The Royal Family and the Media


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It’s not just the 50’s and 60’s. The article goes into the Charles-Diana era, too.

When Charles was Harry’s age he was given the exact same treatment.-

q: What kind of relationship do the photographers -- the pack -- have to one another?

a: The pack -- in the early days -- was seven or eight people, very competitive -- each one looking for a scoop on Prince Charles. It was mystery blond hunting -- unnamed girls with Charles. It was very competitive, but once the chase was over we all got together and would discuss what had happened -- who we thought it was, whether we'd seen her before. Was this a real romance? Would it peter out? Where were we going to find out about the latest girl. And the next day, we would get up, go our separate ways, chase up and down riverbanks or on foreign trips or even hire models to jump into the sea with him in Australia. We did all the bits and pieces. It was great fun. I think Charles enjoyed a bit of it. He once made a very rude and sexist remark. He said he could always tell when it was a set-up. The really beautiful girls were a set-up and the plain ones did it of their own volition, he said.


Another very interesting part was talking about trying to photograph Charles and Diana on vacation, even though they were given much harder time than the foreign press, and how the Queen intervened to have the photos blacklisted. This will have to be separated into two posts because it’s a long, complicated story



q: Can you take us through exactly what happened when you went to the island in the Bahamas.

a: We heard the Princess of Wales was going to Eleuthera and the Prince of Wales had been in Eleuthera before for a holiday and we naturally were going to follow and James Whitaker phoned up Michael Shea and said "Michael, we're off to Eleuthera." And he said "Look old chap, there's not much point in going. You'll get nothing. The Bahamian Police have promised full security and they're going to turn it all on to make sure they have a holiday in peace without you chaps getting there -- but do come along. You're welcome. You'll get a very nice picture of her arriving at the airport and when she leaves, seven days later, you'll get a great picture of her leaving with a suntan." So we booked up and flew out, arrived a couple of days in advance knowing other papers would be there. I think the Mirror chose not to go because of the Palace saying you won't get anything but we knew the Sun had, who were the big rivals, and that we were going and there would be freelancers there. So we went out there to do a recce. I mean you didn't do these things lightly. We found out that they were going to a different little island off Eleuthera -- it's called Windermere Island -- So we bought a map of the island and worked out how we would get there using compass references because there is a scrub jungle there and there is no point of reference and you're crawling through spiny jungle. It takes hours to go through and we had a lot of equipment to carry and a lot of water. We knew that the Sun were up to the same thing and I knew that the Sun photographer, Arthur Edwards, had been before and been successful and photographed Prince Charles water-skiing, so they had an advantage.

So we got up at five in the morning, put on thick sweaters and gloves -- this is to walk through great heat -- but the spines in the jungle just tore you to pieces. We made our way through and about eight in the morning we could hear the Sun crashing through the undergrowth the same way we were doing.

Eventually we got to an area of beach or mangrove swamp at the waterside. We could see a beach across from us which we reckoned was the one that we'd seen the day before. We'd gone out to the island, photographed the house they were going to stay in and had that picture standing by. We heard the Sun arriving, knew there was not much we could do about that and from checking the day before we'd found the Sun had hired a light aircraft to fly back to the main island. So we thought we're really up against it. James and I discussed the tactics. We thought if they get a picture of her, I'll give it to James. He will flee the island on a light aircraft, taxi aircraft, go to the mainland where there's a local agency. They would transmit the picture back to London for us and this is just to keep up with the Sun. It would have been much wiser to hold on another day but competition was so great.

Anyway within ten minutes of us getting there a party arrived on the beach consisting of Lord Romsey, his wife, Diana and someone else and Diana was wearing a beach robe and within seconds she took the beach robe off and was wearing a bikini underneath. I was watching this through a lens, the lens of a drainpipe and my colleague, James Whitaker was watching through his binoculars. And as I was trying to take the first couple of photographs, there was a mile of water between us and the water, the heat was rising off it and the image was shimmering and James said Oh **** because we'd never seen her like this before and we knew this was a controversial picture. So I shot a roll of film of Diana with Romsey and gave that to James who then disappeared, just crashed out the jungle. Then Charles arrived and the two of them got into the water. They were bobbing about, just their heads about the water, kissing and I kept shooting this and I was shooting color and black and white knowing the magazines we could sell to recover all the cost of the trip and so on. And it was great stuff. Within an hour or so the Sun team arrived and said, "Well what do you think of that?" I said, "Terrific." and we chatted for a minute and they said, "where is James?" And I said, "Oh he's probably gone off into the jungle to do some business." Well Arthur just exploded and he said, "has he gone back to transmit pictures?" And I said, "oh I don't know Arthur." I'm was being very cagey and he said, "because we're not. We canceled our plane." I said, well I don't know what they're doing. It might not be successful." Well the two of them disappeared really angry because they were going to come and tell us they were good boys and they were going to keep it for another day. But it didn't work out that way. So I stayed on for another hour and shot a lot more and packed up and carted the stuff back out the jungle.

