The Press & The Royals: a discussion

[Whaeanui]

As we were just having a great discussion on this topic I’m going to try again to continue it on a thread of its own. A previous thread highlighted two particularly prolific ‘royal reporters’, but the same is true for all. They often manufacture stories to create divisions between the women in the family, more often than the men. The public seem to feed off this and none of the family get treated very well except the monarch. So do we think it is possible for the royal family to stay relevant and in the publics mind without their unhealthy relationship with the media? Can social media replace this? What do you think they can do to make positive changes that would reflect an understanding of the mental health challenges the media intrusion results in? Also their role in charities that deal with mental health and misogyny, mistreatment of women etc could be impacted by this too. Thoughts?
Please do not derail this thread by discussing your personal dislike of particular members or if they deserve it. I would like a discussion on how the royal family could change the relationship with the press.

William didn’t force them to change their behaviour though.

He absolutely did though - him taking his case to Scotland Yard directly led to criminal prosecutions and the Leveson enquiry - and no more phone hacking of his and his family’s phones. Why do you think Kate had her phone hacked 155 times and Meghan never? William’s actions.

@8roses
If Willaim has done nothing wrong he has nothing to fear

@Roussette no I don’t ponder why baroness Lawrence went to Court. I presume she wasn’t offered, or didn’t accept, a settlement

Not really.

William took a settlement, as he didn’t want it all to be public.

No one knows what he did with it.

Saying Harry gave money to Invictus is irrelevant. As if to prove Harry is somehow more ‘giving’ or ‘ethical’. Just because Harry want his dirty linen everyone, not everyone else has to.

@8roses same as everyone who is taking the press to trial over hacking then.

Publicly announcing you were hacked and awarded or accepted a settlement isn’t airing your dirty laundry, nobody needs to reveal what information they found when they were hacked.

@Whaeanui that’s right - William chose not to do so. Or maybe he was waiting until all the litigation was finished - I don’t know.

Imagine being the one who was actually the victim of the hacking scandal, and yet you’re supposed to have ‘something to fear’ because you didn’t deal with it how Novella4 off mumsnet thinks you should have.

Never mind your actions meant the practices had stopped/minimised.

Tsk William, you’re not a proper victim, and Novella4 demands answers!

The issue of Willam's silence won't go away because it has the whiff of secret deal with the press

Not a good look for a future unelected head of state

Not good at all

So wiliam can clear it all up with an explanation

Nobody needs to know anything, that’s the point.
He didn’t want it out there, the end.

Sorry he’s not victiming properly, but that’s up to him.

@Novella4 im sure William has done lots of things wrong and has plenty to fear. Mainly because he can count in his brother to highlight his failings to the world. None of us is perfect.

You know what - William doesn't owe you or anyone else 'an explanation'.

The whole family have been living in fear because the family member they trusted has chosen to talk about them on the world stage. We know that - it’s not very nice though is it

Oh but he does

He takes from the state

He takes from the state

This, as already mentioned, is not taxpayer money, however.

But he didn’t take this from the state though, did he?

You misunderstand

The 'royals' take from the state
We are owed an explanation
But we are owed a lot of explanations from these 'royals' and they have exempted themselves from the FOI

Saying Harry gave money to Invictus is irrelevant. As if to prove Harry is somehow more ‘giving’ or ‘ethical’. Just because Harry want his dirty linen everyone, not everyone else has to

I have no idea what this means.

To me it's about optics.

He's allowed privacy. He's allowed to deal with such matters in any legal way he pleases. Just because you've a bee in your bunnet about the monarchy doesn't mean William, as an individual, doesn't have every right to handle this as he has done.

Yes, and he has

And yes, people can say it's not a particularly good way of doing things. We are entitled to that opinion.

Oh this is so futile. We don’t need page after page arguing about William taking this money in secret surely? Yes I know it’s annoying that it’s done to Harry and Meghan endlessly on this board, such anger at how they get money that’s not ours and what they do with it blah blah…

but let’s focus on what can they do to change their relationship with the press. Does William accepting money from them help that improve, or hinder it?

And again I’ll point out that Harry has revealed personal information about William and Harry’s supporters are not criticising it.

William was perfectly entitled to settle & not have it revealed by others.

It may improve William's press

With a new King I think the larger conversation around their finances is going to be ongoing, the Guardian series has been very enlightening. What we should know or not know seems to be up for discussion at present. If they want privacy like anyone else, I understand it personally. But then I think they need to be treated like the rest of us in many more ways.

Of course he doesn't. If he wants to keep something private that is his business, Harry wants to protect his own privacy (which is absolutely his right and fighting for that is a good thing) but he doesn't seem to care about anyone elses.

Actually I thought the bit about what a big sum of money William got just sounds like he's jealous and wants his share.