When word leaked out of President Obama's visit to Afghanistan, quite rightly, the White House scrambled to squash the rumor before AF1 was on the ground (purportedly, it is at its most vulnerable during low-level flight...such as to land or take off). Several sites were contacted to remove links / delete tweets, etc., and (again) quite rightly, most understood the danger that such could pose, and quickly complied. That is, with the exception of The Drudge Report, who kept their link up for several hours after most others had been removed, but in their defense, I never read where they were actually asked to remove it. While ordinarily an all-around non-story, two comments did emerge which I found amusing: 1. In Tommy Vietor's (spokesperson for the National Security Council) own words, to the Editor of Buzzfeed, this gem, "Asked about The Drudge Report's decision to keep swapping links, Vietor replied, "There is nothing you can do about Drudge." Obviously, one would hope that they would yield to matters of safety and security of the POTUS, et al, and remove it - what does it say that they either were never even asked (i.e. no sense in even asking) or that they were, and refused (i.e. didn't care about the risk they were helping to create for AF1 / POTUS)? Has political discourse actually devolved to this? 2. I just found this humorous: In hopes of better explaining their reasoning for the temporary removal of the story from their site after being requested to do so (ostensibly, by the NSC), however (seemingly) begrudgingly, they wrote to their readers: "The White House informed the Post today the report on its website that President Obama was in Kabul was not accurate and that, in publishing it, the paper was endangering the President’s life. With due respect to the White House and out of an abundance of caution, the Post removed the story from its website. We are impressed the White House believes the Taliban, while hiding in caves and dodging American drones, are, like millions of others, avid readers of nypost.com." Here's a link to the whole torrid affair, for those interested: How The White House Smothered The News Of Obama's Trip To Afghanistan
He isn't there and reporting he is endangers his life. Brilliant, White House. You think of that yourselves?
My first thought, as well. Perhaps Drudge deserves commendation for throwing the Taliban off his trail.