q: So who got the picture in first and what was the reaction of the Palace and the competition?

a: Well, we got the pictures in all editions. A front page picture of Diana on a beach, The Sun, unfortunately, only got it in the last edition in Fleet Street which maybe a few people had seen but not very many. There was a huge uproar in London, which I wasn't aware of. I'd gone to bed that night, transmitted, and I still had more films to go of the kissing in the water, Diana throwing a towel over Charles head and wrestling him to the floor and real good horseplay pictures of them on the beach. I get up the next morning. I didn't want to call from the hotel because I knew the police would be looking for me by this stage. So I went to a call box at the airport and phoned up, got a reversed charge through and I said to my Picture Editor, you know, I shouted down the phone, "Bob, it's Ken." "Where are you?" So I told him I was on the island and I said, "I've got great, great pictures. They're much better than yesterdays. It's Diana throwing a rug over Charles head, wrestling him down in the sand, him picking her up in the water, heads bobbing, kissing." And Bob says, "Get off the island." And I said, "Sorry Bob, what's happening?" "Get off the island. Do not transmit any photographs." I said, "Why Bob? I know the police, I'll catch a plane off the island. I know the police will be looking for us now because we've upset and we've beaten their security." And he said, "No you must get off. It's been raised in Parliament as the blackest day in British journalism." Well my heart dropped and it was a really mean time.

I then did get a taxi over to the mainland but couldn't book into a hotel because my name was all over the front of the paper and they were looking for me. The poor guy at Reuters had his room raided and they found one of my prints on his transmitter. It said Ken Lennox in the bottom of it. And they arrested the guy and put him in jail. Despite his protestations they thought he was Ken Lennox and they put him in a jail and held him there and the Americans get really upset if one of their people have been held for taking a photograph of, so he was freed and flown to Miami where he was treated like a long lost hero coming home. Meanwhile I was dodging about on the main island with a suitcase, which eventually I buried in the sand and sort of walked about. I'd have been fairly obviously walking about with a suitcase and a bag full of cameras. I went to a local agency and this little Scots lady - I think her name was Kerr said "Oh Mr. Lennox. I have been told by the police to, the minute you come into the office to phone them and tell them you're here. I'll give you five minutes start" she said. So I disappeared again and eventually caught a flight directly back to the States. But back in London Lloyd Turner, the late Lloyd Turner who died just recently was fired at eleven o'clock in the morning by the proprietor but he was reinstated early in the afternoon. Oh there was a huge fuss in London.
 
Part 2 of the story

q: Could you just describe how Michael Shea reacted to the photographs and why he was so upset by these particular pictures.

a: The biggest upset of the pictures was that it had been announced that the Princess of Wales was pregnant. She was about four or five months pregnant. But a lot of people thinking back thought she had a huge, big tummy. She didn't have. She had a little tummy. A little normal tummy that lots of ladies have but because she was pregnant -- that was what it was all about. Pregnant Princess photographed in a bikini on the beach. It didn't matter that two hundred other people on the beach had all photographed her. It was a public beach and they had been lining up to take her photographs but bad old Press photographers had done it. Oh I was in trouble, big trouble at the time. I was exiled. I was sent to the Hertz Mountains in Austria to photograph Richard Burton making a film and I was there for weeks.

q: What was the Queen's reaction?

