Seems like Prince Harry of Wales is tooling up for another combat tour.
We know this, because the UK Daily Mail thought this was news-worthy enough to feature prominently in their on-line edition.
You know, someone needs to explain to me why this kind of journalistic irresponsibility doesn’t result in big game tags being issued for the reporter in question, and the newspaper senior staff in general.
Now, I may be viewing the past through Ye Olde Rose-Coloured Glasses, but I seem to remember that in Days Past the news media had the common decency to sit on this kind of story until after the bodies had quit bouncing, the bullets had stopped banging and the Good Guys were back home and on their second beer.
Is anything so newsworthy that it justifies putting a 24-year-old and his troopies in further and greater danger? Does the word “Ethics” mean anything to these people?
*sigh*
You know, much as I have a gut-level distrust for the Code Duello, the lack of decency, common sense and courtesy being displayed in these Modern Times can’t help but make me wonder if reinstituting the duel may just be one of those lesser evils that folks keep saying we need to accept.
LawDog
This seems to go along with the British philosophy of letting the bad guys off scott free while putting the screws to the good guys. As for ethics, I don’t believe they’ve existed in journalism since reporters began embedding. They’ve been doing live reports on troop movements and bank robberies ever since.
Is anything so newsworthy that it justifies putting a 24-year-old and his troopies in further and greater danger? Does the word “Ethics” mean anything to these people?
There’s nothing “newsworthy”, LawDog. You’re asking the wrong question.
These people don’t have ethics because they’re after the one thing that causes people to disregard them immediately: money.
The entire point of “being the first to report a story” and any other similar behavior is caused by the desire to garner higher ratings. Higher ratings means higher advertising rates to charge companies which equals more money.
No, they don’t care. Just like the idiots on Wall Street who froze all of the assets on the market until the bailout passed, so they could make sure that they would be paid inflated bailout prices by Uncle Sam.
I SO do not understand ANY of the ‘live’ reporting.
As a military mom, I got lectures on OPSEC starting with the first time I met my son’s recruiter! I’m sure that Lt. Wales’ mom feels the same way CPL D’s mom feels….
My son serves honorably, so don’t paint a target on him!
In the past I’ve heard calls for the lawyers to be the first to go when the revolution comes. I hereby and forthwith suggest a modification to that call:
On that great and terrible day whence cometh the revolution, the MSM should be used as the weights dropped to be sure of the stoutness of the rope reserved for the lawyers.
What do you expect from a sorry gaggle of pouges such as the Daily Mail?
I too think that the reinstatement of the Code Duello would be a blessing to society in the long run!
IF, and it’s a damn big if, dueling would work the way the stories would have us believe it worked, I would be with you. Unhappily, dueling as practiced in Europe, in Britain, and in the U.S. was a lot closer to the kind of thuggery that goes on between street gangs.
*sigh*
I believe the same is also true of Japan, but I don’t know as much about it.
The Coda Duello is a dangerous thing. I also think it should be reinstated. Manners, consideration and most importantly, skill at arms would again return to the minds of every law abiding person.
I have found that since I have been trained to kill people, I am much more considerate and concious of what I say and do. Believe it or not, those trained to make war are often the most peaceful.
Regards.
LD, this is common regardless of where it occurs… The almighty dollar, pound, euro or whatever drives it, not decency, security or anything else… CNN and Fox have both “broken” stories about intel capabilities that were currently in use and have set us back considerably.
As far as I’m concerned, that is treason, and they should be tried as such.
I’ve often thought that dueling should be allowed to return. Just as one commenter has posted already, being trained to kill somehow makes a person more peaceful and less inclined to cause trouble. If a person might be required to lay his life on the line for a decision he has made he might be a bit more cautious in the reasonaing used to reach that decision.
Dueling isn’t gone. It’s just gone underground. They still occur, when you can find someone with enough cojones and honor to follow through.
As to Journalists? They have no honor. They wouldn’t even show.
They don’t care about anything except destroying the society they supposedly ‘serve’ – it’s not about the money, it’s about what they believe is ‘right’. Essentially, they’re a bunch of parasites.
The comical thing is that were we to have the society they are trying so very, very hard to bring about, they’d be the first ones against the wall. Which is likely to occur here in the next few years, actually.
The world would be a better place if newspapers were not allowed to become larger than a small staff and a local distribution.
Orion
The MSM is not an “ally” of the the Democrats or Labor party. They are those parties. They loose influence only as the populace moves away from the leftist ideologies. A reporter is an enemy not only of the Right but of whatever country he resides in. They aren’t worth dueling. They have no honor. They can only be unemployed and forced to work for a living, a fate worse than death for the majority of them.
I wasn't aware that weasel was big game, I think all you'd need is a small game license, they may issue special tags for them though. Better go check my proclamation. Of course I would have to hunt w/a bow & arrow maybe since I can't own a gun in not so Great Brittain.
This is how you know all the clap-trap about “We support the troops but not the war,” is a lie. They love to write about body counts and if they can get them kick started, well the “ends justify the means.”
No, xiphos, it goes under the heading of “The Public Has A Right To Know.”
That’s the credo all journalists fall back on when criticism gets too hot.
And I’ll say this: back when we went into Somalia, had I been a soldier and been met with floodlights and cameras when I landed on the beach, there would have been two very dead people, and not Somali rebels.
I say, if the public has a right to know, by the same token, citizen/soldier has a right to protect his life. Period.
Everyone needs to stop tip-toeing around the media. They have become too powerful and influential with the public mass, and someone should thumb a nose at them. I mean, what are they going to do? Destroy you with words? Better than a Taliban bullet, I should think.
LawMom
“Does the word “Ethics” mean anything to these people?”
I’m not sure that word should be used regarding journalists.
I think the whor…er, reporter who first broke the story should be rewarded by being forcibly embedded with the unit that was so endangered. If the unit is ambushed, then that reporter gets to see the effects of his or her irresponsibility up close and personal. A year of living the reward for his big mouth should teach, if not patriotism, at least some discretion.
A few years ago, I had the *ahem* privilege of discussing the professional ethics of a situation like this with a journalist.
I didn’t really understand what “sophistry” meant until that day.
I spent many years as a journalist. But the nausea caused by the actions of my ‘colleagues’ finally got to me.
LawMom
Why did they run the story? Quite simply; the media loves their heroes, as long as they are dead. Live heroes can’t be clucked over as an example of why war is bad and evil. A dead hero, no matter the actions that made them a hero, are ALWAYS an example of the horrors and sheer wrongness of ANY war.
Quite simply, they’re hoping he dies.
…is ALWAYS…
Sorry for the grammar error.
Action is. Actions are.
Right the first time.
However, “a dead hero” is singular. Therefore, “made THEM a hero” is incorrect.
How’s that for being pedantic?
Anon,
The third person plural is handy when referring to someone of undefined gender. Nowadays, the dead hero could well be of the (un)fair sex.
Whatever makes better sense is often used, cyberludite. But, going with the rules of proper grammar, ‘them’ is incorrect, ‘him’ is considered universal for both sexes in this case.
The gender thing has gone beyond the point of silliness-as has the racist thing, etc. ad infinitum
As with other things, if you don’t like the rules, don’t break them, change them.