Royals and American media coverage

[ButteryPuffin]

Saw this cover posted on Twitter and noted that it seems the tabloids do indeed exist in the US (amazing, huh?). This is pretty much what you'd expect from the source, and I think it's pretty deplorable, but I am interested to see how the American media in general cover the presence of the former royals who've now arrived to make their home there. Of course we can discuss their coverage of other Royals too and related topics. All welcome.

Link to cover story - please note I'm not endorsing it, I'm just sharing it:
66.media.tumblr.com/79912301ec9c6e0f2cbf902a7a42a540/da60395e577b1897-aa/s540x810/61af854a1eed0d02b6bfa026133d16f8bdb87f41.jpg

I fear it will only get worse. The coverage has not started well and they’ve only just moved there.

It depends on what they do with themselves, they have to be very careful as every move they make will be scrutinised to the nth degree. If they make a mistake - the press (in UK and USA will pounce on them).

I don’t envy their position - I hope the Americans and their press give them a fair chance. - but there are a lot of detractors waiting for them to slip up.

It must be very stressful for H and M.

Makes me simple, basic life look almost desirable.

Most American coverage will be by tabloids, so won’t be fair and, on balance, negative. It’s why I laughed when MM said there is no tabloid press in the US. Of course there is. She just wasn’t famous enough to warrant attention.

It's a little bit unfair to say he has no skills - he must have gained some in the Army.

The Enquirer and fairness are not known to be used together in sentences. Ever.

It's a harsh headline.

I believe it's harder to successfully bring a defamation case in the US.

So I wonder whether Harry will have a litigious approach or whether he'll have to let headlines and articles like this slide; perhaps in a way he wouldn't in the UK.

They'll need money behind them to launch law suits, so I think they've no choice but to ignore them. I can't see Charles covering the cost of litigation on top of their accommodation costs, security, health insurance and whatever else they need.

Harry will have skills from his Army days but how transferable they are is a different matter. He wanted to be on active service, he specifically rejected the option of a desk job and chose to leave the Army instead. He might have done better to accept that offer. It would have given him an excellent grounding for running their "charitable entity".

Tabloids gonna tabloid, and we have had tabloids as long as we have had printing. They are never going away.

It’s a sensational headline from a down market publication, but I think the question of exactly what Prince Harry is planning to do for a living is a fairly mainstream one, in fairness.

Just ignore it.

I disagreed there was no tabloid press in the US. It's not even generational as I'm a tiny bit younger than Meghan & I read magazines & newspapers until a few years ago. Though I was an avid reader of Perez Hilton too He was incredibly negative back in the day!

It's a harsh headline due to the source, I doubt it would have retail appeal if their headlines were gushing

I've lived in the states. These mags are on sale at the check out in some supermarkets and they are ALWAYS hilarious (to me) - Some unflattering picture of a Royal looking cross/ mouth open/ upset/ down at the ground. Picture of the other Royal (the cause of other looking cross/ mouth open/ upset/ down at the ground) And the headline - Queen refuses Camilla place at family gathering/ Charles admits his mistake/ Queen regrets Harry's sadness/ William hurt by Catherine's comment, dress, behaviour etc etc I've never seen anyone buy one.

BTW you can exchange member of the royal family for any v well known actor or person in the mainstream public eye. Movie stars marriages are popular.

Thank you Buttery it was always an eyebrow raiser that tabloids didn’t exist in the States.

Henny Are the similar to the magazines here such as Grazia (only one I remember)?

Those 'downmarket publications' (understatement of the year) are only found at supermarket checkouts and most people would be embarrassed to be spotted even taking a copy and leafing through it while waiting in line, let alone buying one.

The likes of the Enquirer are not bought and read avidly and quoted as gospel truth by millions the way the Daily Mail and the rest of the British gutter press is. Meghan Markle was correct to say there is no tabloid press in the US. There is no American equivalent of the British gutter press for influence and this is what she was getting at. Of course H& M will ignore this. Everyone knows these papers publish only utter bullshit.

YYY to HennyPenny's description of their headlines, though RF mentions constitute about 2% of their headlines. The rest of the time it's sightings of Elvis and shenanigans among country music stars I have never heard of.

Right now, as you may know, America is grappling with a pandemic and nobody gives two hoots about royal family members moving here.

The National Enquirer is no longer widely available at checkouts, but when it was, I often saw women leafing through them. I didn’t ever see anyone purchase a copy. Its circulation has plummeted from over 2.5 million to around 250,000 in two decades. The Enquirer has now moved online, I believe (but could be wrong).