a: Well she issued the statement about the blackest days in British journalism. MPs raised it in Parliament. The Press Council sort of got up the lynch mob for us and when I eventually got back into circulation again I was sent up to cover the Queen at Balmoral-- the Games there. I got there and there was a whole group -- twenty, thirty photographers there -- and the Queen who has an eagle eye spotted me and sent a detective over to me, who took me aside and said, "Her Majesty has seen you here and doesn't want you here." And I said, "but I've got a pass, you know, I'm doing it officially for my paper." And he said, "this town isn't big enough for the two of you. You're coming on the trip to Italy. If I were you I would make yourself very scarce." And I looked over the detective's shoulder. The Queen was thirty meters away but she wasn't watching the tossing of the caber or the highland dancing. She was watching my reaction and I picked up my bags, put my cameras away and got out of town.

q: What about Royal holidays?

a: Well holidays are supposed to be off-limits. We're not supposed to be there but we are there and we're there if it's a foreign holiday -- by right to be there. So what happens is there's a little bit of shuffling goes on and when we all turn up Michael or whoever would come down onto the beach and say "Look chaps, this is a private holiday. You can't do this." And we would say, "Michael, can we have one photograph to show that the couple are in Kenya or wherever and we will all go away?" "I will put it to them" he would say, "but I must have promises from each one of you as people, not as newspapers, that you'll all be on the next flight out and I want assurances from anyone who comes to do this beach photograph that you'll be gone the next day." We would then consult our offices and say "We have been told we can have one good beach picture and if we get that we've got to clear off." And normally they would accept that and we would go back and wait and Michael or whoever would come back down to the beach and say, "Right chaps, eleven o'clock tomorrow. Fifteen minutes only. It will be a walk along the beach. No swimming costumes, no funny hats. We will just do a straightforward picture." And we would say, "Oh we need the funny hats." And we would try to argue up the picture. "We need them in the water. We need this." If the children were there, "we need the children with them." And it would be a bartering job. I mean it was an Arab Souk out in the middle of wherever we were and it was too and fro and too and fro. Then whoever it was would go back and the rules would be laid out on each side and we would get some form of picture.

If the picture was rotten, we wouldn't go away. And if it wasn't, if they didn't keep to their end of the bargain we would say that it was hopeless. They were six hundred yards away. They were behind bushes most of the time. You didn't play the game. "But you promised to go away." "Well we didn't get a picture worth publishing." "But it's in all the papers this morning." "But it's not on the front pages it's on page thirteen," we would say and it would go on like this. There would be a game which was played to the limits. Then we would go off. It was the same with skiing. No matter what they did they would come and pose for pictures and they would get rid of ninety percent of us at that time. But then the real paparazzi would stay on. They wouldn't even come to the first one because they couldn't sell that one because everyone else would have it, but they could sell the one three days later when Charles was peeling grapes for Diana. That's where they would make their money.
 
Previous good god is there a readers digest version ?


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Previous good god is there a readers digest version ?

Its all available in the link posted. I don't think we're supposed to copy/paste anything more than 20% of any given article in posts but this article is really worth a read.

It makes me realize just how much respect has gone out the window as the decades progressed. Ever since the 80s and the 90s we have grown so used to the coverage of the "dirt" on someone that it has grown to overshadow the good and noble and and straight reporting of the things the royals do. Dirt sells while the human interest stories tend to be called "boring".

Sad.
 
Its all available in the link posted. I don't think we're supposed to copy/paste anything more than 20% of any given article in posts but this article is really worth a read.

It makes me realize just how much respect has gone out the window as the decades progressed. Ever since the 80s and the 90s we have grown so used to the coverage of the "dirt" on someone that it has grown to overshadow the good and noble and and straight reporting of the things the royals do. Dirt sells while the human interest stories tend to be called "boring".

Sad.

I didn't mean to make too long of a post. Sorry for the scrolling headache, you all. A previous poster dismissed my original post of the article as being just standards from the 50's and 60's. I wanted to show that it went all the way through the 80's. That Diana, and to a lesser extent Margaret, were really the only royals who had a friendly relationship with the press. The rest were chilly and detached, at best, with the press. The Queen, specifically, could be down right ruthless with them when she was displeased.

Can you imagine if William had an accredited press member thrown out of an event, just because that press member had published a photo of Catherine on a public beach in the Caribbean, with tons of other tourists around her. Heads would roll. William would be called a tyrant. But when the Queen did it, she was called reactionary and protective. The Queen was portrayed as the protagonist in this story.

