Washington ( CNN ) -- Hours before the official announcement that President Barack Obama had landed in Kabul , Afghanistan , for a surprise visit , the media -- both social and electronic -- were already buzzing with reports about the trip . Had he indeed landed in-country ? Was it just a rumor ? Should it be reported anyway ? Some , including those inside the administration , were actively concerned about the safety of the commander in chief as he arrived in a war zone , while others felt any word of the president 's visit was public information and fair game in today 's competitive , instant news cycle . Before the day began , the administration issued what was later revealed to be a fake presidential schedule , having the president and vice president in meetings throughout the day at the White House . Early Tuesday morning , an Afghan official told CNN that the palace staff in Kabul was instructed to go home at noon local time , 3:30 a.m . ET , sparking rumors of a VIP visit to the city . Then , shortly after 9 a.m . ET , Afghanistan-based 24-hour news channel TOLONEWS filed a Twitter post announcing the president 's supposed arrival in Afghanistan . ( The tweet has since been deleted from its feed . ) @ TOLOnews `` BREAKING : United States President Barack Obama has arrived in Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai . '' Minutes later , The Huffington Post 's Joshua Hersh retweeted @ TOLOnews with a question : . @ joshuahersh `` Is this right ? RT @ TOLOnews BREAKING : United States President Barack Obama has arrived in Kabul to meet Afghan president Hamid Karzai '' But , at 9:32 a.m , the U.S. Embassy in Kabul announced via Twitter : . @ USEmbassyKabul `` Reports that President Obama is in Kabul are false . '' That was enough to send the Twitterverse and traditional media buzzing . The New York Post posted a story on its website shortly after 10 a.m. reporting the president was in Afghanistan . `` Obama arrives in Afghanistan report says ; White House denies it , '' read the Post 's headline . The story was later removed from the paper 's website . `` Where is Obama , '' read a similar headline on The Drudge Report . Many of the publications that posted early reports on the president 's visit later pulled their stories . However , The Drudge Report kept its post up . Early reports often wrong . At the time , all those reports were wrong , or at least premature , according to the administration . The White House later reported Air Force One actually landed in Afghanistan at 2 p.m . ET . Yes , the president had indeed secretly traveled to Afghanistan , a trip loaded with symbolism on the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden 's killing . But virtually all of the major media organizations that were in a position to have known about the trip did not report it until it was officially announced around 3 p.m . ET . The trip took place in the wake of security questions raised last month following a scandal that erupted when several members of a Secret Service advance team in Cartagena , Colombia , solicited prostitutes before the president 's arrival at the Summit of the Americas . And in March , several news outlets , at the White House 's request , removed stories about daughter Malia Obama 's spring break trip to Mexico . But balancing news interests against security interests is nothing new for White House reporters . CNN 's John King , host of `` John King , USA , '' said he faced a similar challenge during a trip to Iraq with then-President George W. Bush as he visited newly minted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki . `` We were told we were not supposed to tell our family , '' King told CNN 's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday . `` We were supposed to tell one or two of our colleagues , meaning our bosses , and to keep it as secret as possible . '' A secret rendezvous in the dark of night . News organizations who were a part of the traveling press pool covering the president 's surprise Afghanistan visit -- a small group of reporters , producers and photojournalists designated to be the eyes and ears of the White House press corps during such clandestine trips -- were part of the secrecy and complied with the White House 's request to hold off on reporting the information until the president was safely in Kabul , according to White House pool reports . Hours earlier , reporters had secretly gathered at a remote parking area at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington , had all their electronic gear confiscated -- cell phones , laptops , cameras , `` anything that might have tracking software '' -- and were driven by bus to a darkened Air Force One waiting in the shadows on the tarmac . After an 11-hour flight , the media -- and the president -- found themselves in a steep descent into Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan , the official modified Boeing 747 still shrouded in darkness . On trips such as these , it is safest for the president to land and takeoff under cover of night . `` We landed at Bagram Airfield at 1020p local and got onto Chinook helicopters that were waiting with rotors spinning , '' reported pool producer Richard Coolidge of ABC News . `` The short flight to Kabul was also in blackout -- no use of any flashlights or even phones due to their backlit screens . Pilots and gunners used night vision goggles . '' Within hours , Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai had signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement , setting the framework for a U.S. military presence in the war-torn nation for the next decade . Then , Obama addressed cheering troops at Bagram , spoke to the nation in a live remote address and was wheels-up , safely clearing Afghan airspace . `` AF1 is blacked out as it was on arrival with shades down . But the increasing light limits the value of that precaution , '' reported the press pool . `` We are on AF1 and rolling 425a local 755 pm ET . '' Total time on the ground was six hours and five minutes . White House plugging holes . The early reports of the president 's Afghanistan trip sent White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor scurrying to douse the rumors . According to the website BuzzFeed , that outlet agreed to the White House request and pulled its report after Vietor called around 9:33 a.m . The New York Post followed suit , removing its story hours later . Vietor did not respond to CNN 's request for comment . `` It was n't that hard a call , '' BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith told CNN . `` There 's an appropriate tradition of deferring to White House and military requests to delay -- not spike -- a story when they believe people in a war zone could be in danger . '' `` And a plane in the air above Afghanistan , the situation , as we later learned , is a pretty clear case of that , '' Smith added . `` Vietor 's narrow denial also telegraphed the situation to media watchers paying close attention . '' But media experts acknowledge the press has to walk a fine line between the need to get the news out and the safety of the president . Journalists must often ask themselves the question `` what does the public need to know and when do they need to know it , '' said Al Tompkins , a senior faculty member at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies , a media training organization in St. Petersburg , Florida . Tompkins said that in the harried and hypercompetitive world of reporting via social media , outlets sometimes reason that a competitor 's scoop signals a green light to rush ahead with news . This is a dangerous precedent when national security is concerned , he said . `` No , you ca n't unring the bell , but you can stop ringing it , '' Tompkins said . Halimah Abdullah is a freelance writer based in Washington . CNN 's Tim McCaughan , Nick Paton Walsh and Bryan Monroe contributed to this report .
Early reports had Obama on the ground in Afghanistan before he actually was . Comment: Concerns about safety fueled White House efforts to squash early rumors on web , Twitter .