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OMFG! EXCLUSIVE!!: New Idea blows Prince Harry's cover while Matt Drudge claims the exclusive and compounds the error

By now you're all aware that Prince Harry has been fighting in Afghanistan (gunning down other human beings in much the same way that most normal people do) and that there was an agreement for it not be reported by the media. You are probably also aware that the carrot that was dangled to ensure the integrity of the embargo was an appeal to media owners and editors not to complicate military operations by needlessly endangering Harry's life and those of his fellow soldiers a steady feed of photos and interviews that they would be allowed to use at a later date.

This morning, there is an undignified rush to use that material in almost every newspaper. Classy.

The Independent, by contrast, uses a single image on page 3 alongside this article:

Independent - Prince's cover in Afghanistan blown by Drudge Report: An American website, the Drudge Report, broke a news blackout yesterday by revealing that Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan for more than two months. To the fury of the Ministry of Defence and condemnation from the head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the website announced a "world exclusive" and proclaimed: "They're calling him 'Harry the Hero!"... It is thought the source for the Drudge Report article was a story printed last month in an Australian women's magazine, New Idea.

Back-pats to the Indy for this, and for not falsely describing Drudge as a 'blogger'.

Brick-bats to New Idea and Matt Drudge... oh, and well-known Drudge-wannabe Paul Staines*.

What Drudge did was take something that had been previously reported by regional ragsters who claimed to be unaware of the embargo, and used that to knowingly break the embargo... while screaming 'EXCLUSIVE'.

And now the eyes of the world are upon him, Matt Drudge is getting greedy. Below is the article published by Drudge yesterday. The text in bold is the paragraph that he has since deleted:

PRINCE HARRY FIGHTS ON FRONTLINES IN AFGHANISTAN; 3 MONTH TOUR
Thu Feb 28 2008 11:37:52 ET

They're calling him "Harry the Hero!"

British Royal Prince Harry has been fighting in Afghanistan since late December--and has been directly involved in battle.

Australian magazine NEW IDEA and the German daily BILD have broken world embargoes on the development. CNN has debated internally on the merits of reporting Harry at war.

The prince, a junior officer in the Blues and Royals, and third in line to the throne, has been a "magnificent soldier" and an "inspiration to all of Briton."

Prince Harry is talking part in a new offensive against the Taliban.

Ministry of Defense and Clarence House refuse all comment. Army chiefs have managed to keep the prince away from media and have encourage fellow soldiers in his squadron to stay quiet.

Developing...

Not that the people at New Idea have any complaints; they themselves are busy rewriting history today.... and here's why:

The Australian - New Idea, no idea of Harry embargo: New Idea had no idea it was breaking an embargo when it revealed on its website that Prince Harry was fighting in Afghanistan. The weekly magazine has been criticised by a British army chief for leaking the news of the young royal's frontline deployment, which was subject to a strict media blackout. A German newspaper and then US website the Drudge report picked up the story this week. With the ban broken, the story has received intensive coverage in Britain and around the world. The story was published on New Idea's website on January 7, said editor-in-chief Robyn Foyster.

SMH - No idea: New Idea in the dark about Harry blackout: An Australian women's magazine has denied deliberately breaching a media news blackout about Prince Harry's deployment to Afghanistan. New Idea is at the centre of a storm in Britain, accused of leaking the news the 23-year-old prince is fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and potentially putting his life in danger. The magazine published a story about Harry's secret tour of duty on its website in January in an apparent breach of a strict media blackout on the story. It appears few noticed the story. It was only after US website the Drudge Report picked up the story and broadcast it around the world, after a German newspaper ran a piece yesterday, that the storm blew up.

[Psst! "Woman's magazine" is putting it kindly; New Idea (nicknamed 'No Idea' long before this debacle) is a trashy supermarket tabloid.]

Now, while everyone else is revelling in their ability to use material that was previously embargoed until April, New Idea has decided to 'disappear' the items in question. If you visit either of these URLs, the original teaser and article will not appear; instead, on both pages, you'll get a bog-standard bio of Prince Harry (that's been put together so hurriedly that the picture fails to load)...
http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/b/new-idea/8771/prince-harry-goes-to-war-in-afghanistan/
http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/b/new-idea/9210/prince-harry-war-lord/

So now, +++ EXCLUSIVELY +++ at Bloggerheads (via the cached pages stored by Google and Live Search), I present the two original items in full:

NEW IDEA: Prince Harry Goes to War in Afghanistan
Originally published by New Idea on Jan 07 at 04:33pm EDT at:
http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/b/new-idea/8771/prince-harry-goes-to-war-in-afghanistan/

Prince Harry has joined his regiment on a covert mission to Afghanistan and his unit has already seen front line action.

