Harry and Meghan step down as senior Royals – because of bad press?
Bye bye: Prince Harry and his wife Meghan wave farewell to the corporate mass media hacks who they have accused of “misreporting” and spreading “false impressions”.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex – that’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (still) to most of us – have announced their intention to step back as senior members of the UK Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while still fully supporting the Queen.
It seems they are unhappy with certain aspects of the job – one of which appears to be the way their activities are reported in the press.
In that respect, This Writer thinks they’re right up with the rest of us.
Complaints and criticism of the way the general election has been reported are rife. And it seems these Royals are equally unhappy with the way they have been treated by the Fourth Estate.
In a statement on the Sussex Instagram page, they ripped into the Royal correspondents working for the UK’s mass media organisations [boldings mine]:
“Britain’s Royal Correspondents are regarded internationally as credible sources of both the work of members of the Royal Family as well as of their private lives. This misconception propels coverage that is often carried by other outlets around the world, amplifying frequent misreporting.
“Regrettably, stories that may have been filed accurately by Royal Correspondents are, also, often edited or rewritten by media editorial teams to present false impressions.”
The statement also announced a new publicity plan that takes them off the Royal Rota system, in which only a limited number of mainstream media organisations are allowed to attend Royal engagements – so they are obliged to share material that they gather there.
Instead, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said they will be adopting a revised media approach to ensure diverse and open access to their work:
“This updated approach aims to:
“Engage with grassroots media organisations and young, up-and-coming journalists;
“Invite specialist media to specific events/engagements to give greater access to their cause-driven activities, widening the spectrum of news coverage;
“Provide access to credible media outlets focused on objective news reporting to cover key moments and events.”
They will continue to share information directly to the wider public via their official communication channels.
This could really shake up the way Royal events are covered in the news.
Being somewhat long-in-the-tooth, This Writer doesn’t expect to benefit from the engagement with young, up-and-coming journalists – but I look forward to find out who these may be, and what grassroots organisations they Sussexes choose to carry their stories.
The idea of “widening the spectrum” of those who cover Royal news could really shake up a stagnant system, and if it jolts some of our more complacent reporters and corporations out of their smug security, I’m all for it.
Of course, it is entirely possible that the Sussexes want to go to the grassroots because they think less-established media organisations may be easier to manipulate.
I’ll be watching for that, too.
But at a time when the so-called media Establishment may have thought they had news coverage sewn up as propaganda for their chosen (right-wing, let’s face it) causes, this should come as a body blow.
Members of the UK’s fundamental institution don’t trust the Tory media – and they’re telling us not to trust them either.
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will they give up titles or milk them for hufe financial profits in US
We don’t know that they’re going to the US. Canada would seem to be a more attractive alternative.
I don’t think there was ever any intention to divest themselves of their titles. They’re handy things if you want to raise a bit of charity cash, you know – and that’s a good thing, I would have thought.
I’ve a Conservative friend, who hates the Sun and Rupert Murdoch, because he believes that they’ve done everything they can to bring down the monarchy. And I know exactly what he means, and doubt that he’s alone.
So in order to stop the attacks of the so called established media, many of whom are already hostile to this couple then they will restrict coverage by them and go to hopefully more broadminded vehicles. That’ll work.
I predict Meghan will be ‘blamed’ for this and we’ll see an increase in personal attacks on her. The MSM have never been comfortable with this young woman of colour and a divorced American to boot. So that’s what they’ve done – stuck the boot in – at every opportunity.
They’ve preyed on rumour and speculation about relationships between various individuals to the detriment of Meghan. They’ve criticised their attempts to have some private life and inflicted the rest of us with unwanted coverage of the gossip stemming from unnamed sources.
I suspect much of this has its roots in racism.
Good luck to them both in their attempts to get out from under the magnifying glass of public scrutiny and also out from the support of the public purse – which I understand to be their intention. I suggest Canada would be more sympathetic to them than the US but hey that’s up to them. I have little truck with the royals and the parasites that cling to them but I have some admiration for the positive charity work both these people have carried out and wish them well in continuing that.
Agreed.
While I think that it’s great that they are doing this – and lets face it, media reporting of everything needs to be shaken up, not just royal reporting – what really shocks me is that this is seen as more important news today than the situation in the middle east and Trump’s warmongering. Clearly something wrong here.
Agreed.
Although I have stayed away from the Middle East myself, except tangentially. That’s just because I’m not very well at the time of writing and probably wouldn’t do a good job of it. Simple stuff like Harry and Meghan, I can manage.
The reporting of this on the BBC and ITV today has been utterly laughable; full of “Here’s what I think…” royal correspondents like Tom Bradby and ‘fake news’ spreading Tory shills like Amol Rajan all doing the very thing that Harry and Meghan have cited as the reason for their decision.