PR Disasters Chapter 14

[Recklessismymiddlename]

Continuing the baton on from @Atlusvue

Archive link to William story https://archive.is/gVS4m

Polite reminder that I won’t be doing the next thread. ❤️

What does Harry want? He wants to be his brother. He can never get what he wants, so nothing Charles or anyone else gives him will make him happy. The Narnia/ 4 thrones at Cair Paravel fantasy solution is as close as it could get, and that is not happening either.

"Heir to the throne has longstanding friends and also might do things differently but nobody really knows tbh"

I'm not surprised he didn't fancy Jamaica after the way the last trip there was reported, surely that would be asking for trouble.

Re the Oprah interview, I believe it was claimed that no money changed hands, and there is every chance that the quid pro quo was the (then) very powerful media mogul's support and introductions into the higher eschelons of Hollywood. However, Archewell's opening balance was a very healthy $11m iirc, with a single donation of $9m, and I would be surprised if that came from the same Harry who complained he'd been cut off by Charles, and therefore needed to sell his truth to pay for security.

That Daily Mail story is odd and seems a bit of a stretch.

This is what I thought. Wondered what their objective is.

There is an undercurrent with that Mail article. I can’t see what the comments say.

To have a poke at William and imply he’s workshy and doesn’t want to be king, and to mention Rose Hanbury for no reason whatsoever. In fact I reckon that’s a mash up of a previous article about the Wales’s friend circle because the bit about the Cholmondleys sounds familiar. A typical hit piece from the DM. There’s at least one a week criticising either him or Catherine in some sly, faux concerned way. The other day it was their feature writer Maureen Callaghan on her podcast, talking with a new biographer of “Kate Middleton”, breaching Catherine’s medical privacy by more or less naming (whom he alleges) were her medical team, and blaming her for the “Where’s Kate” ridiculousness, because she didn’t lay her abdomen on a slab for the worldwide press to gawp at.

Don’t worry it will be handled when this one finishes.

Clicks to use the footy pics again. Their stats analysis will have shown that the initial William at the AV match got very high reader stats so the editor will have told the reporter to find a few ways to keep the William at the footy pics story alive by shoehorning it into a few different stories.

You’ll probably see it reworked several
more times over the summer.

There are the odd republican comment and obviously cube ones ! But the vast majority are not buying it and seem to think it’s coming from h and m! 🤷‍♀️

Both Archie and Lili were both UK and US citizens from the second they were born.

It’s not as simple as having a British parent and a US parent to pass citizenship on there are qualifying conditions for both countries but Harry and Meghan meet all conditions.

Interestingly Archie will be able to pass on his UK citizenship to his own kids as he was born in the UK but Lili won’t as she was born in the US.

As long as they live at least five years in the US with two of those years being after the age of 14 they will both be able to pass on US citizenship to their own kids no matter where they give birth.

edited for typo

They obviously don't have any damaging stories to run. The narrative that Charles and William don't agree and that William doesn't like royal life is long running but never has any actual evidence to back it up or give anyone anything concrete to discuss.

Rachel the Curious pilot has released another video breaking down Archwell finances (such as is in the public domain, “other expenses” for instance isn’t itemised or broken down.
I’m in awe of her, her beauty, her wonderful presentation skills and her many other accomplishments, being a pilot, having been a book keeper (I think a fairly high level one, not doing the books for the village shop).
Her concluding comments are beautifully articulated so I have screenshotted that part of the transcript.

I will say I’m quite surprised payroll is a mere $900k or so - I’d have thought all those PR people would be on quite high salaries but I suppose if they are paid by an organisation contracted by Archewell it could go under “other expenses”.

Actually have just read the piece.

It was definitely a chance to run all those footy pics again but a couple of other things stood out to me.

The whole thing is based on one 'royal' source. Just one.

And that source apparently has access to what the foreign office has been doing behind the scenes, what it was like for William to learn how the Middletons live, and how William feels about the 'big job'.

The same information could also have been written with an entirely different tone by the writer.

William has a loyal group of friends who all stand by each other.
He has down-to-earth, caring in-laws.
He opted to stay close to home for a couple of years while his father and wife were being treated for cancer.
He's not blase about becoming King and how that will change life for his family.

Tom Sykes is doing a live on that DM article as I type. Not watched it yet, but judging by the thumbnail, he’s going to blame Charles’s camp for spinning against William. 🙄

The then Prince of Wales was nearly 42 when his father died in 1936 .
His lack of interest in marrying -preferring to associate with married women- was hardly unknown by his father who probably thought David would become King, unmarried and die childless which would mean the throne would still have passed to his brother The Duke of York and then onto his eldest child -Elizabeth.
It must have been quite clear to the King (George V) that the Yorks were not going to have any more children, so no son to jump Elizabeth in the succession .

I think their objective is clicks => advertising => revenue. Any old royal story will do, doesn't particularly matter whom it favours. A couple of weeks ago the articles about William watching the football with his friends were quite positive, as were articles about him having plans to do things differently. So I don't think it means any more than they have some great photos of him and his pals and want to make the most of them. But also cui bono.. Harry of course. I don't know if he has the clout to get a story expressing concern about William's kingship into the Mail, but no doubt he'd love it. Harry actually thinks that he would be a better monarch and deserves to be king. Everyone else knows that this is the stuff of nightmares but it wouldn't surprise me if he thinks - story in the mail expressing concern.. whole country worried.. talk of getting rid of the monarchy if William is the only option.. if only we could have Harry instead.. and back he comes, triumphant. Remember his argument for security - I need it because I am so beloved that it would be terrible for the country if anything were to happen to me.

(The idea that William is some maverick and the courtiers are worried is plainly nonsense - he will be king, their boss. I'm sure he will build a team around him that he trusts, and if there are courtiers who are not on board I'm sure he'll find himself some that are.)

Harry reminds me at times of that other troublesome Kings brother George, Duke of Clarence. He also thought he’d make a better king than Edward IV. He was drowned in a vat of Malmsey wine IIRC.

Well quite! They really couldn't find anything bad to say about him so they just put a faux concerned twist on a load of old speculation. Pathetic really.

See I don’t believe all this spinning nonsense! , I saw an podcast interview awhile ago with some royal reporters who were saying in no uncertain terms that previous to Harry marrying Meghan there were no leaks at all ! , then suddenly there was! , all this spinning nonsense is just a rather annoyed press speculation from the only leaky royal they have left and as he is cut off his information is out of date and made up as usual!

Harry actually thinks that he would be a better monarch and deserves to be king. Everyone else knows that this is the stuff of nightmares but it wouldn't surprise me if he thinks - story in the mail expressing concern.. whole country worried.. talk of getting rid of the monarchy if William is the only option.. if only we could have Harry instead.. and back he comes, triumphant.

When in actual fact it's completely the other way around.

I watched it with an open mind, but the general gist is that Charles is jealous of William’s popularity and Tobin Andre has his old pals at the DM bringing him down a few pegs. Given the damage done to the RF by Andrew and Harry, briefing against the most popular royals who connect well with an increasingly tested public makes no sense to me. I don’t think Charles is that irrational. I think the DM run these sorts of stories every time we approach summer when the royals disappear from view. It’s a poke and a prod to illicit a reaction, along with the “Catherine blocks reconciliation with H&M” nonsense.