Omid Scobie's New Book - PART 2

[Mymilkshakebringsallthepapstomycar]

I'm not sure what is the correct etiquette for carrying on a thread, but here we are. Thanks to @BoxedandRibboned for the original thread.

Original thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/4935714-omid-scobies-new-book?page=40&reply=131041571

I will also say that, reading a few news and gossip sites this morning, I did worry that the pressure Scobie must be feeling now must be huge. Like, worryingly so. Yes, he sought it out but it does feel a bit like a MN pile-on but global, 24/7, with major players coming at him from all sides and big legal and financial stakes. I really hope he takes a break now and disappears to somewhere far from all this noise to recover. Nothing and nobody is worth all this, surely.

Yes, it does seem mean to OS to disassociate themselves from him - unless people are looking after him on the quiet; he has moved to California, after all. I wonder what it would take for him to sing? He must have shovelfuls of dirt on H&M. Eg how Harry was hunted down like a bit of Balmoral prey by Markus Anderson for Meghan.

Short for home boy. You’re going to have to look that up, last time I posted a dictionary definition, I was deleted.

I don't feel sorry for him in the slightest.

If you're going to write a book featuring extremely damaging accusations about two very famous people, one of them a head of state, then you have to be prepared to take the consequence. Scobie is the author of the book. Not the Dutch publishers nor the poor maligned translator. He bears the responsibility. He is no victim.

Hasn’t Catherine got to come out and be “Stepford Wife-like” at the Royal Variety Performance tonight? I feel sorry for her, she can’t just go and hide. OS not so much. He doesn’t deserve death threats or anything like that, but he knows the world of the digital pile on, he’s a tabloid journalist.

This is my thought process:

Omid Scobie is not naive, he's a bit of a chancer, he has some brains but not vast intelligence, he's vain, he's 'thirsty' (ie desperate), all it seems he has going for him is this gig writing about H&M.

He's been the witting (probably) or unwitting (unlikely, but it doesn't really matter now) source of a serious allegation against a current King and future Queen, perhaps (or perhaps not, it doesn't really matter now) on behalf of Meghan.

People totally unrelated to Scobie or Charles or Kate are coming after Scobie's reputation, livelihood, threats of legal action against him from at least 3 quarters, looks like he's being hung out to dry by the Sussexes, doesn't seem to have any or many on his side. He seems quite alone in all this.

If you were Charles or Kate (or anyone, frankly), would YOU want anything to do with Scobie crumbling under the pressure, doing something awful? This isn't the Deep South, someone fighting for civil rights, standing up to racism and willing to lay down their lives for it. It's Meghan Markle trying to stay relevant when she and her husband flounced out of the royal family. It's gossip and utterly, completely inconsequential.

@JSMill Craig Doyle, thank you. Yes, he was really good, the right combination of probing questions and having compassion. He reminded me a bit of a teacher talking-to a promising student who has produced a sub par essay. You can do better, lad!

I don't think any of the royals will get involved. They'll continue grey rocking this hack and his 'bosses'.

I still don't feel in the slightest bit sorry for him however. If you accuse a King and future Queen of racism, which is what he effectively did however much he might like to play with words and blame dodgy translations, what exactly do you think is going to happen?

I will also say that, reading a few news and gossip sites this morning, I did worry that the pressure Scobie must be feeling now must be huge. Like, worryingly so. Yes, he sought it out but it does feel a bit like a MN pile-on but global, 24/7, with major players coming at him from all sides and big legal and financial stakes. I really hope he takes a break now and disappears to somewhere far from all this noise to recover. Nothing and nobody is worth all this, surely.

I'm sure the money will be of some consolation to him. He chose to write it and I'm sure he's loving the attention and publicity for the book.

He's also rather good looking 👀.

I'm in 2 minds here. On the one hand it was a bit of a dick move - yet on the other by outing what was written in the version given to the Dutch translator has totally taken the wind out of OS - all week he has been touting the "I know who the royal "racists" are but I can't name them ... yet". It was a sword that H, M and OS have left hanging over the RF for years now - ever since the Oprah interview. By outing them Piers has denied OS, H and M the "big reveal" ... for good and bad.

I cannot see how it was "accidental" that the "wrong version" was sent to the Dutch translator. It follows the playbook from Spare when copies being "accidently" released in Spain was used to boost sales as it got everyone talking about it.

It will be interesting to see what the RF do now. I mean Meghan went to court because her letters to her father ended up being used by the DM - yet apparently the King's private letters to her have been shown to OS

I couldn't possibly comment....lovely voice....