I think the tabloids are comparing William to Diana. So they see him as an aloof ingrate to the press. That's why they're bitter. If they compared him to HM, Philip, or Charles they would call him friendly and openminded to the press.
 
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I haven't represented Kate as a lone wolf with a camera at all. I have stated that I think it would be nice for a professional photographer to take photos of both children, which I do!

Nor does the BRF have a 'long tradition' of releasing official photos taken by themselves at all. If they did there would be official photos taken by Queen Alexandra, Edward VIII, George VI and the Queen and Princess Margaret not Cecil Beaton, Baron, Snowden, Lichfield etc.

And are you the representative for others on this Forum?


She doesn't represent me !!!!


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Prince William's no show at the BAFTAs raises Royal eyebrows | Daily Mail Online

"William the unwilling"

I read very often lately these articles about the Duke. I can not understand why so attack by the press. I mean it is actually justified or just to write something?

They pretty much copied and pasted the same article from last year. Here’s the one from Feb, 2015.

Bafta stars put out over Prince WIlliam who wasn't there | Daily Mail Online

They know William’s work is with the charity side of BAFTA, not the red carpet side. Why just 4 months ago, William, Catherine, and Harry attended the Charities Forum at BAFTA. We got all those cute pictures of them with kids, and Catherine lugging around that suitcase in front of a green screen for a comedy bit. But facts and rationality don’t matter when you miss out on pictures of William mingling with celebrities, and maybe his wife accompanying him on the red carpet. They don’t like that the Cambridges won’t play the glamour game.

Royal Rob, that's something I'm very grateful about
 
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Honestly, I see nothing wrong with any/all pictures of the Cambridge children being taken by Catherine. They are, after all, her children.

I think people are forgetting that it has long been reported that Catherine had an interest in photography and at one time it was reported [incorrectly as it turns out] that she was working with Testino and was possibly going to have her own show. This might have been the talk when William and Catherine were off.

In regards to tradition, well, that word get's thrown around quite a bit when people talk about the past. Yes, in the past you had picture taken by professional photographers [i.e. Snowden, Beaton and Lichfield] as well as family members. But these professional photos were also taken and released when members of the royal families did royal tours in additional to special anniversaries/birthdays. I am not sure they even do that anymore. Furthermore tradition IMO is the flyover over Buckingham Palace or the Order of the Garter, not whether or not to use professional photographers.

The only thing that I would like and appreciate about a professional photographer is that many times you get different scenes and at the end of the day, a professional photographer is like an artist. Sometimes you don't see that with a family photographer. Think of Beaton, Snowdon and Lichfield.....there is no way you can compare their pictures with that of Andrew and Catherine. They aren't bad per se just not in the same category.
 
Honestly, I see nothing wrong with any/all pictures of the Cambridge children being taken by Catherine. They are, after all, her children.

I think people are forgetting that it has long been reported that Catherine had an interest in photography and at one time it was reported [incorrectly as it turns out] that she was working with Testino and was possibly going to have her own show. This might have been the talk when William and Catherine were off.

In regards to tradition, well, that word get's thrown around quite a bit when people talk about the past. Yes, in the past you had picture taken by professional photographers [i.e. Snowden, Beaton and Lichfield] as well as family members. But these professional photos were also taken and released when members of the royal families did royal tours in additional to special anniversaries/birthdays. I am not sure they even do that anymore. Furthermore tradition IMO is the flyover over Buckingham Palace or the Order of the Garter, not whether or not to use professional photographers.

The only thing that I would like and appreciate about a professional photographer is that many times you get different scenes and at the end of the day, a professional photographer is like an artist. Sometimes you don't see that with a family photographer. Think of Beaton, Snowdon and Lichfield.....there is no way you can compare their pictures with that of Andrew and Catherine. They aren't bad per se just not in the same category.

Very good points, as usual. I believe Catherine master's dissertation was: “Angels from Heaven': Lewis Carroll's Photographic Interpretation of Childhood. So even as a student she had a very strong interest in photography. If you believe some of the old rumors that she did some catalog/newsletter photography for her parents at PP, then this is just a continuation of a very real passion. Then she was taking pictures of William flying the Sea King helicopter in Canada, too.

