Why does it matter of Kate edited the photo??

[whatisheupto]

I feel like I am totally missing the point and I am fed up of being in the dark about it! Please explain it to me!

I genuinely do not know why it matters that Kate tweaked her photo?

Surely the purpose was to edit the usual things that spoil a photo a bit.

Does her editing a photo imply something?

Hi OP

To answer your question you need to put everything that has happened to Kate in context.

Kensington Palace put out a statement towards the end of last year explaining that Catherine would be undergoing surgery and the expected timeline for people to expect to see her. This was stated to be Easter time which is in 2 weeks.

There was the initial flurry of speculation in the wider media but this died down pretty rapidly in the media and in royalist (I include all factions in the Windsor Wars in this)

Towards the middle of February – there started to be an interest and speculation in royalist circles on social media as to where she was. This especially ramped up when William went back to work. You can look back through Mumsnet to see – you start having questions being asked in subtle and not so subtle ways. The low level chatter continued until Kensington Palace released a statement reminding people of the timeline and again for the most part the speculation died down most people in the non royalist circles.

In royalist circles – there were conspiracies being created including the unfortunate passing of Thomas Kingston and other outlandish and over the top speculative stories with regards to Catherine. These all primarily were on social media and places like Mumsnet towards the end of February. Catherine was then papped with her mother and this ramped up interest, again mostly on social media.

This takes us to Mother’s Day and that lovely picture. The release of the picture of course raised query of its provenance from the usual suspects from conspiracy and royalist social media. The inconsistencies seem beyond a simple retouch that most of us would do in a picture like brightening of fixing a stray hair or face tuning and appeared to beyond even some of the complex face adjustments that can be done on a Pixel phone which caused the media companies to issue the kill notice. This is what then attracted the interest of people beyond the usual spheres of interest and has caused the massive amount of interest in what is happening here where we have this being talked about on the News at 10 (!!!!!!).

I think that everyone was given a clear timeline with regards to when we would see Kate and Kensington Palace should absolutely have held their nerve in response to the social media speculation. The Mother’s Day picture was released in response to this and was meant to convey her good health and perhaps quiet the chatter down. I feel this based on the details that were included of the provenance of it – recent picture and taken by William. We then have Catherine – who didn’t take the picture – saying that she was the one who did the editing and then have photographers and editors saying that the editing was beyond simple editing. The concern is that KP released a picture which is a lie with the express goal of deceiving the public. Please don’t get me wrong – Catherine has the right to time off work due to her illness and has the right to privacy, but KP in their zeal to appease the social media mobs have scored a spectacular own goal and have raised real questions now about the veracity of all the information they release into the public space. That is pretty serious. I’m also pretty concerned that Catherine is the one who has been made to shoulder the blame for this because it is more than obvious to me that this wasn’t her doing.

Sorry about the length of this

Well said @skullbabe

I just find it extraordinary they released that picture in the first place.

They should have released one for Mother's Day of the children painting cards or picking daffodils and whilst there would have been an initial 'where is Kate' clamour, it would have died down really quickly because everyone wants her to get better and she is totally entitled to her privacy after an operation

But they have fucked up big time with this. People will wonder what to believe from now on.

I wonder if it's true that William only visited Kate once while she was in hospital for two weeks? It doesn't suggest much affection for her, if that's the case.

Very poor form of him to allow Kate to shoulder the blame for a bodged photo that most likely she had no part in producing. It's almost like they wanted to show her in a poor light. It would have been so easy to blame 'the comms team' instead, which was probably the truth.

I'm old enough to remember when Charles's PR people started to subtly criticise Diana and I'm hoping I'm wrong to be reminded of that this week.

Yes they should have held their nerve and stuck to original timeline which was off until Easter

IMO it was that pap car shot which instigated the Mother’s Day pic as it wasn’t the best

The media have made it clear, they could turn on her. It all seems like "you walk our line missy, not the other way around, enough with your privacy".

I think a lot of the current speculation is coming from people who are seeing this as the new Glaswegian Willy Wonka Experience.

i.e. Something fun to discuss on social media. It’s a bit of a mystery and everyone loves one of those.

Exactly, bullying at it's finest

It's the lies and the trickery. I think removing the eye bags or something like that would be probably enough. That photo was not taken by William, nor was it tweaked. It's heavily edited and looks like it's several images put together and superimposed.
Lying about taking the photo last week is one thing, then doubling down and lying about some light editing . . .

People think Kate was never near a camera or photoshop. That they are hiding something. Why go through such lengths?

Also what's her wingspan? Seems HUGE for a small woman. The CNN are reviewing all photos previously submitted by the British Royals.

It would have been far easier to stay in hiding or just say, I am sorry I am not up to pictures right now, here's one from the archives, happy Mother's Day.

