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The royal family
Original poster

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

OP posts:
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69
Serenster · 15/05/2023 20:58

skullbabe · 15/05/2023 20:43

I found the testimony by Dan Evans and Omid Scobie really interesting today. It was interesting to hear Omid’s perspective of the perception of him as H&M’s mouthpiece and how he has to hold off reporting first sometimes to prevent those accusations. Could not make out if he will be questioned further but we will see.

Given he apparently definitely isn’t giving evidence now to help Prince Harry, it’s a shame he didn’t come forward earlier and join the 300 people who gave evidence to the investigation of Lord Justice Leveson. After all, the Lord Justice himself described Piers Morgan’s denials of knowledge of phone hacking at the public inquiry as “utterly unpersuasive”. Imagine how useful he would have found the testimony of a journalist on work experience at the Mirror who heard Piers admitting to it in casual conversation!

Maybe someone will ask Omid why he didn’t come forward then, tomorrow?

Original poster
Whaeanui · 15/05/2023 20:59

skullbabe · 15/05/2023 20:43

I found the testimony by Dan Evans and Omid Scobie really interesting today. It was interesting to hear Omid’s perspective of the perception of him as H&M’s mouthpiece and how he has to hold off reporting first sometimes to prevent those accusations. Could not make out if he will be questioned further but we will see.

Yes I agree with you. I find Evans a much more interesting witness but early days yet isn’t it.

OP posts:
polkadotdalmation · 15/05/2023 21:00

If it means he stays in America, then thank god a few people actually like him. If he never set foot in my country it will be a happy day for me 🤣🤣🤣

MrsMaxDeWinter · 15/05/2023 21:06

polkadotdalmation · 15/05/2023 21:00

If it means he stays in America, then thank god a few people actually like him. If he never set foot in my country it will be a happy day for me 🤣🤣🤣

I think you forget @polkadotdalmation that he and his children 5th, 6th and 7th are in the line of succession. It's as much his country as yours. 😆

And Meghan is still officially a "Princess of the United Kingdom", so it's her country's as well :) 😅

skullbabe · 15/05/2023 21:45

Serenster · 15/05/2023 20:58

Given he apparently definitely isn’t giving evidence now to help Prince Harry, it’s a shame he didn’t come forward earlier and join the 300 people who gave evidence to the investigation of Lord Justice Leveson. After all, the Lord Justice himself described Piers Morgan’s denials of knowledge of phone hacking at the public inquiry as “utterly unpersuasive”. Imagine how useful he would have found the testimony of a journalist on work experience at the Mirror who heard Piers admitting to it in casual conversation!

Maybe someone will ask Omid why he didn’t come forward then, tomorrow?

Show quote history

Do you think they will? It’s hard to understand the flow of proceedings - will
MGN have time to ask more questions?

MrsMaxDeWinter · 15/05/2023 21:47

Does anyone know if Piers Morgan is going to testify?

skullbabe · 15/05/2023 22:06

Ooof - the knives are definitively out 😳

https://archive.is/X0Zlx

Welcome to nginx

https://archive.is/X0Zlx

AuroraCake · 15/05/2023 22:15

Probably not.

Given these are all historic, I see little use in this beyond the people involved getting compensation. We all knew Morgan was phone hacking. It was obvious they were all at it when it came out.

The tabloid press at the time were like rabid dogs. Everyone could see it. However press control is an eternally difficult thing because it needs to hold those in positions of importance to account and to act in the public interest.

Of course the things being accused of in these instances are not public interest stories.

the police would be unable to tap people’s phones in a murder enquiry. The secret service would. They were drunk on their own power for much of the 90s and 00s. We hope those days are passed.

4plusthehound · 15/05/2023 22:34

polkadotdalmation · 15/05/2023 20:10

Not sure how treating one comment on one thread and liking it to another goes?

What next for the Sussexes, is how I feel this will play out. It's a question and I answered it. Simple. Are you saying Harry has had significant jobs since he left the army? A badly written book, affiliation with a dodgy company, embarrassing interviews. Meghan has not acted since and has earned the family millions along with H by selling out the BRF. So what's this got to do with what she's doing now? I've no idea what she's doing now. Catherine is doing some nice piano playing and looking gorgeous. No idea what @Whaeanui's point is?

A badly written book

A very well written book (not by him I know) which may end up being the biggest selling non fiction book Of. All. Time.

embarrassing interviews

I found them interesting.

has earned the family millions along with H by selling out the BRF

Archtypes podcast did brilliantly and there is nothing royal at all in it.

affiliation with a dodgy company

I am not sure about this one!

But this one No idea what @Whaeanui's point is? is very disingenous!

I do admire you though @polkadotdalmation , you are dogged, I will give you that!😁

debbrianna · 16/05/2023 00:31

It is laughable when a person's whole career is compared in the same breath as a 1min mediocre piano playing.

