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.

No - I can't say that because I don't know, which is why I posted "wheher the RF or anyone else"

That said, the RF have provably been involved in some pretty shady activities and Harry's a member who's been raised among their expectations and enttitlement, so who can say?

That said, the RF have provably been involved in some pretty shady activities and Harry's a member who's been raised among their expectations and entitlement, so who can say?

It’s an odd thing to imply given Harry and Hugh are the ones wanting a trial. Quite the opposite of hiding grubby deals. There are clearly other members of the family who prefer to keep agreements with the press hidden.

I have a feeling that Harry's revelations in SPARE were partly calculated to arm himself against being cross-examined on things like his drug use if ever there was a trial.

If so, good for him.

They have nothing on him. He has owned up to everything they knew about.

If it comes to it, he will do just fine in the witness box.

Pity poor NGN though. On the one hand, they definitely want this thrown out, but on the other, imagine the clicks Harry in the witness box would generate for The Sun!

Of course, that's why I believe he will get the last laugh. Many people don't realise that the stories he told were the type of material that the papers could allegedly use for "blackmail".

So Harry said ....Frost bitten balls.....virginity in a field...strippers in Vegas etc. And now there's nothing to hold over him, hence the anger!

@MrsMaxDeWinter @BelleHathor I completely agree with you! When people were losing their tiny minds over these one line revelations because the tabloids blew them up, I just thought, oh he’s getting it all out. Even things that are embarrassing. I read a bbc article about the case today and this stood out:

There is a political undertone that might have got lost in the royal soap opera. Harry accuses the press barons of creating a "stalemate society, where they can enrage the public over the most mundane and petty things, to distract from the critical issues for our country and communities"

About the most real thing he’s said.

It’s an odd thing to imply given Harry and Hugh are the ones wanting a trial. Quite the opposite of hiding grubby deals

I totally get the point here, Whaeanui, though am not sure Harry has the intellect to understand what a trial could involve. It's always seemed to me more likely that he just wants a high profile forum to air his grievances, whether real or imagined, and that any unwelcome consequences would be just more examples of everyone being aginst him

Doubtless some will accuse me of wanting the press to get away with it, and nothing could be further from the truth. Like so many I'd love them to get their arses handed to them, but worry about the impact on the case of Harry's self described attitude to the truth

OP: Please do not intentionally derail this thread by discussing your personal dislike of particular family members or if they deserve it.

Also OP: Harry and Hugh are the ones wanting a trial. Quite the opposite of hiding grubby deals. There are clearly other members of the family who prefer to keep agreements with the press hidden

🙄

I don’t know where all this chat about his intellect comes from, is it based on academic ability? Some of the most intelligent people I know are not academic at all and did poorly at school.

Anyway, he has a team of people working on his cases that are experienced in hacking, they’ve worked on them before and his cases are all part of groups of claims of a similar nature. I don’t think he has imagined being hacked and I would be suspicious of anyone who did given his brothers claims were settled and NOTW at least, had to be closed down. I don’t think he, or Diana, were imagining any of the things they’ve claimed the press did to them, some of which is already proven. I think the press successfully painted her as paranoid to get away with treating her the way they did and they’re hoping spending months painting Harry in a similar fashion, a vengeful drug fuelled Prince blah blah blah will have a similar affect now. Like he said, they are successfully able to get the public worked up about minor issues that don’t affect them, so that people are not looking at things that are actually important.

Factual and relevant. Some have private agreements with the press, some royals want public trials. The topic is : the press and the royals.

They’re hoping spending months painting Harry in a similar fashion, a vengeful drug fuelled Prince blah blah blah will have a similar affect now.

I’m sorry, but at least some of us read Spare you know! Harry did that to himself!

@poppysockies I didn’t use the term ‘grubby deals’, another poster did. I referred to it as a private settlement.

I don’t tolerate personal attacks, you are quite active here yourself.

Maybe that’s why he came clean about his drug use - in case it came out in Court.

Arguably, H wants a public trial because he was only hacked once or twice and there is little to come out. He wasn't the main focus of the hackers - the tabloids at the time were much more interested in William and Kate and their privacy was breached on a much more significant scale, which is why they reached a settlement.

That’s an excellent point, poppysockies. Harry’s phone was hacked 9 times by NOTW, William’s 35 and Kate’s 155. It was during a period when William and Kate were younger, unmarried, and spent quite a bit of time apart as William was mostly training at Sandhurst or with the forces at the time. They might very well have good reason for choosing to keep the content of their messages private.

It’s interesting the Queens son, Tom, has publicly admitted taking marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy, and rumoured at least to supply it, and the tabloids haven’t given him the same treatment as Harry. Nor has this board. Why would the press go easy on the Queen’s son, but so hard on the Kings? What could it be…

I think that discussing the struggles the royals have with the press leads to discussions of the different ways they try to deal with them - on one side the symbiotic relationship between the 2, on another side settlements and on the other hand court action. I think having to make the best of a bad situation as William and perhaps Charles may have done is an awful choice and why it was hidden is well within the remit if this thread.

They might very well have good reason for choosing to keep the content of their messages private.

Of course and completely understandable.

seemingly devoting hours every day 🤣

Yes as I’ve said before, I think it’s horrible that in order to actually defend your right to privacy you have to actually reveal the private things they stole, publicly. That just doesn’t seem fair. William or anyone else for that matter, should be able to sue anyone who hacks or bugs them, while keeping the information itself private. Even if it appeared in articles. They should be able to seal those bits from the public.

Love that GIF 🤣

This could just be me, but is anyone else not getting notifications or nit seeing posts and then them showing up later? I think I can ask this in site chat? I’m sure someone here mentioned this, this week

William and Harry go about things differently. They’re different people.

Harry left the U.K. to protect his family . William settled his case, probably for a similar reason.

There is no point in fantasy talk about about the courts keeping things private. There are laws and procedures in place and no Royal can change the court system or demand it be changed . It would cause a constitutional meltdown if they did

Yes, @Whaeanui

It was myself and another poster it was happening to. Yesterday. A Lack of notifications, and a page of posts missing only to find them next time I revisted the thread. A couple of times only half the thread would appear. It happened more than once. It made the thread a lot harder to follow.

I think some other posters mentioned this happening in the last thread….

Thanks all, good to know it isn’t me! I missed lots of posts!