Part 2: The Press & The Royals a discussion

[Whaeanui]

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.

Thanks @Puzzledandpissedoff

Thanks. He has denied the current hacking charges so I wonder who is alleged to have done the hacking.

He has denied the current hacking charges ...

Well yes, I'd expect him to
Obviously I don't know if he's guilty or not, but if so I can quite see he'd be keen to avoid another sentence (only not suspended this time)

My understanding is this is all the same time frame? In which case defendants admit everything to avoid the very situation you're speaking of. That is they ask xyz other offences to be taken into account at the time of pleading to avoid further charges down the line. Could be wrong though 🤷🏻‍♀️

LBC presenter Ian Dale dragged Meghan into his Twit about Kate's 10sec appearance for Eurovision. Yet Meghan didn't even comment on the contest even though a contestant composed and performed a song about her last year winning 5th place. Good response to him especially as the outfit and hair mirrored Meg who was vilified for showing her shoulder then. https://twitter.com/BackchatQueen/status/1657635648990265345?s=20

In spite of Meg having real artistic creative talent and expertise off of which she earned a living on suits and writing the BM are reporting Kate's piano playing as if it was good but real players are saying otherwise. twitter.com/driandarcy/status/1657650002884190210?s=20

Yes - all of them.

Which is very comfortabkle for the men.

It really bothers me as the title goes with the male line as does the wealth. So they should be front and centre for the rest as well.

The piano playing real or not real is an example of what we should not amplify.

More than likely she played for the recording, more than likely they edited the video separate from the sound.

Lets just leave her/it be?

Also - pitting the two/three women against each other and us to boot?

I think the issue with the press is the need to put households and people against each other. I think nothing will be gained by pitting Meghan vs Kate and we shouldn’t play into it.I think Iain Dale said that with his tongue firmly in cheek - it just landed badly.

I also don’t think that Kate prerecording the playing was anything to comment on - it was a lovely gesture for Eurovision (well I think so anyway).

What a stupid tweet. Nobody can expect Kate's piano playing to happen live and slot nicely with the rest, surely. As to her dress, she has worn one shoulder dresses before many times, and blue dresses countless times. This is an example of social media at its worst. And the tabloids love these kind of things.

@4plusthehound

Those rules changed for the RF since 2011 so George’s first born will be King or queen

My understanding is this is all the same time frame?

Ah, I see what you mean polkadotdalmation ... I thought the comments about what he'd admitted to related to his previous sentence, but maybe not

Obviously I know prosecutors do these deals, but overall I'm not keen on media manipulators who go all "crusader" when it suits them, only to revert to type when it doesn't. It's years since I did my media training, but I wasn't impressed then and see no obvious indication they've changed since

Wonder how Omid Scobie’s evidence has gone down?

It was a 10 second clip in a pre-recorded montage showing various notable people, including the Kaluysh Orchestra themselves, performing last year’s winning song. Last year’s winners were shown singing as they walked through a Kiev metro station. I’m perfectly willing to bet that the sound recording from when they shot those scenes were not the vocals used in the introduction either. And yes, the piano melody is simple: I am no great shakes at the piano but I could play it myself.

You are rather spectacularly missing the point though - the introductory segment was designed to remind people of the song, it’s impact, and the support the people of its home country have in the host country of this year’s show. Having someone instantly recognisable as a “face” of the UK, dressed in one of the key colours of the Ukrainian flag, taking the time to play along with the melody on a piano instantly delivered that message in a carefully modulated way. And it worked because the Princess of Wales has huge reach.

You can see this very easily by looking at the BBC Eurovision instagram accounts. Of all the tens and tens of videos on it, only three have been viewed more than 1 million times. The top three are:

Mel Giedroyc churning (🤣) 1.6m views
The King and Queen’s cameo with Subwolfer - 1.7m views
Kate playing the piano - 10.4m views.

Andrew Green KC, the Mirror’s barrister, suggested that Evans’s recollection of events might be affected by the reporter’s heavy consumption of alcohol and drugs while working on the Sunday Mirror.
Evans replied: “That would be common to pretty much everyone else who worked on those newspapers.”
Guardian

Can we please not do this? This is just part of that whole stupid, shallow SM pettiness.

No one owns a dress style or colour. Plenty of women (incl Catherine) have worn one shoulder dresses, worn blue dresses before Meghan. It's not copying. The dresses are a different style & different shades.

Both women looked lovely.

Other women are entitled to wear one shoulder dresses in whatever colour (incl blue) if they want without being accused of copying each other.

It's school child pettiness and it's pointless.

Yes, Meghan is talented. But so is Catherine. I have zero musical talent, so anyone who is able to learn to play a musical instrument I applaud. Is she a maestro? Obviously not, but neither does she pretend to be. Neither did Meghan pretend to be an award winning actress. She was a jobbing actress who achieved a level of success, like a thousand other actresses around her.

Let's support women and applaud them both, eh?

I thought it was a lovely gesture from Catherine, and fitted well into the Eurovision ethos. It was never portrayed as anything else. Let's not make it into anything it isn't. It's just playing into the tabloids hands.

