Did Jon Snow go too far last night?

The media storm is upon us as news of Prince Harry become global frontpage news. Everyone knows that it was broken by Matt Drudge and the Drudge Report, but for those who saw Jon Snow on Channel 4 News last night the presenter ranted in full disgusted of Hampstead mode about the media blackout.

"I never thought I'd find myself saying thank God for Drudge. The infamous US blogger has broken the best kept editorial secret of recent times. Editors have been sworn to secrecy over Prince Harry being sent to fight in Afghanistan three months ago.

"Drudge has blown their cover. One wonders whether viewers, readers and listeners will ever want to trust media bosses again. Or perhaps this was a courageous editorial decision to protect this fine young man?"

C4 today has since received a number of complaints critical of the news reader. Did he go too far?

I agree with Gordon. The publishing of the location of a young man/soldier, whoever he may be, is hardly of great public interest; it does not affect the general public in any way other than giving them something to gossip about.

Therefore, in this instant it would have just been stupid and irresponsible to unduly circulate that information into the public domain and essentially the hands of a terrorist organisation.

Wasn't The Palace just a little bit naive to think that this blackout could or would be kept?

Prince Harry is not a secret weapon that is going to win the war for good ole Blighty and I just don't see why censorship should be used in this case. He's just a young man who wants to be a soldier - I do feel sorry for him but he comes from an extremely privileged background - and there may well be many "normal" things that he wants to do but unfortunately can't. But guess what? There are many things that "Normal" people would like to do but can't.

I'd like to live in a house that I own, not have to worry about my credit card bill and drive a nice car but ho hum cest la vie – life is not fair and so I just get on with it. I'm sure Harry will find a way to cheer himself up too.

Good to see Harry doing something other than falling over drunk outside Mahiki.

But Prince Harry's deployment in Afghanistan would pose a needless risk to his fellow soldiers - and now it has deemed to have been as he's being pulled out. I support the fact he went, and it shows his "sitting on my arse" comment last year (?) wasn't just hot air.

Is there not something just mildly contradictorary about Jon Snow's stance though? I mean, as a veteran broadcaster at a major news organisation, I find it hard to swallow that he didn't know about the deployment back in December along with every other national newspaper editor etc.

Of course Jon Snow, former asssistant to Lord Longford, went too far and he probably knows it. Jon's whole ethos is to be the bad boy of ITN ( the providers of Channel 4 News). You have to admit that as long as I've known him ( and we go right back to his early days as a newbie reporter at LBC) Jon has to his credit largely shaped the output of channel 4 news and the moguls have let him have his head as in reality the contract is just a dog and pony show in worldwide TV news programming. I mean this kindly, he had a lucky break at the Balcombe Street siege and that paved his way for entry to TV.   If he didnt know about the d notice, then it speaks volumes about his standing at channel 4 - are they keeping him at arms length? He must have known about it. It was common knowledge in El Vinos in Fleet Street, during January .... but then what do i know!

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Seems clear to me that there are much more important things than the freedom to report a story.   Should we have reported on Harry's stint even if it threatened operations in Afghanistan?  Of course not.  Was it a good idea to have a Prince, with all the possible complications this could raise, in a war zone?  Or is that a bit of an indulgence?  Maybe.  And Jon Snow's rant?  Please can we go back to the days when journalists reported stories about events in the outside world, rather than about each other?  "Will readers ever trust media bosses again?" you ask - without a trace of irony.

A blatent publicity stunt. Talk about whether Jon Snow knew and if he feels so strongly about the issue then why didn't he break the story misses the point. I'm sure he did know and its clear he was uncomfortable in going along with the press blackout but had to. What Snow is getting at and is right to highlight is the uncomfortably close relationship which has developed between the British media and the government (which has happened since New Labour got into power). A free, impartial and independent fourth state is important for democracy. It's clear our media has been cosying up to the government for many years now. This is yet another example. 

Also - if Drudge is so good why did he fail to spot the story on Popbitch in SEPTEMBER (!!) hinting at Harry's tour of duty and a magazine in Australia ran the story in January. Hardly an exclusive.

Snow was absolutely right to have a rant. The real issue here is that in this case media owners overtly supported the British national interest by going out of their way not to report this story. It's up to people to have an issue with that or not but it's difficult to call these media outlets non-biased and independent when they obey these types of orders.

"What Snow is getting at and is right to highlight is the uncomfortably close relationship which has developed between the British media and the government (which has happened since New Labour got into power)."

It's been going on much, much longer than that...

I support Snow 1000%.  The media regularly trot out the public interest justification for some pretty horrible stories about unfortunate things that have happened to famous people (Gazza most recently) to create the impression that they don't decide what is news, they just report it.  However in this case they clearly think they can decide what is and isn't news. 

There was obviousy public interest - why should we trust the media anymore?