The speculation is coming from papers, how do you explain The Telegraph, Independent, Tatler and many other foreign papers randomly writing profile articles on The Marchioness of Cholmondeley? Right now?

The speculation on social media wasn’t ever coming from “royalists” - most of it has been coming from Harry and Meghan fans.

I defined royalist in my text - these are people from all aspects of the Windsor wars - so this includes people who are H&M fans - and conspiracy twitter. Again I have said this was limited to social media but the release of the Mother's Day picture is the driver of the explosion to wider media and to people who are not normally interested in the BRF.

"An analysis of the furore published online by CNN said that, like most news organisations, they “regard it as unacceptable to move, change or manipulate the pixels of an image” as it would alter the reality of the situation the image is intended to document.
“CNN is now reviewing all handout photos previously provided by Kensington Palace,” it added.
A decision about any action will be taken when the investigation has concluded."

The digital fingerprint of the Princess’s photograph, released to mark Mother’s Day, suggests that she merged multiple images using Photoshop.
Analysis of data embedded in the image indicates that a copy and paste function was used.

Just to point out this again, this wasn't the normal bit of editing or touching up people do on instagram.

Stephen Colbert on The Late Show (One of the US's last national prime time progrmames that still pulls real numbers and provides the proverbial watercooler moments in the office the next day) had a whole section last night about William's alleged affair with Rose Hanbury. That would never've happened fives years ago, even the US media was fairly deferential (mostly out of respect for the Queen).

So I think the curtain is starting to fall and by the end of this week it'll all be out in the open.

I think a lot of the current speculation is coming from people who are seeing this as the new Glaswegian Willy Wonka Experience.

Precisely this - if KP had held their nerve and not released this picture the speculation would have continued to patter away in the background in social media and not had this world wide event glare. Seeing how social media frenzies go - it is the equivalent of what is new and shiny this week (so Willy Wonka, the Roman EMpire, the submarine, Reesa Teesa) and everyone will be talking about it. The path through is keeping your head down, don't engage and play possum - people get bored and move on. KP didn't do that and here we are.

Exactly my point - I always imagined The Telegraph and maybe The independent as quite respectable. I could have never thought they would write entire articles about the Marchioness of Cholmodeley, right now when Kate is apparently unwell, the King is unwell, there's been a death in the family, picture gate etc. Of all the times these articles could have been written right now seems quite telling!

Yes I saw the segment by Steven Colbert. It was a bit funny to be fair. I imagine it's only a matter of time before it all comes out. People are in denial but time will tell.

That's exactly what I thought and some AI in certain areas of the image. Kate was nowhere near that camera. Neither was William.

I just think the UK media are properly ticked off that they're on a blackout and not allowed to report on things that are being reported on across Europe and the US. It's making them look stupid and feudal.

It doesn't work in the days of the internet.

I think the charabanc will totter on for a few more days then someone will break the balckout and it'll all come crashing down by the weekend.

And this is why you don't feed social media. By so obviously presenting an untruth (the picture), KP have opened the flood gates to the more salacious aspects of the rumours becoming more mainstream.

And that's the whole point isn't it.

The palace lied to us the people

@CantDealwithChristmas I agree. I also think they know for a fact what's going on.
There's a picture of the Marchioness at an event with Sarah Vine. I didn't realise they were all so pally.
These people know exactly what's going on. Article like that about Rose Hanbury, with no speculation (because they aren't allowed to speak on it - we've seen many speculative articles deleted before) seems rather telling given the timing of it all.

Give it a few weeks. It depends how much pressure the press applies. It will all come out.
The social media conspiracies are WILD!!

Yes, exactly this. I am honestly surprised people are so blasé about this. I don't really care what is going on with Catherine (obvs hope she is well), but the future king tried to mislead the public.

Lying to the people is what brought down Boris (eventually...!) a few years ago. I really feel that heads of state lying via official channels should matter

Yeah and Sarah Vine's opinion piece in the Mail today, hinting at a potential divorce and calling on KP to stop lying and treating the public like fools.

It's all bubbling up under all right

Exactly - how many other lies have been told.

"Royal news – live: Kate ‘shaken’ by public response to photo editing row as CNN reviews all Palace handouts"

People just don't seem to care they are lied to

It's serious! I may not be a fan of the RF but don't treat us like idiots. William, no you didn't take that pic last week, and poor Kate is taking the rap for this

"The British Press Photographers’ Association applauds the actions of the major agencies who have had the courage to withdraw the recently distributed image showing Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales and her children by issuing a ‘kill notice’. Their suspicions that the photograph had been digitally manipulated are well-founded and it is important for the reputation of press photography that they have acted as swiftly and decisively as they have."

"We would urge everyone involved to make the original images available for inspection so that we can assess what has been done, make sure that it doesn’t happen again and allow this story to be the last time that manipulated images are distributed to the media."

http://thebppa.com/content/uploads/240311-statement_from_the_bppa.pdf