Snowdon and Lichfield were a goldmine. They were professionals and family members. The best of both worlds. Maybe someday Pippa or James will marry a professional photographer, then they can be the go-to person for group photos of the BRF in the future.

Though for all of Snowdon's beautiful photos, I can never endorse the one he took of William. Why would you choose the one where he looks like a startled, bald squirrel. :lol:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/20/article-2397662-1B5F55E2000005DC-96_634x554.jpg
 
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I believe the recent bad press is likely down to William not doing many royal engagements. But also, a frustration by the media at a lack of access to William and Kate. For example, when they visited Anglesey this week it was said only a handful of photographers & journalists would be permitted access because of 'lack of space', this despite over 50 photographers and journalists being allowed in the same hanger a few years earlier when the Queen visited William.Then take into account William's disdain for the media (yes we know the history here) but he has to take into account the fact he is a future king and despite what he may think he needs the media onside.
The press are happy to be nice to William and Kate and treat them as the 'golden couple' but if you scorn the press they will hit back.
 
I believe the recent bad press is likely down to William not doing many royal engagements. But also, a frustration by the media at a lack of access to William and Kate. For example, when they visited Anglesey this week it was said only a handful of photographers & journalists would be permitted access because of 'lack of space', this despite over 50 photographers and journalists being allowed in the same hanger a few years earlier when the Queen visited William.Then take into account William's disdain for the media (yes we know the history here) but he has to take into account the fact he is a future king and despite what he may think he needs the media onside.
The press are happy to be nice to William and Kate and treat them as the 'golden couple' but if you scorn the press they will hit back.

Here they are either playing dumb, or they have no spatial awareness. There was a "lack of space" because the hanger was filled with serviceman and their families who were watching the farewell ceremony. When The Queen was there in 2011 for a causal visit, there were no families, hence more room. It was up to the RAF to decide who got dibs on the limited space. They made a classy decision in choosing their wives/husbands/children/parents, with the little remaining room being for local Welsh press and a few press pool reporters from London. If the tabloid reporters expected to be invited at the expense of the families, then that says a lot more about them than it does the RAF staff.
 
The event at RAF Valley was setup by the RAF not KP. Unlike when the Queen was visiting the RAF had to fit more people into the hanger area with the SAR staff and the former SAR staff plus their families for the disbanding ceremony. When the Queen came it was just her and Philip not a whole mess of people so there was more room for the press. But people like Richard Palmer doesn't mention than on Twitter.

The use of pool reporting is done all the time. You see it on the royal tours a great deal because the press can't get from one event to another quickly enough to cover both so the press pack is spread out at different sites and then share the stories and photos with each other.


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Chris Jackson @ChrisJack_Getty
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall met residents of Stamford Bridge today - a town affected by flooding

Rookie ‏@royalfocus1 Feb 18
@ChrisJack_Getty another day another rota the system stinks

Cepe Smith ‏@CepeSmith Feb 18
@royalfocus1 @ChrisJack_Getty does the rota system apply to all Royal events? Or is it specific royals or specific types of events? Thanks.

Rookie ‏@royalfocus1 Feb 18
@CepeSmith @royalfocus1 @ChrisJack_Getty Royal events meant to be a rota but at the moment seems to be a distinct lack of rotation !

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Two photographers having a dispute BUT it's a Charles and Camilla event not W&C

Rookie complains Chris Jackson gets more work, if that's true and I don't know if it is, It applies to events with other royals, not just William and Catherine

Is Charles playing favourites with photographers?
 
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Chris Jackson Verified @ChrisJack_Getty
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall met residents of Stamford Bridge today - a town affected by flooding

Rookie ‏@royalfocus1 Feb 18
@ChrisJack_Getty another day another rota the system stinks

Cepe Smith ‏@CepeSmith Feb 18
@royalfocus1 @ChrisJack_Getty does the rota system apply to all Royal events? Or is it specific royals or specific types of events? Thanks.

Rookie ‏@royalfocus1 Feb 18
@CepeSmith @royalfocus1 @ChrisJack_Getty Royal events meant to be a rota but at the moment seems to be a distinct lack of rotation !

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two photographers having a dispute BUT it's a Charles and Camilla event not W&C

Rookie complains Chris Jackson gets more work, if that's true and I don't know if it is, It applies to events with other royals, not just William and Catherine

Is Charles playing favourites with photographers?