And unless I've been living in a hole for the past decade and been hallucinating...Catherine's hair in the Eurovision clip looked like a style she's done countless times. Or are women nor allowed to have long, wavy hair in a side parting now??? Again, as with styles of clothes - no one owns a hairstyle. FFAS.

The King and Queen’s cameo with Subwolfer

wait what! I missed this! OMG!

@MrsFinkelstein

That's a really nice post, and shows the kind of attitude one would expect to find on a women's site like this. Unfortunately, Meghan is not considered talented, your word, by most of those who dislike her. Her professional achievements are derided, she is frequently called a D list actress, her work on Suits which earned her millions is looked down on etc etc etc.

In contrast, Kate performing Milli Vanilli style on a piano is greeted with rapture and she is hailed as talented. She relearned the piano during lockdown, like many who went back to instruments they abandoned as kids, which is great, but she is most definitely not Liberace. And that's fine, she doesn't have to be Liberace, expect that Meghan is sneered at all the time and told she is no Meryl Streep.

I know that Mumsnet does not want to talk about race, but as I keep saying, it is discriminatory to impose on black people a standard higher than you apply to white people. A much higher standard is always imposed on Meghan, who is expected to be an A list star to get any credit for her work of more than 10 years as an actress, while an incredibly low bar is set for Kate who plays a pre-recorded chord sequence for less than 10 seconds and receives rapturous applause. It is these contrasting attitudes that grate, when the demonstrable achievements of one are derided and the mediocrity of the other is applauded.

As for the clothes hypocrisy. The comparison is not drawn because of who wore it first rather, it is drawn because some of us remember all too well Meghan being excoriated for baring a shoulder and being called vulgar for doing so, while Kate receives raptures for doing the same. Meghan revealed a flash of leg in Australia and was mocked, Kate did the same and got headlines about how toned her legs are.

As always, I come with receipts.

https://thetempest.co/2019/08/29/style/double-standards-royals/

I really really hope the RF employ an effective modern PR company who can utilise social media like this effectively and reduce all reliance on the press.

Catherine looked lovely and played well. No idea about the Meghan connection, but I'm sure whatever she did it went well. The two are not in competition and will make their own mark. Just leave them to it.

@MrsMaxDeWinter I'm old enough to remember Catherine being absolutely slaughtered in the press (& in the burgeoning online community) for her dresses blowing up in the wind in the early 2010's. It went on for several years.

She was also constantly criticised for her skincare routine (she got fancy facials shock horror).

It was only when Meghan came along the tone of coverage for Catherine got more positive. I'm not excusing it, or saying it was right. But this has been the pattern for coverage since newspapers were invented. It's stupid and petty stories about skincare and avocados and should be treated as such. I ignore it, as did Catherine. So should everyone else.

Stop giving it airtime - it just encourages them.

And please don't denigrate 1 woman's achievements to build up another - your Milli Vanilli comment was exactly that. And yes, I said Meghan was talented, but she was definitely no Meryl Streep. But that's because so few actresses are. Meghan achieved a low-moderate level of success as an actor, but she's only achieved her current level of aclaim and recognition because of who she married. As did Catherine. As did Diana.

I'm not a fan of Meghan because I don't agree with how she's used her current platform. I hope she can achieve some inner acceptance and move forward in a far more positive manner and use her platform in a more positive way than it has been.

@Whaeanui

Like you, I am blessed, or I should say sadly cursed, with almost total recall so I can remember a lot of what the more frequent posters have written before :) :)

But this amused me:

I really really hope the RF employ an effective modern PR company who can utilise social media like this effectively and reduce all reliance on the press.

Curious because that's exactly what Harry and Meghan announced before they were stepping back. This is precisely why many are comparing Kate and William's new approach to what Harry and Meghan were doing in the months running up to their departure.

They said they would no longer work within the Royal Rota but rely on social media and also give access to younger journalists.

They were hammered for it.

I guess this is one of those things where anything Kate and William do is just peachy but the same thing was bad when Harry and Meghan did it!

@MrsFinkelstein I reference Milli Vanilli because it's widely accepted by people who know about music that Kate's performances so far have not been live but pre-recorded. In the latest one, she produced an F chord but her fingers were on a C, so something happened in the editing. I can understand why, who wants to make a mistake live, but let's not pretend it was more than what it was. Also her dress was so artfully arranged that it covered the pedals, another sign that it was prerecorded, but she looked very lovely which was the point, so well done her.

And please don't denigrate 1 woman's achievements to build up another - your Milli Vanilli comment was exactly that. And yes, I said Meghan was talented, but she was definitely no Meryl Streep. But that's because so few actresses are.

So you denigrated Meghan immediately after asking @MrsMaxDeWinter not to do similar? Why even point out she is no Meryl Streep? You’re comparing Meghan unnecessarily to another actress. If you’re going to point it out to someone else, you probably shouldn’t do it yourself in the very next sentence!

I don't think William and Kate have stopped using the royal rota like Harry and Meghan wanted to do, the newspapers would have reported it.

I think they are increasing their social media activity which by definition does not need the royal rota or conventional press to reach its audience.

Maybe we can agree that Meghan is as good an actress as Kate is a pianist.