That the two female translator are now named in the daily mail it so simple to pass the blame with no consequences of who you are passing the blame onto.

I think Piers Morgan did the right thing. (Even though it was also self serving.)

It's farcial that everywhere else in the world it's being discussed openly and everyone in the UK who has internet access can find out, but all public discussion pretends we don't know.

Much better to state the known reality and discuss that.

I see he he doubling down on this notion that he never wrote a version with the names included in it. This is going to come back to bite him. I believe it was translated and checked by two very experienced translators. Is he asking us to believe that they both mistakenly included names of individuals that were not in the manuscript? Sounds very far fetched.

If there is not a translation error is he suggesting that someone else wrote the Dutch version? Or someone tampered with his original manuscript?

He is throwing the translators under the bus.

He lied about his age and repeated the lie when challenged until it was proven he lied (he was on tape). He is obviously comfortable lying and defending lies to the hilt until the evidence is overwhelmingly against him. This is obviously his MO.

The person I feel sorry for is Catherine, who has to front up to the Royal Variety performance tonight with the world's eyes on her and the accusation she is a racist. I wonder if this was timed as payback - for the time Meghan had to front up to the Royal Variety performance when she said she was suicidal.

Like when The S*n published the nudie photos of Harry in Las Vegas. We'd all seen them already, but no British paper dared to print them.

https://www.itv.com/thismorning/articles/exclusive-omid-scobie-speaks-out-about-royal-book-translation-error

Here's the link to This Morning. Just watched it and yes Scobie is a wriggly as a wriggly thing. Alison kept dabbing at her eyes as if it was causing her some issue or she has a cold. At one point she grabs her phone...Craig was great - really put him on the spot! Scobie was the usual crap -" I didn't say Stepford wife, I said Stepford wife like. I wasn't in communication with MM. I was in communication with her comms officer. This book isn't about H and M but there are 20,000 words in it about racism but wait it's not racism it is unconscious bias. Everybody in the press knew who the names were anyway. " All the usual diversionary tactics - "all I know is the English book that I wrote."
He's a snake and yes thinks he is quite the cut above other reporters and yes poor me I've been getting savaged by the press.

A lot of laws - in many countries - haven't really caught up with the digital age yet. For countries like the UK and the US we are all waiting for people to bring cases that will test the grey areas and create some precedent.

Libel and immigration/employment law are two of the biggest ones that are pressed up against the online world window.

A lot of countries have tourist visas that ban any employment which most people understand to be local employment but some people have got in trouble with digital work too. Tax law also hasn't really worked out how to cope with the new generations of digital nomads.

Libel laws need something to have been published - but what if you use an overseas publication like Scobie's current issue. Where do you sue?

@Vespanest thanks for the heads up on the article on the Dutch translators - those poor women thrown into this clusterfuck. They are named in the actual book acknowledgement section, so will forever be tied to this shit show. They will be well within their rights to consider legal action against both Scobie and the publishers for making statements that it was a mistake of translation. At the very least, there needs to be a very strong and public statement that these two women were not to blame and apologise for the initial laying of blame at their feet. It seems (from the article) that the 2 royal names were named in two separate parts of the book, not just in the passages about the letter exchange. Curiouser and curiouser.

Wasn't that before the internet?
So we hadn't all seen them, but we might have known they existed? I don't recall tbh.

I think nude photos are different. Fine to talk about them existing, huge intrusion into privacy to publish them.

Unless the person themselves leaks them or were nude publicly...then fair game.
But it would be silly to pretend they didn't exist.

No, it was about 10 years ago so we'd all seen the photos on the internet.

I'm confused about his argument that he wrote the English language version of the book but isn't responsible for the Dutch version. Does he think that translators re write books rather than simply translating them?

Has he said anything that makes it clear because his logic is strange.

Me too.

There is only one version of the book. The one written by him, in English. Or a juvenile form thereof. A translator's job is just that. Translating. Not editing, and certainly not adding in whole passages. As the author, he bears legal responsibility for the content of his book, whether it's in English, Dutch, Japanese or whatever.

@MalagaNights it was 2012.

Nope I'm still just as confused as you regarding his 'logic' as I said earlier in the thread he's acting like every version of the book is a separate entity which is the most bonkers excuse ever.

Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any hostility against the translators I've only seen people commenting kindly in their favour and calling out how illogical his stance in blaming them is.