]

22. Most powerful jackass- is nothing more that a gossip.........

its bad enough that Harry was there but to single him out for what his own personal glory to get a scoop. The telemarketer mentality of Drudge shows through.

[Imagevision]

2. Harry's wartime pic's look like they used Universal studio's...?

[splat]

3. The Royal loophole: Had enough? Leak your location and you're gone

[napi21]

4. The people who USED TO BE our friends from England must really hate us now!

First they didn't want to send troops to Iraq but Shrub's poodle sent them anyway; then their security forces were monitoring a group of potential terrorists who were still in the "planning stages" of a possible attack when Shrub forced them to out their identities BEFORE they had any proof of a crime, and all for political purposes; and now one of OUR loudmouths spilled the beans on the secret deployment of Prince Harry, forcing him to return home! Boy, we really are working our way to the top of the "Most Hated" list, aren't we?

[EFerrari]

14. Well, Drudge better forget about being knighted now. n/t

[Junkdrawer]

5. Say..you don't suppose this was to boost recruitment and retention?

:shrug:

[CJCRANE]

6. Maybe Drudge is just a useful stooge.

It's the transatlantic echo chamber effect.

To add to plausible deniability sometimes a story meant to affect the US is leaked in the UK (e.g. the "liquid bomb" plot)
and vice versa (of which this story maybe an example).

[0007]

7. An asshole is part of a human being. Drudge is far from the

human race. Drudge is a pig fucker that shits on the human race.

[Imagevision]

8. Drudge is no ass-hole, he's a tool, who dropped the Harry dime to Drudge?

[soothsayer]

9. yep! drudge is no reporter, just a news consolidator

[MethuenProgressive]

10. Drudge is a hero here on DU

DU's Obama supporters worship him.

[KamaAina]

19. Huh?

Counterexample: I'm a DU Obama supporter, and I think Drudge is gutter slime. Where on Earth is this coming from? :wtf:

[tanyev]

11. Can we send Drudge over there to take his place?

I doubt that he'd be able to do much of anything useful, but we certainly don't need him here.

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. Drudge - even the name sounds sleazy

Rightfully so. That irresponsible jerk should be charged with endangering Prince Harry's life.

[cloudythescribbler]

13. Why no attention to the INITIAL leak -- from which public source Drudge got his info? ...

I have heard conflicting reports, but nothing specific. This post says:


" A hint of the news trickled out on a German Web site Wednesday ..."

while elsewhere I read that it was an 'obscure Australian publication' (also unspecified)

Obviously ONCE something is out in the public domain on the web, and there is UNDERGROUND PARMESAN (the crucial variable), then it is INEVITABLE that this item will be picked up by SOME Drudge-like scavenger, as both accurate and inaccurate info is routinely picked up and publicized on the web.

My feeling about Drudge -- he is an asshole REGARDLESS of this particular event, which doesn't improve my view of him any; after all, it wasn't his own ass that he was putting in peril, nor did he care whether what he was doing was even fair or necessary; it was in essence, the same breed of commercialism that underlay the press criminally chasing after Princess Di in Paris.

[ben_meyers]

15. Oh please, save the outrage,

The British press agreed to an embargo in return for an exclusive story. Look at the photos and video now available about the "Hero Prince", he looks to have had more press following him than if the Pope had gone to Afghanistan.

Now the British have their undies in a knot because someone beat them to the release. Not that the "Royals" would be above a little publicity.

[L. Coyote]

16. This is a real issue LOL PLUS, why beleve them this time?

[KG]

17. one wonders: was the prince there to do some fighting or what?

[mondo joe]

20. The pigs had no problem with exposing a covert CIA operative - this is nothing

to them.

[UTUSN]

21. PUDGE has always had a crush on William, at least. He wants to follow

in Wallis SIMPSON's footsteps (notice my restraint). This now probably extends to Harry, whom he wouldn't want damaged or killed.