Oh, and, @mathanxiety, the Enquirer broke many stories related to the OJ Simpson murder and it broke the John Edwards scandal, ending his presidential ambitions, and for which it won a Pulitzer. It was implicated in blackmail schemes related to suppressing negative stories about Donald Trump.

US, People, Star, among others, are all US tabloids. The DM has a US daily television program (Monday-Friday). Then there’s Page 6, the NYPost, and a plethora of gossip sites.

Any “big” story in these tabloids will eventually make it to the mainstream.

Right now, as you may know, America is grappling with a pandemic

Funnily* enough, so is the UK.

I find it useful to distract myself by eg messing about on MN. Just like you're messing about on MN.

Any road up: back to the grappling!

*Funny peculiar, not funny haha, to coin a phrase.

If it ever published any gossip that turned out to be factual it was a case of the exception proving the rule, Winterlife.

I know that, LaMarschallin. And I have nothing against anyone spending time on MN...
The pandemic in the US is keeping people's minds off the royal family, weirdly enough, and when they're in a supermarket line these days they are more likely to be worrying about keeping adequate distance from their fellow shoppers and whether they got everything on their list than picking up the Enquirer (with attendant coronavirus transmission risk) to have a nosy.

As I have posted previously, the tabloids must have some kernel of truth in their reports. But that’s really irrelevant to the point of the existence of a tabloid press.

In North America, almost no one under 55 reads paper copies of magazines or news. They all read, and subscribe to, online publications.

I'm mildly surprised that there is any coverage at all - though perhaps that edition went to press a few days ago before the COVID numbers started rocketing in US

H&M wanted to escape press attention and thus will be eas hieve during the pandemic, as all they need to do is remain quiet. There is no way anyone can launch a new entity, or do much at all, whilst normal activities suspended.

The thread title referred to media coverage, and I take that to mean online coverage and tv, not just print media. There is oodles of it in the US.

Like anywhere, Coronavirus is going to dominate for the time being, but once the curve flattens and everyone calms down, there will certainly be a return to celebrity gossip. And Harry and Meghan will just as certainly feature.

What will be interesting is how welcome/popular they are. Many of the now disabled comments on their IG account from their US fans were very gushing so there is clearly a doting fan base. But there's no way of knowing how representative that is across the wider population.

MN - or at least this corner of it - is not representative of the way people feel about them in the UK. I would say most people are pretty indifferent to them, with only a passing interest in any H&M related gossip. I would guess most of us here don't discuss them anywhere else in anything like the same detail. It's a topic of interest when we're gathered together, and fascinating to discuss on this forum, but that's all.

This is the current cover of US Weekly. They’ve gone for the class composition of ‘angel on one shoulder, devil on the other’.

Speaking of the devil, 8 pm tonight.

"No American equivalent of the tabloid press" . The standard of news coverage in the US is often appalling. I really cannot sit here and read this nonsense. There are dozens of rags like the Enquirer for sale at the checkouts although they are dressed up to be a bit more palatable looking- People/US is no better researched than than any British publication and no more credible. Entertainment Tonight is on the telly every evening and devoted to celebrity coverage, getting nearly as much airtime as Newsnight would get here. Local city papers, which source international content in many cases from AP etc will be focused more on local news, that is true. The paper midwestern town my parents live in doesnt have a story a day on the royal family maybe one a week. In general, though, the coverage of celebrities is incredible and contributes to the overall dumbing down of news there. I have said on other threads that when I was in Chicago last October, two weeks before Britain could have crashed out of the EU, the main news channel LED on Harry and Megan and the "crisis" at the palace. I had no idea what they were talking about but this story was what they thought was more important than any US issue as well. It was incredible.

I like Meghan's make up in that photo (apologies for thread derail)

OVienna

"No American equivalent of the tabloid press" . The standard of news coverage in the US is often appalling.

Tsk!
Also: tut!
How can you say that?

The American press is pure as the driven slus... snow. Nobody buys those nasty magazines (goodness knows how they survive with no revenue) and wouldn't even look at them.
Except, you know, to notice what's regularly on the covers and stuff...
Just to know what to disapprove of, really.

Besides, Americans are grappling - grappling I tell you! - with a pandemic the likes of which we Brits know not of!
So will be far too busy to find threads on MN about the royal family and contribute to them or read anything other than updates on the pandemic.

Did I mention the pandemic?

"But there's no way of knowing how representative that is across the wider population."

Quora has regular discussions, often seemingly well informed. The tone is similar to here, though more ernest than funny. No penguins.