When Charles dislikes members of the press he let's them know. Remember his infamous 2005 tirade. He let the press at the photocall know exactly how he felt about them, especially poor Nicholas Witchell from the BBC.:ROFLMAO:

BBC NEWS | UK | I hate facing media, says Charles
 
Charles didn't actually mean for his remarks about Witchell to be heard especially since they were whispered to William and Harry. They just got picked by tv mics. He didn't come and say it to his face.


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Charles didn't actually mean for his remarks about Witchell to be heard especially since they were whispered to William and Harry. They just got picked by tv mics. He didn't come and say it to his face.


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His terse replies to Witchell's questions were intentional. With him huffing and puffing and murmuring in his sons' ears. He made it clear he was sh*t talking, even if the press shouldn't have heard him directly, he was deliberately being passive-aggressive. I mean all this is a compliment. This incident really endeared Charles to me. Everybody knows that the royals dislike the press, I prefer when they're honest about it, instead of playing fake nice. The press aren't innocent lambs, if they can dish it, they can take it.
 
Chris Jackson is dating Kate's PA Natasha Archer supposedly so I wonder if the other photographers feel he is getting special treatment thus the Twitter hate. But Chris doesn't do just WK events but C&C and Harry and other royals.


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Chris Jackson is dating Kate's PA Natasha Archer supposedly so I wonder if the other photographers feel he is getting special treatment thus the Twitter hate. But Chris doesn't do just WK events but C&C and Harry and other royals.


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That's my point. What does dating Natasha Archer have to do with Charles and Camilla?

Harry took Chris Jackson with him to Africa in 2014.

The royals seem to like him but it's independent from his connection to Natasha
 
Chris Jackson is dating Kate's PA Natasha Archer supposedly so I wonder if the other photographers feel he is getting special treatment thus the Twitter hate. But Chris doesn't do just WK events but C&C and Harry and other royals.


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I'm not sure Natasha has much to do with it. Wasn't there that story that Catherine pointed to Chris outside Zara's wedding back in 2011, pre-Natasha.
I think Chris and Arthur Edwards are genuinely nice to the royals, and treat them as human beings instead of as a cash register. So the royals throw a little extra love their way. I'm guessing the more surly photogs see Chris as a brown noser. They can't hate on Arthur directly because he's a royal photog legend.
 
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The War of the Waleses followed by the deadly hunt on Diana has for ever changed the relationship between the royal family and the media. And add to it: the open sewers in the comments sections of the boulevard "press". It is a continuous erosion of the monarchy.

Once a Dutch politician stated: a continuous dripping waterdrop can erode the hardest stone. When I have read the Daily Mail a couple of times and I read the comments, good heavens, I really need to take the dog for a walk outside, to have fresh air. The venom, the poison, the vitriol, the dirt, the hatred which is thrown to the royal family, it is beyond belief...

And this is England... by us on the Continent seen as Union Jack-waving "God Save The Queen"-singing patriots. :ohmy:
 
The Daily Mail comment section is a hate filled dumpster fire for almost every story not just the Royal one's.


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In a lot of professions, what people say on Twitter comes back to bite them. A few of the photogs are downright rude on Twitter.

I know if a particular person was trashing me, I wouldn't go out of my way to do him or her any favours.
 
Blunt and to the point, the best statement I've ever heard has to be the simple, succinct and most likely forever immortalized as one of the Duke of Edinburgh's best.

"You have mosquitoes. I have the press."

After reading the comment section of the Daily Fail a few times, I came to realize that there is a serious lack of intelligent thought put into the commentator's postings but they're rather a contest to see who can say the nastiest things and get away with it. It most likely is done for ego stroking by looking at their own comments that are out there for the rest of the world to see.

I do have to admit though that recently I almost fell out of my chair seeing the comments on an article in the Fail that were 95% in favor of Charles. It happened when it was announced that Charles' spider letters would be made available to the public domain.
 
I'm not sure Natasha has much to do with it. Wasn't there that story that Catherine pointed to Chris outside Zara's wedding back in 2011, pre-Natasha.
I think Chris and Arthur Edwards are genuinely nice to the royals, and treat them as human beings instead of as a cash register. So the royals throw a little extra love their way. I'm guessing the more surly photogs see Chris as a brown noser. They can't hate on Arthur directly because he's a royal photog legend.

