BBC The Princes and the Press

[coniferforest]

Did anyone watch this last night? About William and Harry and their different approaches to the press. Last night was part 1 of 2.

But if her ultimate aim is to show the RF for what it is, warts and all, I wonder if she hasn't just scored an own goal by handing Charles, William, Andrew or whoever else's turn is next, a privacy precedent on a plate.
I don't think that was her aim, her gripe was with the Newspaper. from the court's perspective - it's about public interest - Andrew's case is public interest. but there is not much UK news in it even though GMs case has started. William was already able to get Tatler ?? to edit the article he didn't like even though that was public interest as one day he will be King plus our taxes pay for his lifestyle. It depends on whether you give the papers what they want. W&K do but M&H we're not prepared to do this. As PP said maybe the own goal is JK and W

Who is jk and w. All the initials are getting a bit confusing.

Jason Knauf and William I assume.

As predicted the DM have had a poke at MM on their front page, and at judges who they call 'awed by Royalty'. Saying if Meghan wanted to fight for the truth, she would come to court.

What they don't seem to get is... she doesn't have to prove anything, she's not on trial, the MoS is. Of course she wouldn't come to Court just to feed more stories on her!

@Roussette

As predicted the DM have had a poke at MM on their front page, and at judges who they call 'awed by Royalty'. Saying if Meghan wanted to fight for the truth, she would come to court.

What they don't seem to get is... she doesn't have to prove anything, she's not on trial, the MoS is. Of course she wouldn't come to Court just to feed more stories on her!

Also of course, this court case wasn’t Meghan fighting for the truth, in the sense that her complaint about them wasn’t about an inaccurate story that needed to be corrected. So she wasn’t fighting for truth, but privacy.

I can see why the mail would make that error though, they must be so used to being accused of falsehoods.

The she must come out to court is smug of the Fail, considering when MM did come out with correcting their lies with the first judge, and it was all thrown out. So they know she cannot represent that again anyway as it has nothing to do with the case.

This particular case is tittle tattle and doesn't much concern anyone beyond the parties to the case (despite any high falutin, trail blazing claims by MM).
If you are in the UK, you would know the case made front page news and has been very much discussed. It is tittle tattle and MM has acknowledged that it is a private issue. That was her whole point. So not too sure what you mean by this statement.

MM was their target from the moment she started playing them at their game
What do you mean by this statement.

But the bottom line is that MM knew it was a dirty game, and she went into battle forearmed. In my book, they're as bad as each other and neither is the winner or the loser here. As ever, the lawyers won.
How are they as bad as each other? By going in prepared?
It's plain to see that MM and her lawyers are the winners here. Resoundingly so. The papers already paid almost half a million and will pay more, they also have to pay the lawyers, as well as give over accounts for the profits made. I would say paying over a million just to have a laugh at someone is absolutely losing in every sense.

But if her ultimate aim is to show the RF for what it is, warts and all, I wonder if she hasn't just scored an own goal by handing Charles, William, Andrew or whoever else's turn is next, a privacy precedent on a plate.
That is not MM's goal. The RF had nothing to do with this case, till they inserted themselves by sending Jason Knauf.

This case will not give precedent on anything, considering the queen won a case exactly like this in the past. Even worse, for her it was regarding her speech, which was scheduled to be publicised as it does annually. Also, for the others, what is public interest is exactly that, what is not can go to court - wether MM's case existed or not.

This has been an interesting thread. It started with H & W. Now, as all threads about the RF tend to, it's ended up being about M. For lots of people who say they don't like her, they seem very invested in her. There are plenty of people in the public eye that I don't like and I don't give them a second's thought. I often wonder how many of those wading into threads like these to badmouth M are actually genuine.

This case will not give precedent on anything, considering the queen won a case exactly like this in the past

Yes, and Charles, he sued and won a case. All to do with his diaries about the handover of Hong Kong that the DM published some of.

I am starting to think there is a legal standpoint/basis for information to be withheld for six months in UK Law

Bit of a dangerous road to go down perhaps?

What beats me about the whole thing s that anyone's surprised Reading legal opinion rather than the froth it seemed likely that ANL would lose on the pure copyright issue, but then I've always believed this was more about headlines and the money to be made from them than some campaign for "the truth"

On the other hand - as I've also said from the start - the rights and wrongs would never have counted against the greater motivation to keep Meghan (just like Andrew) out of a witness box

Our court system doesn't operate "in the Queen's name" for nothing ...

@JaniieJones

An apology in a paper (that no one reads anyway apparently) will be good. I wonder if it will be subtly tongue in cheek/pa. Along the lines of 'we apologise for printing excerpts from a letter given to us willingly by the recipient to correct misinformation. We had no idea this was against the law until now. We are deeply and most sincerely sorry'.

It won't just be in the paper, they must also publish the apology online, prominently.

The thing is though, assuming that DM don’t appeal, they will pay any damages and move on (as they always do). However, the fact that MM ‘forgot’ in a court of law will forever blot her copy book, along with the OW interview. The press and media will be watching the couple like a hawk for any slip ups (and there will be some because the couple think and act in the here and now and ‘forget’ their actions and conversations that have gone before).

It’s a lose for the DM on privacy but has put PH & MM firmly under the microscope on whatever they do and say from here on in in relation to truths, half truths and double standards.

And I agree with Puzzled that this was never going to get to the point where MM had to take the stand in the witness box.

It will be interesting to see what the DM decide to do next.

I think ANL acheived exactly what they set out to...... and that was to shine a spotlight on some of her questionable behaviour.

I personally think the best outcome would be for all the British media to unite and stop reporting anything at all about them. They left the RF to become American celebrities, so let the US media report on them instead.