Morestrangerthings · 16/05/2023 05:41

debbrianna · 16/05/2023 00:31

It is laughable when a person's whole career is compared in the same breath as a 1min mediocre piano playing.

Yep. It is laughable.

Morestrangerthings · 16/05/2023 05:49

And I quite like Kate’s public persona (it’s all I know). She’s is being a pretty good sport to show us her primary school piano level of playing. It’s not Kate. It’s the pro people who dislike Meghan and want to put her down who make ridiculous outsized claims about Kate to try elevate her above Meghan, that are actually problematic for Kate. They forget Meghan is gone, she’s moved on. This is woman vs woman shite in action.

queentim · 16/05/2023 06:30

MrsMaxDeWinter · 15/05/2023 18:56

@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/

Thank you

queentim · 16/05/2023 06:33

Exactly!

Ohpleeeease · 16/05/2023 07:15

1min mediocre piano playing.
**
primary school piano level of playing
**
Kate performing Milli Vanilli style on a piano

What on earth does this sort of comment achieve? Meghan worshippers really do let themselves down with this jealous claptrap.

MrsMaxDeWinter · 16/05/2023 07:39

Ohpleeeease · 16/05/2023 07:15

1min mediocre piano playing.
**
primary school piano level of playing
**
Kate performing Milli Vanilli style on a piano

What on earth does this sort of comment achieve? Meghan worshippers really do let themselves down with this jealous claptrap.

Posters have actually been remarkably restrained @Ohpleeeease
Here's one caustic take: Kate Middleton fiddletons on the piano at Eurovision.

Whoever had the idea that Andrew Lloyd Webber, famed composer, and Kalush Orchestra, Eurovision winners, should share the stage with a princess in a castle tinkling one chord sequence on a piano is someone, pun intended, tone deaf.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Kalush Orchestra, Kate Middleton.

One thing is not like the other, and to pretend otherwise is silly.

You know what this reminds me of? When Charles actually thought he could ask Lucian Freud (Lucian Freud!) to exchange one of his paintings for a watercolour painted by his royal hand. And yes, that actually happened!!

https://www.vulture.com/2023/05/kate-middleton-eurovision-2023.html

Kate Middleton Fiddletons on the Piano at Eurovision

The royals have inserted themselves into another internationally beloved treasure.

https://www.vulture.com/2023/05/kate-middleton-eurovision-2023.html

Ohpleeeease · 16/05/2023 07:59

Oh don’t be silly, @MrsMaxDeWinter it’s the ordinariness of her playing that’s the whole point. What a mean spin you put on it. But why do it in the first place?

MrsMaxDeWinter · 16/05/2023 08:28

I am reacting to the whole Kate stuns world hyperbole.

That was an actual headline.

The fawning and gasping is seriously over the top, and has, in consequence, some amusement value. A stunning performance it most decidedly was not.

Ohpleeeease · 16/05/2023 08:37

Well it was a silly headline, didn’t see it, assume it was somewhere like the Daily Mail. However if a critic of the Sussexes had quoted the Mail they’d be accused of being DM readers, so, can’t win.

Still makes the tone of the comments snippy and petty. And no, before you ask, I wouldn’t appreciate them if they were applied to Meghan either.

Howsimplywonderful · 16/05/2023 08:40

Kate was reflecting all of the amateurs out there.

The mean bitchiness is horrible, but not surprising.

Original poster
Whaeanui · 16/05/2023 08:52

@Ohpleeeease welcome to Mumsnet. The DM is quoted and shared regularly and plenty of nastiness about Meghan here too, looking forward to seeing you on the current threads about her that are full of meanness, defending her.

OP posts:
Ohpleeeease · 16/05/2023 09:18

Whaeanui · Today 08:52
@Ohpleeeease welcome to Mumsnet. The DM is quoted and shared regularly and plenty of nastiness about Meghan here too, looking forward to seeing you on the current threads about her that are full of meanness, defending her.

Thanks for the welcome, I’ve been around for a while so I know the score. I don’t get involved in the toing and froing about Meghan, never did, I really don’t care what jewellery she wears to go hiking or whether she invites paps along to snap her. But her OW interview was such an unforgivable act of treachery that I wouldn’t defend her either.

Anyway, I’ve said my piece, there is much said on these threads that is interesting, from both sides, I’ll keep reading. Over and out.

Original poster
Whaeanui · 16/05/2023 09:21

@Ohpleeeease you must have been a lurker or name changer then 😊 but I don’t see you taking anyone to task for their meanness about Meghan on that thread. I may have misunderstood but it looks like you’re saying she doesn’t deserve it because of her interview? Right. That’s an interesting perspective.

OP posts:
KattyJo · 16/05/2023 09:24

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Mumsnut · 16/05/2023 09:29

I wonder who will be on the stand today? I think it all starts at 10am, though there might be a bit of admin to cover before witness examination starts. The Telegraph does a rolling commentary

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