I like your theory. I kind of believe this is the case indeed. I read somewhere that Chris Jackson does private photoshoots for the Cambridges too. He seems to be a nice man actually :flowers:.
I read this beautiful article on Arthur Edwards. William seems to like him so you might be right. He also said to Catherine on the steps of the Lindo Wing: 'Look, there's Arthur, wave at Arthur' (or something). The royals have their favourites.
 
Blunt and to the point, the best statement I've ever heard has to be the simple, succinct and most likely forever immortalized as one of the Duke of Edinburgh's best.

"You have mosquitoes. I have the press."

After reading the comment section of the Daily Fail a few times, I came to realize that there is a serious lack of intelligent thought put into the commentator's postings but they're rather a contest to see who can say the nastiest things and get away with it. It most likely is done for ego stroking by looking at their own comments that are out there for the rest of the world to see.

I do have to admit though that recently I almost fell out of my chair seeing the comments on an article in the Fail that were 95% in favor of Charles. It happened when it was announced that Charles' spider letters would be made available to the public domain.

I loved that! And I say that as someone who respects The Guardian. It was funny to see it bite them in the butt. The Guardian paid all this money to expose Charles as some sort of evil mastermind, but instead Charles was seen as quirky and well-meaning. Also, most of his memo's fell in line with The Guardian's own sociopolitical views, that was salt in their wound.

I notice every time the media attempts a smear it almost always backfires. It reminds me of when Wimbledon officials described how sweet Catherine was and how she sent them a handwritten 'thank you' letter back in 2008. The Daily Mail asked for a copy of that letter for an article, but instead of calling her polite in the article, they bashed her for having a spelling mistake. The people in the comments were 99% in Catherine's favor, and they brought up how The Daily Fail is known to be error filled, and so they had a lot of nerve to be so nasty over something so harmless.
 
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Here they are either playing dumb, or they have no spatial awareness. There was a "lack of space" because the hanger was filled with serviceman and their families who were watching the farewell ceremony. When The Queen was there in 2011 for a causal visit, there were no families, hence more room. It was up to the RAF to decide who got dibs on the limited space. They made a classy decision in choosing their wives/husbands/children/parents, with the little remaining room being for local Welsh press and a few press pool reporters from London. If the tabloid reporters expected to be invited at the expense of the families, then that says a lot more about them than it does the RAF staff.

Yes the RAF organised this event but I was using it as a recent example of something which involves William and Kate and annoys the media, rightly or wrongly the more frustrated the media get the more likely they are to hit out by writing negative articles about W&K (even if the royal couple themselves weren't involved in the decision)
 
Yes the RAF organised this event but I was using it as a recent example of something which involves William and Kate and annoys the media, rightly or wrongly the more frustrated the media get the more likely they are to hit out by writing negative articles about W&K (even if the royal couple themselves weren't involved in the decision)

That's on the media. If they have to resort to dishonesty to justify their smear campaign, then their beef was obviously too weak to begin with.
 
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True, i'm not saying the media are right! I'm saying many in the media have an issue with W&K or what they see as a lack of access to them and that is going to create issues for the couple like the recent negative articles about William.
 
Last year, a network pulled out of an interview with Charles because of the demands imposed by CH.

Channel 4 News has turned down an interview with the Prince of Wales after refusing to sign a “draconian” contract with a string of demands including the pre-vetting of all questions and right to control editing.

The extremely tight level of control and censorship has not stopped some outlets from broadcasting interviews: Sky News ran an interview late last month covering topics including global warming. A spokesman for Sky News refused to comment on the broadcaster’s decision to agree to the terms laid down by Clarence House.

However, Channel 4 News felt that it could not conduct an interview under such terms, which included a 15-page contract full of limitations and restrictions. It cancelled an interview with Prince Charles that was due to be conducted by Jon Snow on Sunday at the British ambassador’s residence in Paris, on the eve of the Paris climate change talks.
Read more: Channel 4 News cancels Prince Charles interview due to 'draconian' demands | Media | The Guardian

Prince Charles' Interview Demands With Jon Snow Labelled 'North Korea Style Censorship'
 
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