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The royal family

Part 2: The Press & The Royals a discussion

1000 replies

Whaeanui · 27/04/2023 14:52

Following on from this thread: Part 1 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/4786923-the-press-the-royals-a-discussion?page=1

As we know, the press often manufacture stories to create divisions between the women in the family, more often than the men. They have also hacked private communications, with cases ongoing. The public seem to feed off this and none of the family get treated very well except the monarch-although not always.

For discussion: 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, and how can they achieve that? How will previous and current legal proceedings alter the relationship?
Please do not intentionally derail this thread by discussing your personal dislike of particular family members or if they deserve it. I would really like to continue this discussion on how the royal family and the press interact, as above.

The Press & The Royals: a discussion | Mumsnet

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 tw...

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/4786923-the-press-the-royals-a-discussion?page=1

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skullbabe · 14/05/2023 21:19

For a millisecond fellow travelers of the RF board - we were all in agreement 🤣. Anyway allons-y.

notanotheroneagain · 14/05/2023 21:40

skullbabe · 14/05/2023 21:10

Dear God what a venomous article! In the Times no less. I’m confused with the article in the Mail today - I think it’s a soft launch into more negative commentary in the Mail but time will only tell.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12080863/amp/SARAH-VINE-hate-say-Id-watch-one-Harrys-worth-docs.html

Oh my..........

We could see the story playing out before you even told it to us.

So each took their most visceral writers. That was way faster than I thought.

Whaeanui · 14/05/2023 21:54

@skullbabe I haven’t seen whatever video the DM is talking about but a few of us noted in the weeks leading up to the coronation that there were more negative and unfair articles on Kate.

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skullbabe · 14/05/2023 22:10

Whaeanui · 14/05/2023 21:54

@skullbabe I haven’t seen whatever video the DM is talking about but a few of us noted in the weeks leading up to the coronation that there were more negative and unfair articles on Kate.

Here you go ☺️

The Coronation Weekend | Behind the scenes with The Prince and Princess of Wales

🎥 a film by Will Warrhttps://www.instagram.com/willwarrExplore other stories:Engagements: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzKzFM-MCdhO0B6gJUmApAv_QNn...

https://youtu.be/Cb6ruEWxFAE

Whaeanui · 14/05/2023 22:17

thanks @skullbabe ah, the first thing I said when it finished was, ‘what king?’ Probably should have had him there at the end 😂

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4plusthehound · 14/05/2023 22:55

Whaeanui · 14/05/2023 21:54

@skullbabe I haven’t seen whatever video the DM is talking about but a few of us noted in the weeks leading up to the coronation that there were more negative and unfair articles on Kate.

And this is where the men of the royal family loose me.

they use the women and children as human shields.

it is SO weak.

all of them - Charles, William, Andrew.

4plusthehound · 14/05/2023 22:57

Ahh 😱 😱

LOSE not LOOSE

Morestrangerthings · 15/05/2023 01:46

skullbabe · 14/05/2023 21:10

Dear God what a venomous article! In the Times no less. I’m confused with the article in the Mail today - I think it’s a soft launch into more negative commentary in the Mail but time will only tell.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12080863/amp/SARAH-VINE-hate-say-Id-watch-one-Harrys-worth-docs.html

I’m going to show my age now, but this video production (it may be film - it has that quality look), is very much like the ultra expensive ads you would see in the cinemas before the movie started when I was a kid.

Eg Place: The French Riveiera, short cut after short cut of a good looking young middle aged couple, obviously rich, money is no problem, well coiffed, dressed in a number of expensive well cut outfits, in grand places such in luxury cars, onboard fine yachts, expensive hotels that look like palaces, tables of expensive colourful food spreads laid out before them, crystal glasses and champers, (royal family not pictured here about to partake of food or wine, but then they rarely eat in public), stirring music. All followed by the caption - ‘When only the best will do’ - light up a Stuyvesant, a Peter Stuyvesant , then shot of rich couple lighting up cigarettes (except no smoking here because Royals not seen smoking in public).

This was an extraordinarily expensive production (or would have been when I was a kid), only big cigarette companies could afford.

What is it this vid is saying? ‘You’ve got them, but really it’s us’? Charles was almost an afterthought, and Camilla was on the periphery. Perhaps it’s my imagination, but it does say at the very end that it’s ‘Kensington Palace’ authorised, (in small lettering) so am I right in thinking that there might be an attempt to sideline Charles, or is it just the RF recognising that the younger members need to be pushed front and centre to stay relevant for a younger generation?

That horribly snarky Sunday Times article (no one should make fun of old people just because they are old), which wasn’t all of it unamusing, released almost concurrently with the DM article making fun of the Kensington Royal video. I think the RF may just find themselves being served up for breakfast daily, when the media can’t find anything nasty to say about H&M -that they haven’t already said ten thousand times before. Maybe H&M criticisms are hitting saturation point? Are appetites for those toxic flavoured articles dwindling? Maybe the the hit piece on Harry and his ghost are the beginning of the end of the anti H&M press? I mean, when you get to the point of a very average journo trying to take the piss out of a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, you may just have jumped the shark - it’s just going to take a while for the shark jumping to be recognised, and digested, and no longer marketable because we are all full up.

The court cases will feed us more for a while, but the problem is that while they are metaphorically hanging Harry, they are also doing the same to people all the public see as victims of media. Ultimately, perhaps, in doing so, these big media policy makers will also hang themselves. It’s happened before. The world turns as the stomach turns after all.