The forgetfulness over irrelevant information is not something that will stay with people. To most people she did not have a sit down with FF, so they will understand why she did not 'collaborate' in the general sense.

Everyone is aware that the media always tries to smear Meghan, they have overdone it so much for a lot of people this is a non issue - an issue only to those who disliked her in the first place and frankly, there is nothing she can do for those kind of people, and I bet she stopped trying.

The DM sales were already down due to Covid. They came to us to save them financially - hardly at a place to be losing millions right now. Unfortunately, they will be paying from the same pot we gave them.

I personally think the best outcome would be for all the British media to unite and stop reporting anything at all about them. They left the RF to become American celebrities, so let the US media report on them instead.

If only. They won't because MM coverage brings them £££ and they would not want to miss out on that gravy train. I'm sure William would welcome that idea though.

I personally think the best outcome would be for all the British media to unite and stop reporting anything at all about them. They left the RF to become American celebrities, so let the US media report on them instead.

I'm sure both M&H would prefer this situation neither of them like the British media and would probably happily completely lose all of them. There are other ways for their charities to get publicity - they don't need the tabloids - the tabloids need them. but they also know it won't happen anytime soon because the papers know they are lucrative- they sell papers and generate clicks. So any news for them is something whether it's the truth / lies/ or old news - so far as it makes money it. Doesn't matter. But I agree the DM won't talk about court case for too long as they didn't get what they wanted - as the tv program showed they had their lines ready whether they won or lost. Had they won would they have said what they did about the judges being afraid of the RF- I don't think so. I also don't think Meghan is afraid to take the stand. I hope that whatever they throw at her she has the strength to put her own mental health first whether that is to ignore or take them on. What ever works for her and her young family.

I'd love too if the UK media stopped reporting on H&M.
Not give them any airtime.
They moved to the States. Their decision. Leave them alone. Win Win.
I dislike their hypocrisy.

I personally think the best outcome would be for all the British media to unite and stop reporting anything at all about them

If only! They are a massive earner for the tabloids.

The forgetfulness over irrelevant information is not something that will stay with people

I beg to differ rubics, whether the information was relevant or not, the media (particularly the DM) will bring this up at any and every opportunity they can.

The DM sales were already down due to Covid. They came to us to save them financially - hardly at a place to be losing millions right now. Unfortunately, they will be paying from the same pot we gave them.

Well, if the media and legal bods are concerned about this setting a dangerous precedent and what has been achieved is to extend the right of privacy to benefit the rich and powerful, then maybe ANL should set up a ‘Just Giving’ page!

Good grief, just read back the posts and we are echoing each other rubics !

Wouldn't it be good if the media just went quiet on them. They get blamed for anything they do, with pathetic stories from the likes of Camilla Tominey and others, which is unfair when they are not asking for stories over here.
But the media won't give them up. They'd have to find something to talk about with our RF, and the spotlight will shine on them. The RF should be grateful.
After all, where's the outcry on Fawcett the fence? There's bits here and there but nothing compared to what gets reported on H&M. It's an appalling story, PC's right hand man selling honours in exchange for donations to PC's charities.

The forgetfulness over irrelevant information is not something that will stay with people

Once again time will tell, but personally I doubt that very much
It doesn't really matter how much or how often folk try to twist the facts into something else so that it "doesn't count as collaboration"; as so often details get forgotten and the central impression remains

I've no admiration for ANL (or much of mainstream media for that matter) but in trying to make cash out of trashing someone's reputation they seem to have scored a win overall

Ofcourse they will repeat it, as they do with everything negative they can throw at MM. People will just roll their eyes. If anyone has a closer look at the accusations against her, they lack in tangible details or are ridiculous. As I said, they will not be converting anyone who did not dislike her in the first place.

Well, if the media and legal bods are concerned about this setting a dangerous precedent and what has been achieved is to extend the right of privacy to benefit the rich and powerful, then maybe ANL should set up a ‘Just Giving’ page!

Haha, they should try. I don't think they can raise any more than a thousand pounds, let alone over a million.

I beg to differ rubics, whether the information was relevant or not, the media (particularly the DM) will bring this up at any and every opportunity they can.

Let's see where the DM go with this now- nobody remembered the Queen's sudden recollection of her conversation with Burrell until it was linked to Meghan's to JK messages.

But it will just prove how desperate the DM are to still write about M&H even after losing the case ' to the point of it being embarrassing for them - for example those who don't like them on here are saying they don't want to read about them anymore - will the DM respect your wishes or still force their click bait on you?

@Roussette - the article you linked to was interesting - the owner of the DF has a son before he was married - private no impact on the wider public I agree. but the papers were not permitted to write about his private life but it's ok to make money through exploiting the personal lives of others.

@StormzyinaTCup

The thing is though, assuming that DM don’t appeal, they will pay any damages and move on (as they always do). However, the fact that MM ‘forgot’ in a court of law will forever blot her copy book, along with the OW interview. The press and media will be watching the couple like a hawk for any slip ups (and there will be some because the couple think and act in the here and now and ‘forget’ their actions and conversations that have gone before).

It’s a lose for the DM on privacy but has put PH & MM firmly under the microscope on whatever they do and say from here on in in relation to truths, half truths and double standards.

And I agree with Puzzled that this was never going to get to the point where MM had to take the stand in the witness box.

It will be interesting to see what the DM decide to do next.

You see, the thing I don't get about this is why this doesn't mean that the public will be watching the press like a hawk and should expect more integrity from them? Why is it a case of well the press, you know what they're like and OMG! M forgot something, her reputation will be tarnished forever. It's so back to front.