Not seen in public since the middle of December, New Idea can exclusively reveal that despite opposition from senior members of the British government and the royal family itself, Harry now joins his uncle Prince Andrew as a royal who has been to war.

'At first there was a lot of resistance' said a friend 'but Harry threatened to resign his commission and serve as a private if he was kept from the battlefield - and that proved to be the final straw'.

Full details on this breaking story in this week's New Idea

No idea there was an embargo? What does the word 'covert' mean to these people?

Here's the article that followed that teaser a week later:

NEW IDEA: Prince Harry: War Lord
Originally published by New Idea on Jan 15 at 12:07pm EDT at:
http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/b/new-idea/8771/prince-harry-goes-to-war-in-afghanistan/

Maverick Prince Harry has joined his regiment on a covert mission to Afghanistan and his unit has already seen front line action.

New Idea can exclusively reveal that despite opposition from senior members of the British government and the royal family itself, Harry flew out with his regiment and joined the troops on the front line. He spent Christmas with his men at the sharp end of the action.

'Harry found members of his unit were to be posted in Afghanistan for a four-month tour of duty over Christmas and the New Year,' a close friend tells New Idea.

'He had already begrudgingly accepted the decision to keep him off the front line in Iraq, but when he heard about the mission in Afghanistan he was insistent he would not stay at home eating Christmas dinner and living it up at the palace while his men were on the front line.

'At first there was a lot of resistance, but Harry even threatened to resign his commission and serve as a private if he was kept from the battlefield - and that proved to be the final straw,' the friend says.

'He wants to be a real soldier who gets the same treatment as any other officer of his rank - and that means going to war just like everybody else.'

Prince Charles was said to be against the idea of Harry seeing active service, but sources say that with the support of his elder brother William, and uncle Prince Andrew, who flew helicopters during the Falklands war, Harry convinced Charles not to take action to prevent him from going.

The Queen is said to have sent Harry a card with her best wishes and a gift with sentimental value that he has kept private.

Before he left, Harry invited William and some of his close friends to a secret 'godspeed' party at Boujis nightclub in London.

Guests were under strict instruction that there was to be no mention of the real reason for the party and no toasts or public discussion of Harry's imminent departure.

The British government is said to strongly oppose Harry's deployment to Afghanistan. Their official reason is that his presence may put his fellow soldiers at risk, but defence commentators have been quick to suggest it may be more to do with their fear that Harry could be killed or injured fighting George Bush's 'war on terror'. This would doom Gordon Brown's Labour government in the next election.

But Harry has always been insistent that he wanted to see active duty and he hated the idea of being wrapped in cotton wool while his men put their lives on the line.

He famously said: 'There's no way I'm going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my a*** back home while my boys are out fighting for their country.'

For more Royal Watch, check out the latest issue of New Idea - on sale now!

Again, reading what has been published (and since 'disappeared'), one might get the impression that - even if New Idea didn't know of the embargo - they certainly should have noticed the alarm bells in their own damn article!

Which might be why that article and the teaser have been removed; New Idea's statement on the matter reads as follows:

"New Idea was not issued with a press embargo and was unaware of the existence of one... The story was published on Monday, January 7. Since then New Idea has received no comment from the British Ministry of Defence. We take these matters very seriously and would never knowingly break an embargo. We regret any issues the revelation of this story in America has caused today."

Scroll up and read the article again. Try to work out how it was planned for at least a week, researched, penned and published without anyone involved becoming aware of the merest possibility of a hint of an embargo.

And, if you're of the opinion that New Idea knowingly breached the embargo and find yourself wondering why, there's a subtle hint in the closing line of each item...

Full details on this breaking story in this week's New Idea

For more Royal Watch, check out the latest issue of New Idea - on sale now!

So now it's New Idea with a secret they'd rather the media didn't report.

Share at will.

[*Paul Staines happily ran with the outing and there are suggestions from anonymous readers (or from Staines himself; sometimes it's hard to tell) that Staines knew all about it, and even dropped hints. What a guy. He inspires me to drop hints myself from time to time because, as Staines notes here, if you dish it out...]

UPDATE - Hahahahahaha! Great input from Anorak.

UPDATE - Many comments under this ABC article. New Idea gets a repeated kicking.

UPDATE - Staines nearly trips over himself trying to get in on the action.

UPDATE - PM on Radio 4 this afternoon (from 5pm); "Tonight on the programme, we'll trace the origins of the story. " Top stuff.

UPDATE - That programme tracked the earliest press mention back to the ever-reliable News Of The World (on June 3, 2007 IIRC). Indigo Red has documented some of the reports that followed that, and it would appear that The Observer also carried an item on that same day. I don't have confirmation on this, but my gut is telling me that this early coverage (published long before Harry went to Afghanistan) is pre-embargo, and may even have triggered the embargo.

Posted by Manic on February 29, 2008 10:34 AM in the category Old Media

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