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?

I don't think the media have done a lot (or anything, really) wrong on this occasion. They've given Kate privacy, didn't publish the paparazzi photo from a week ago at KP's request, and have upheld journalistic standards over a doctored image. Social media has been an absolute cesspit, but it usually is unfortunately. The fact is that Kate's illness and absence, and the recent developments are newsworthy and so will be reported on to some extent. The speculation has become a story in itself, they can't really just ignore that.

But I agree, I don't think anyone is holding it against Kate and I think when she reappears there will be a very positive response.

It may be a clusterfuck to you but not to everyone

It's hardly a comparison, the leader of the free world trying to make himself look younger and a woman with a photo with her actual children

I agree it was a stupid thing to do but with most things it's the intention behind it. Did she want to appease the public? Did she think it was a lie? We don't know

It's certainly done them no favours and has increased the speculation, they would have been better sticking to she will out of the public eye

If there is something else going on then it will be so much worse for them now

If that's the case, it's because people are willing to give up their rights and freedoms in this country so that they can continue to forelock tug to the Royals. The British press absolutely hide the RF secrets for them for as long as they can and do their dirty work for them. And the public are fine with that. International press agencies aren't beholden to the Royals and will not compromise their professional integrity by publishing something clearly altered in such a way that it potentially compromises the truth of a story. That kill notice went out to every journalist in the world. Its humiliating. Not least to the British media who are now faced with defending this shitshow in return for continued access.

away from these sorts of discussions or Twitter most people think the photo-editing is a complete non-event
The only crisis is the one facing the media: people still love Kate but after this they hold the media in more contempt than ever.

..... er..............

... wishful thinking, maybe? This is a cataclysmic event from a PR point of view for the RF - from US network news and Stephen Colbert-type shows to BBC podcasts to Australian cable TV to TikTok and X to an explosion of threads on MN, this is ALL people have been talking about since 5 Kill Notifications were issued by press agencies over a fake photo issued by Kensington Palace.

That media agencies refused to in essence proceed with publishing fake news, i.e disinformation, choosing instead to take the rare step of issuing kill notifications directly to every single working journalist on planet Earth, is to their credit - your assertion is way off the mark.

Someone posted upthread a link to a statement from the BBPA, which I'll repost here as it highlights exactly why the media is congratulating itself in upholding high standards to protect the public in an age of AI-proliferated/photoshopped disinformation, whether it comes from nutters on TikTok or nutters at Kensington Palace.

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

I listened to the podcast this morning and thought they came across as sympathetic to Kate.

I listen to their podcasts every week and the one on Christian Horner was epic imo 😁

edit - fairly sympathetic to Kate I’m meant to to say

Think one of them also felt that Kate has been thrown under the bus somewhat. I’ll have another listen later in case I’ve got it wrong.

It's an interesting podcast. Yes a lot of sympathy for Kate

To me it’s not kate editing a photo, ,
it’s the fact Kensington palace press office saw no issue and released a very edited and dubious photo to Mark a day that is meant to celebrate motherhood, and tried to pass it as a genuine one

more over she’s being mocked world over for something she probably didn’t do,

we really don’t know anything about her condition , but are supposed to believe the very people responsible for this debacle ?

I really feel so sorry for her .

Yes I listen every week too. It's a really interesting podcast in general.

So do I

We know the palace are happy to throw married in females under the bus so I don't know why we're surprised.

Can you imagine William putting out a statement saying he photoshopped the pic
It would be unheard of even if he did it

I think you need to take that up with Associated Press, one of the reputable agencies thst pulled the photo. They said they issue kill notices probably once a year, and they are usually pictures from places like North Korea.

It's not about Kate. People have been misled by Kensigton Palace and the office of the Prince of Wales. A man who will be installed as our Head of State in a few years, whether we like it or not. There is no ' feels they were misled' about it. KP deliberately misled the public and then threw Kate unde the bus for it, making it all about her.

Kate is patron of the Royal society of photography, Was involved in several photgraphy projects like hold still and an exhibition about holocaust survivors , hardly an amateur, and so in control of her own image, it just doesn’t make any sense to anyone.

I feel for her as well. Not an enviable position to be in.

None of it makes sense. KP have completely trashed her reputation in a futile bid to save their own. Poor woman has found out the hard way what the RF think of people not blood Royals. Even if they've given them 20 years of their lives and bent over backwards to be who they want her to be.

I think you’ve got this the wrong way round, I don’t think people are holding the media in contempt.

In this scenario the press have acted with integrity, it’s KP Comms who should be held in contempt for their actions.

So, phase 2 for KP's comms strategy is now clearly in focus.

If there are two things the RF comms' teams have been grooming the British public to believe for years, they are:
Belief 1: Kate is a perfect, lovable saint
Belief 2: Meghan and Harry are ... [fill in your 56 favourite insults for them]

So what's the best way to get out of a PR sh*tstorm crisis for the RF? Tap into both beliefs, of course!

Leveraging Belief 1 consisted in making Kate the sKategoat for the fake photo fiasco. Few believe she spent hours of her recovery time slaving away at her laptop on Photoshop, sitting upright (in the tight jeans visible in the fake photo). But who better to blame than Kate? Most of the British public love her, they will say it was an innocent mistake and be forgiving. Better her than Will, or KP's highly successful PR team, who thought through the implications of issuing a fake photo to the press and stopped it before that happened - NOT!

