The Princes and the Press - Two Part BBC documentary 2021


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The BBC has shot itself in the foot. Again. And this programme is the least of it.

I'm convinced that the BBC is on a self destruct mission. A former (Labour! not Conservative) home secretary was recently complaining about the "woke" content of contemporary BBC output.

Amol Rajan is so typical of the metropolitan republican elites who seem intent on causing real harm to the monarchy. And to other British institutions.

The demand to scrap the license fee will no doubt get louder & louder.
 
I think Jenny Afia's comment in that article says a lot:

“That's not how privacy works. Privacy is about the right to own and control what personal information you choose to share with somebody.”

[....]
There's always been a certain amount of negative publicity about royals. You could go back to the Middle Ages and people complaining that Henry III was letting his Lusignan half-siblings going around breaking the law, or that Elizabeth Woodville's relatives were bagging all the best heirs and heiresses in the country! There's nothing new.

In the past these stories only reached the part of society which was literate and could afford a newspaper in the first place. The speed of the news was that of a snail.

Today the most lurid stories or any infringement can be produced with one push on the button and seen all over the world, from Boston to Berlin and from Anchorage to Auckland.

The comparison is uncomparable.
 
This is rather complicated: I absolutely didn't bully but I fully acknowledge that you experienced my bullying?

She insisted that the Duchess was “absolutely not” guilty of bullying her staff within the royal household, but added that Meghan “wouldn’t want to negate anyone’s personal experiences”.

So, they don't want privacy?! That's good to know because they certainly seemed to strive for full control of what the media reported about them - which by their own definition is 'privacy'.
Ms Afia, who was authorised to appear on camera by the Duchess, also claimed that the Sussexes had never said they wanted privacy, suggesting it was simply a tabloid construct. (...) Privacy is about the right to own and control what personal information you choose to share with somebody.”

On another note, who is JJ Chalmers? According to the above source it is a 'close friend of Harry' (and given the number of H&M close contacts appearing on this show, it would be rather hard to call it unbiased).

And there is a 5-part podcast to come... So, this is not yet the end of it.
 
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John-James Chalmers is a British television presenter, public speaker and Invictus Games medallist from Scotland. He was injured in a bomb blast in Afghanistan in 2011, while serving as a Royal Marine. Wikipedia
 
The Telegraph has given some insights in to the second part of the BBC's The Princes and the Press documentary. Some revelations include the episode renamed from "Megxit" to "Sussexit", the claim that senior staff briefing the tabloid, appearance of The Duchess of Sussex’s lawyer, recent court case against the press and Martin Bashir scandal.

BBC documentary claims palace ‘senior source’ helped in war against Sussexes
Palace sources described as 'unfounded conjecture' the idea that a senior member of the Royal Household aided a tabloid newspaper
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-f...aims-palace-senior-source-helped-war-against/
Archived link: https://archive.vn/KcXla

Reflection in the Telegraph (archive) on H&M making a mountain out of a molehole (Megxit vs Sussexit).
 
This is rather complicated: I absolutely didn't bully but I fully acknowledge that you experienced my bullying?



So, they don't want privacy?! That's good to know because they certainly seemed to strive for full control of what the media reported about them - which by their own definition is 'privacy'.


On another note, who is JJ Chalmers? According to the above source it is a 'close friend of Harry' (and given the number of H&M close contacts appearing on this show, it would be rather hard to call it unbiased).

And there is a 5-part podcast to come... So, this is not yet the end of it.


Yes it was a very unusual statement from Ms. Afia on behalf of her client IMO. Honestly with her wording it did sound to me that she was denying while at the same time acknowledging that bullying had happened.:ermm:


Have to say that I'm not sure why the documentary was entitled "The Princes (plural) and not the Prince's (singular) as this was primarily the Prince Harry show.
 
Yes it was a very unusual statement from Ms. Afia on behalf of her client IMO. Honestly with her wording it did sound to me that she was denying while at the same time acknowledging that bullying had happened.:ermm:
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That’s how it sounds to me too. It also sounds like an interesting combination of simultaneously defending yourself and yet not wanting to get called/or call someone else a liar.

It kind of reminds me of how it’s so popular to speak “your” truth these days. So- Meghan’s is- she’s not a bully. But theirs is- she is. “The truth” doesn’t exist. Everyone gets their own opinion, and it gets to be valid.
 
