Prince Harry: Playboy or Soldier?
Friday, May 29, 2009
And I thought the US press corps was rude. Check this piece out in the Guardian, talking about Prince Harry. Lede:
Prince Harry arrives in New York today for a two-day rite of passage that will see him seek to dispel his playboy image and replace it with a patina of empathy in his mother's mould.
Not once does the writer of the piece, Ed Pilkington, mention that Prince Harry has already done a tour as a British soldier in Afghanistan, and acquitted himself well.
The scale of the PR challenge facing the 24-year-old prince, who has set foot in the US only once before, as a child, has been underlined by advance media coverage. The New York Daily News noted his "hard-partying ways", Time magazine highlighted his penchant for "long, alcohol-fueled nights" and the Associated Press reminded its subscribers of the apology he had to make for wearing a Nazi swastika at a fancy-dress party.