Check out the recent comments of the Poynter Institute’s Bob Steele:
But even if one accepts that news reports might heighten a danger, there are other logical challenges to this secrecy about Harry the soldier. To the best of my knowledge, there was no compelling reason for Prince Harry to go to Afghanistan as an army officer. There was nothing essential that he, personally, brought to the battlefield. He had no specific duty or skill that was irreplaceable. Praise him, if you will, for his spirit or his patriotism. But it’s certainly not justification for the risks taken or the journalistic principles sacrificed.
On the one hand the left (and, yes, I’m assuming Steele is a lefty; someone prove me wrong) criticizes the children of the powerful for shunning military service (the Bush twins, Mitt Romney’s sons), and on the other they criticize them for wanting to serve.
Keep in mind, the Poynter Institute trains journalists, and Steele’s title is Scholar for Journalistic Values. Says it all.
