To wonder why Prince Harry got annoyed with Sky News reporter?

[elprup]

It seems very out of character for Harry? I wonder if he misinterpreted and thought she was asking about the lawsuit...

twitter.com/TheRoyalExpert/status/1179155649898467329

Wow, the press have hidden how entitled and condescending he is and now they won't collude with that, why would they.

He was an idiot going to battle with the press.

The press play balance of scales in that they will attack one branch of the family whilst venerating another. They were trying to infer stuff about William earlier this year, then they set about Harry so William has to be absolutely wonderful. They do this with Hollywood type stars, up and down at their whim, if an A list actor lets say are in favour with them, they could walk naked down Oxford Street, snorting coke while watching porn on their phone and they would either bury it or spin it favourably. Rupert Murdoch would buy the pictures and stash them for a rainy day.

PuzzledandPissedOff it obviously suits them to have a system of financing that barely anyone understands and therefore struggles to scrutinise

Ain't that the truth - and no doubt their exemption from the Freedom of Information Act helps no end

Well, yes. Its absolutely ludicrous in the year 2019 to have this family and their hangers-on supported at public expense and not properly audited. Everything else has to be transparent, unbiased, avoid conflicts of interest and so on but the royals are exempt from all of that.

The one thing we do have in the UK's mishmash of an outdated non-single written document Constitution is press accountability. To me, Prince Harry shows a wilful lack of knowledge of how the political and legal British constitution works. The British press is horribly spiteful at times yet it does serve an important role because it actually contributes to the constitution in a greater or lesser degree. If we had a solely legal constitution, with a proper Constitutional Court and written, firm rules, then arguably we would not have such a vitriolic press.

But remove the freedom of the press to report on matters which are not properly transparent, on spurious grounds made up by individuals who have everything to gain by claiming such scrutiny is unfair, and you have a system of governance that is remarkably free of any proper scrutiny and open to corruption.

Joyfullittlehippo are you a professional Royal watcher as a job or something? That's an impressively long list of critiques of Kate and William. You do seem overly invested in promoting the cause of the sixth in line for the throne and his wife. Obviously William gets less vitriolic scrutiny because he will actually have to fulfil a role in our constitution sooner or later, while Harry won't.

He seems on self destruct, maybe Elton could fly him off to a retreat somewhere where some servants could mop his brow

Yep this. He needs to grow the fuck up and stop the poor me whining.

Frankly I don't care about their skin colour, hair colour, eye colour or knicker colour. It's 2019 and time we got rid of the lot of these scrounging lazy bastard royal family

None of us know what is really going on but from his perspective his mother was killed as a result of the actions of the tabloid press

It was horribly sad, but she was on a night out at the Ritz with a playboy, and latterly led a life of parties and a succession of boyfriends and celebrities. Its a high risk lifestyle. She could also have chosen to retire to a nice home in the countryside or somewhere pleasant like the South of France, but fame can be addictive. In our more moral current decade, I do question whether she would have been treated so kindly by the press.

I'm not being disingenuous. I think complaining about how badly one royal couple is being treated whilst being absolutely vile about another is odd. Why make yourself part of the problem?
I don't understand that approach either. It's as though defending H&M means trashing W&K which must involve some impressive moral and mental gymnastics.

Don't be so disingenuous. It's clearly a comparison the way both couples are treated. William's 'rumoured' affairs or whatever barely scratched the surface.

Oh come off it. It wasn’t presented in that way at all. Let’s not pit these couples against each other.

I don't understand that approach either. It's as though defending H&M means trashing W&K which must involve some impressive moral and mental gymnastics.

Precisely.

Let’s not pit these couples against each other.

I don't want to do that either. I bloody hate the comparisons but they are important in comparing the treatment both couples receive in light of the way Meghan comes under fire for say for example... eating an avocado. I don't like the comparisons either but I'm not going to adhere to the bizarre narrative that Meghan is just having her feet held to the fire in much the same way all royals are. As I said... there is certainly a lot more vitriol about Meghan. And it won't help anyone if we brush it off as just 'one of those things all royals have to put up with'.

remove the freedom of the press to report on matters which are not properly transparent, on spurious grounds made up by individuals who have everything to gain by claiming such scrutiny is unfair, and you have a system of governance that is remarkably free of any proper scrutiny and open to corruption

Exactly, QualCheckBot. Nobody denies that the press sometimes get things horribly wrong, but at least we have a process to hold them accountable for it, whereas the RF appear to try very hard to avoid accountability for anything at all

It's largely why I find the hopes that "they'll get the paper shut down" absolutely chilling

Take say the national enquirer who will run a story about a member of the royal family that is total bull. But then the tabloids will pick it and regurgitate it as fact. Which gives credence to the story a daft comic ran. Then people who read so called serious news read this nonsense and believe it. It is a butterfly effect we see again and again.