Morestrangerthings · 15/05/2023 02:38

Roussette · 14/05/2023 14:27

That is good to hear. There is a lot about other claimants out there, but of course Harry and his claim gathers more attention on here. I read about Sadie Frost and Nikki Sanderson in particular.

I would like to know from other posts whether they would be applauding the claimants in this case if Harry wasn't involved? Because quite a few think it is a waste of time, and I wonder if that's because Harry is one of them.

You're the only one who's answered!

I’m in another country Roussette so, if Harry wasn’t part of the cases, I’d pay about as much attention to these court cases as I did to Murdoch vs Dominion (settled out of court, eye watering payout by Murdoch to Dominion). And will pay to Murdoch vs Starmatic. Quite a substantial amount of my attention.

So I’m already very interested. I really appreciate being able to benefit from the discussions about it here, and also links to news media I might never be able to read (archiving by posters is great) or wouldn’t think to read.

Whaeanui · 15/05/2023 06:51

@4plusthehound yes it does seem that way doesn’t it. The women get the absolute worst of it.

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Mumsnut · 15/05/2023 06:52

those KP videos are incredibly boring. And the airbrushed perfection is a bit nauseating

I do somewhat share Sarah Vine’s opinion that W+K are being rather forced down our throats at the moment. I do t think there is any sinister undertone to this - it is just a glossy PR exercise rather than an attempt to overshadow Charles

skullbabe · 15/05/2023 07:52

What is it this vid is saying? ‘You’ve got them, but really it’s us’? Charles was almost an afterthought, and Camilla was on the periphery. Perhaps it’s my imagination, but it does say at the very end that it’s ‘Kensington Palace’ authorised, (in small lettering) so am I right in thinking that there might be an attempt to sideline Charles, or is it just the RF recognising that the younger members need to be pushed front and centre to stay relevant for a younger generation?

I think it was a naive attempt by Kensington Palace to simply give us a behind the scenes look at how the Wales got on with the Coronation. I think they became complacent with all of the negative attention focussed in Harry and Meghan and thought that this would be well received and just thought of as a new approach to how the RF go about things. Unfortunately as H&M have shown, the road to hell is paved with good intentions because already some people are reading that video as a slight to Charles or a power play by the Wales. Any way - let’s see what this week brings with the court cases.

Whaeanui · 15/05/2023 07:54

Was it naive? Or very deliberate. I don’t know. But it was awful! Interesting turn in the media lately as we’ve said so let’s see what happens with that as time goes on.

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AuroraCake · 15/05/2023 08:07

I think that may be. A hint of normal service resuming and H and M finally being not a part of the royal conversation. They were forever and a day pitting royals against eachother. It’s almost refreshing for Harry not to be part of it. Long May it continue. We all have to move on at some point.

The Wales’ are just promoting their own interests. Charles was a piranha at it for years so all is fair.

KattyJo · 15/05/2023 08:14

There’s a fair bit of overthinking going on here.

The Prince & Princess of Wales have their own social media, it’s catering to a slightly different audience. Kate is clearly hugely popular, but that’s a good thing for the RF overall, including Charles.

polkadotdalmation · 15/05/2023 11:24

The video is a nice snapshot of behind the scenes No conspiracy theories required. It's was nice to see just a bit more of an informal take

Whaeanui · 15/05/2023 11:39

It was the coronation of King Charles, he was barely in it! I agree with the comparison to a political campaign, it’s exactly what it reminds me of.

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themessygarden · 15/05/2023 12:11

The video was wonderful, it was a behind the scenes video of the Wales, it wasn't meant to be a behind the scenes of the coronation. It was personal and a nice glimpse of their involvement over the weekend.

LivelyBlake · 15/05/2023 12:34

I don't think the video was made with the intention of erasing the King from the coronation.

It is likely of a new strategy agreed by Buckingham Palace and the Waleses that favours a more direct communication with the public via social media, and focuses on a younger future rather than the older family members.

For me the interesting bit is that this sidelines the royal rota and the traditional press completely - which maybe the reason why they have been so quick to criticise the videos.

Whaeanui · 15/05/2023 12:47

That’s an interesting perspective @LivelyBlake and I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.

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polkadotdalmation · 15/05/2023 13:06

@LivelyBlake I agree that with the new king in place the monarchy can undergo a modernisation policy and begin using social media platforms that they directly control rather than always being held to ransom by the press.

Whaeanui · 15/05/2023 13:15

*Day 4 of #PrinceHarry v Mirror Group Newspapers.

We’re hearing evidence from Dan Evans, former Sunday Mirror journalist. He was previously convicted of phone hacking at News of the World.

Dan Evans says “Sometimes stories would come from a legitimate source... We would often "stand up" or develop the story by looking to hack the phones of the individuals involved, or their friends, so that we could verify the truth of the information given to us by the source.”*

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Whaeanui · 15/05/2023 13:16

On other occasions, we’d find out a piece of info from a voicemail message & we might well try & confirm it through other means. We would try & be careful not to use the info from a voicemail message if it was obvious this could be the source; we were trying to cover our tracks.
Former Mirror journalist Dan Evans claims lawyers at MGN knew about phone hacking. He says a senior lawyer once made an “in-joke” smiling and asking “have I got any messages this morning?”

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polkadotdalmation · 15/05/2023 13:23

Was it Dan evans who did time for historic hacking and admitted it all?? If so he has categorically denied hacking harry or these claimants. Might be another hacker but I believe only one was sentenced a while back.

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