Phase 2: use trusted Belief 2 to deflect: "Meghan and Harry did it too! And in fact did worse!" "Meghan and Harry bla bla bla!" Make it about Meghan and Harry, most of the public love spending their days hating them anyway!

One look at online front pages of royalist media such as the Telegraph and Independent says it all:
Kate's had the week from hell, but at least Saint Meghan can start a charity for her (by a Michael Deacon in the Telegraph)
Kate revealed as Britain's favourite royal as Meghan and Harry's popularity slumps (Telegraph - again??? hasn't it reached absolute zero by now??)
Meghan ‘would never make photo mistake like Princess of Wales’ (some fake news in the Telegraph about nonexistent "Sussex sources" gloating)
Harry and Meghan's photographer hits back at editing claims (which were made the day before by British newspapers, incl the Independent)

The trouble is, it's just too transparent, too obvious, too simple.

I suspect it's going to soooooo backfire that KP will hesitate to default to this approach again in the future, despite it serving them so well in recent years. M&H left 4 years ago, they are old news as far as the RF is concerned, and this current crisis has nothing to do with them, no matter how many straws KP and the subservient British media clutch at.

Also, the TikTok generation just don't see the world in simplistic Belief 1&2 terms, and they are the ones busily making the BBL and photoshop fail memes mocking not just Kate, but also William and the entire RF. That will not stop, no matter how hard KP try to pivot by dragging M&H through some of the mud KP/RF currently are in.

Show live (undoctored - duh!) footage of Kate, folks. Until you do that, the world will continue laughing their heads off, as do the Aussies in the video below:

As soon as that statement from Catherine was published I immediately thought wow really going there to use her as people will be more sympathetic and lo and behold everyone is willing to turb blind eye to the seriousnessof doctoring an image and lying.

Also, the TikTok generation just don't see the world in simplistic Belief 1&2 terms, and they are the ones busily making the BBL and photoshop fail memes mocking not just Kate, but also William and the entire RF. That will not stop, no matter how hard KP try to pivot by dragging M&H through some of the mud KP/RF currently are in.

The Tiktok rabbit hole is quite remarkable and absolutely nothing like anything going on here. On MN there are reasonable counter arguments to every argument, with a lot of outrage stemming from female solidarity and people who clearly identify with Kate on many levels. Lots of "leave her alone, she's a mother, think of the kids, she needs privacy, I also needed X time to recover from surgery, etc etc". Many users take absolute delight in shooting down others with personal insults like deranged, batshit, having no life or tin foil hat wearing for daring to suggest something like alleged marital problems.

Tiktok, more accurately the Gen Z and early Millennial generation, is far more investigative but flippant. People don't judge, don't moralise and don't care. This leads to remarkable opinions and discourse by creators who are entirely different to the "typical" makers of RF content. A huge majority are American, many are male, POC or non-binary. Some of them don't even know the names of Kate's children but are just obsessed by the situation for the virality. It's literally trending up and down Tiktok and the algorithm shows you more and more clips as soon as you've watched one.

If KP comms knows they fucked up badly on X or mainstream press, they haven't dared to venture onto Tiktok. It's safe to assume that they are not familiar with TT based on the fact all of them seem to be a solid 10 years behind on digital literacy. The interesting thing is that Tiktok does not have an underlying malice or cruelty like X but it's treating the entire spectacle as pure entertainment. The entire RF is being meme-fied right now...there are skits, jokes, commentaries, satire, greenscreen, filters, AI generated imagery, you name it. To be fair, some of the content is pretty fucking hilarious. You can't beat Gen Z for creativity. Plenty of videos have millions of views, far more than anything mainstream press have garnered.

The interesting thing is that Tiktok does not have an underlying malice or cruelty like X but it's treating the entire spectacle as pure entertainment.

(Of topic) Wow ! You’ve hit the nail on the head with regards to how different TT and X are in terms of “voice” so to speak. I wonder if it’s because there isn’t the same level of anonymity as you can get on X.

Interesting though hard to imagine 1m views etc I reckon Charlotte will take over this side of the publicity in a couple years!

The thing about ' belief 1' is that as part of the Kate is a perfect saint' narrative was that she was an accomplished photographer, who was patron of the Royal Photographic Society and provided professional photographs for several books. So either all of those well edited photos weren't her, she just pointed and clicked and other people did all the hard work for her- destroying her reputation and meaning she won't be trusted to send out any photos again, or the mothers day photo wasn't her but they've got her to carry the can, again, destroying her reputation and cynically doing a shit job and leaving the meta data on. The photographer who took Meghans pregnancy photo has released the original because the British press have put his professional reputation at risk. KP haven't released the original of this which, if it was editing the cuffs of a jumper would be no problem. They either don't care about destroying Kates reputation in the one area she seems to like and be good at or they are deliberately destroying her.

Whether not caring about her reputation or deliberately destroying it, poor woman.

Not for all the money in the world would I trade places with her.

I doubt she'll post another picture ever again whether edited or not!

Playing into the hands of the media if she doesn't! Probably they've been peeved that she's encroached on their territory releasing her own photos and here's the chance they've been looking for.

Also peeved that she's not playing ball by not releasing every juicy detail of the op, her recovery, how she feels etc. etc.

Good for her I say!

The only way they survive is to be in cahoots with the media, keeping their secrets and printing their puff pieces/ leaks etc. They think they can play the press but they can't. We will all be better off if the press and the Royals were independent of each other and they were subject to proper scrutiny- including them. They are not best served by being surrounded by people blowing smoke up their arses constantly.