Isnt it really sad that most people on this thread continues to character assassinate the royals while ignoring the real issue - the vicious invasion of privacy and bullying and pandering to the racist mobs in order to boost their profits.
More attention is given to Meghan's avocado toast that to the Leveson inquiry and more importantly why it was stopped.
All the major newspapers are settling cases based on phone hacking.
Piers Morgan was the editor when phone hacking was rampant. Why isnt there more moral outrage about that and how hes still allowed to control public opinion.
Whats interesting is that hes gone quiet now. I sincerely hope this case goes to trial and all of them and their bosses take the stand so we can all hear about the unethical practices that go on that affect all of us.
Of course, the mumsnet discussion will still be centered around MM and whether her dress cost $5 and how shes an entitled brat who should not be in the royal family but oh no - not racist.

H&M are receiving different coverage because the media have had M's family happily feeding them stories. They've also had obvious leaks against them from the royal household. Plus their PR strategy has been appalling. Arguably points 2 and 3 are sides of the same coin.
It's within the hands of their PR team to change the narrative. The part that is baffling, is why they're not doing that. Instead they're making the worse moves possible. Is that H&M's fault? Possibly. Possibly not. Unless you're working within their comms team, you wouldn't know.
The media have always suppressed lots of stories about the RF, politicians, etc. It's a very symbiotic relationship that's been maintained over generations. H&M's needs from the media are different from the rest of the RF because of the US interest. That creates a tension but it didn't need to create a complete disaster.

They've also had obvious leaks against them from the royal household.

Have they? What?

Having just read some of the serialisation of Elton John's memoirs in the Daily Mail, where he is happy to be indiscreet about Diana, I would hope that Harry will no longer be accepting free flights on Elton's private jet, holidays in his home etc. Elton will have been paid by the Mail. Otherwise Harry's hypocrisy is staggering and it just smacks of he and Meghan wanting to control what can be printed in the media. It seems to me that they wish to manipulate the media when it suits them.

Moknicker Isnt it really sad that most people on this thread continues to character assassinate the royals while ignoring the real issue - the vicious invasion of privacy and bullying and pandering to the racist mobs in order to boost their profits.

No, its not "sad". I'm going to repeat my point about the UK being unique in the developed world in having a political and legal constitution, where press scrutiny fills the role that more regulated, transparent governance would occupy.

ie the press actually serves a small constitutional function in holding otherwise unaccountable people to account. Controlling it by law suits from mega wealthy people simply removes that accountability, and is objectionable unless replaced with something else via properly scrutinised legislation.

To give you an analogy, offences against women are not prioritised in the way some hate crimes as it is not treated as an aggravated offence. Instead, the general law is seen fit to deal with such crimes, with the odd exception, such as upskirting. Why the law as it stands should not be seen fit to deal with press scrutiny of wealthy people in the same way is somewhat concerning.

Don't be gullible.

People keep on saying that H and M’s PR is dreadful- but I honestly don’t understand what else they could have done.

People keep on saying that H and M’s PR is dreadful- but I honestly don’t understand what else they could have done.

Admit nothing, say nothing and glide on gracefully seems to have served the Royal Family remarkably well, considering their past cock ups.

Leighhalfpennysthigh

Yes

cathyno5

But surely Harry doesn't read the Daily Mail 🤔

People keep on saying that H and M’s PR is dreadful- but I honestly don’t understand what else they could have done.

Keep quiet, or at the very least not make inflammatory public statements when pursuing legal remedy.

I don't think assessing their use of private jets before making the environment their cause de jour would have been amiss either.

So there wasn’t a problem before privatejetgate? Right. All started this summer.

Of course problems existed before this summer, and of course some of the press they have received has been unfair. But that doesn't mean that there haven't been PR missteps.

You said that "you honestly don’t understand what else they could have done". I gave you a couple of examples off the top of my head of things they could obviously have done differently.

Some people seem so determined to defend Meghan Markle that they totally reject any suggestion of errors on her part.

The queen has sued as have other members of the royal family

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1503361/The-stories-that-made-the-Royal-Family-sue.html

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19599899

Yes- I ageee the private jet thing was a huge mistake. Although one other members of the RF get away with on s regular basis. I don’t know whether the letter was a mistake or not actually. We won’t know until later.
It’s just people talk about all these PR mistakes but never seem to be able to pin point them.