I have just finished watching the second part of the documentary. Here are some of my thoughts
  • Like part 1, I thought Amol Rajan was not objective given that he was almost grilling some interviewee whilst nodding in agreement with others. A lot of the information (i.e. graphs) presented by him as "facts" are from the Guardian, Byline and Buzzfeed, which are left-leaning anti-monarchist news publications.
  • The second part of the documentary was at least 70% about the Sussexes, whilst the title implied that it was about Prince William and Prince Harry. It should have been called "The Sussexes and The Press"
  • Again like in Part 1, why was Jenny Afia allowed a platform to defend the Sussexes in this documentary with little or no questioning from Amol Rajan, whilst the bullying investigation is going on? How is this objective if the audience is going to hear one side (Meghan's) of story? Before anyone mentions Valentine Low, he is not representing the previous staff members that worked for the Sussexes. At the end of the day, he was trying to get readership and money for The Times by releasing the stories. Jenny Afia's attempts to redefine the definition of "privacy" and "bullying" just makes the whole things worse like digging a hole out of a molehill.
  • Anna Pasternak's attempts to defend herself from the Tatler's Catherine The Great article was ridiculous. The article was not "balanced", it was scornful and snobbish attack on Catherine's family and ruined Tatler's reputation as a high society magazine which ironically appeals to them.
  • JJ Chalmers' brief interview/appearance appeared as though it has been chopped and merged together at last minute. It was very general which could have been fitted to different context. BBC probably got hold of him (as Invictus Games medallist formerly served in Royal Marines and Harry's close friend) because he appeared on Strictly Come Dancing last year, where Harry also made an appearance in his VT. And yes, I'm criticising the BBC not JJ Chalmers
 
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This is rather complicated: I absolutely didn't bully but I fully acknowledge that you experienced my bullying?

It doesn't look this complicated to me at all. The full quote is, "'I think the first thing is, is to be really clear about what bullying is.

'What bullying actually means is improperly using power, repeatedly and deliberately to hurt someone physically or emotionally

'The Duchess of Sussex has absolutely denied doing that, that said she wouldn’t want to negate anyone’s personal experiences."

She's going into technicalities and choosing the definition of bully which suits her at the time. Because there are others in which the two bolded words are absent.

To me, it seems like she admits Meghan did things that fit the definition of improperly using power to hurt someone physically or emotionally but since it didn't happen repeatedly and deliberately (let's not forget that some of the employees in question left and others were taken out of contacting the Sussexes on a regular basis by splitting households so it couldn't happen repeatedly), it really isn't bullying but something that only looked like bullying to the people in question.

As to the deliberate part, I think they're going to chalk it up to cultural differences. Like, stiff Brits with their way of hints and so on took an American's frankness the wrong way...

"I'm sorry you feel this way", is what Jenny Afia is saying.

Months ago, Meghan didn't bother bother mention anyone else's experiences, just insisted that she had been stellar and these people saddened her by insisting she had bullied them.

To me, it looks really clear cut: the internal investigation has found irregularities in Meghan's behavior towards staff and her lawyer is now trying to present it as isolated incidents and a matter of various perceptions.

We all know what bullying at the work place is. And those who need to refresh their knowledge can really open any dictionary. But Meghan's lawyer chose to enlighten us with her version of it.

Looks like damage control mode to me.
 
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Like it or not, I think the BBC continues to articulate the case for stopping all funding to it from the public. The justification for a public service broadcaster is limited these days. If that public service broadcaster is no longer seen as independent, and increasingly appears to be promoting an agenda, I see no justification for funding it.
 
Like it or not, I think the BBC continues to articulate the case for stopping all funding to it from the public. The justification for a public service broadcaster is limited these days. If that public service broadcaster is no longer seen as independent, and increasingly appears to be promoting an agenda, I see no justification for funding it.
On the contrary, in today's highly commercialized and politicized media climate I think that a public service broadcaster is more justified and needed than ever.
 
On the contrary, in today's highly commercialized and politicized media climate I think that a public service broadcaster is more justified and needed than ever.

That's the whole point. The BBC is not supposed to be politicised. It is supposed to be neutral and unbiased. If people want to read something politicised, there are many newspapers with views across the political spectrum which they are entirely free to buy, but the BBC is funded with taxpayers' money and is supposed to be unbiased. But it's become very, very biased in recent years.

Given how biased most media outlets are, I would very much like to have somewhere where I could go just to get facts, without someone telling me how I should think or feel about them. Unfortunately, the BBC no longer does that.

I'm also surprised about Jenny Afia. With any sort of legal case, surely no-one involved should be speaking out about it - that's just not supposed to happen, in case it prejudices the outcome of any trial.
 
It seems this thread has turned into a political debate. As this forum has Rules and FAQ against political topics, this thread is now closed.
 
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An article from the Telegraph about the BBC's podcast, spin-off of The Princes and the Press, as forwarded to me by yukari:

You can find the article here.
 
As forwarded to me by AC21091968


In regards to the BBC's, The Princes and The Press and Harry, Meghan and the Media, The Times has reported that Meghan has complained to Amol Rajan about the Court Case against The Mail on Sunday. It was more of a clarification from Amol Rajan rather than a full blown threat

The Duchess of Sussex has complained to the BBC about Amol Rajan’s reporting on her legal victory over The Mail on Sunday.

Meghan complained after Rajan, presenter of the BBC2 documentary The Princes and the Press, told listeners of the Harry, Meghan and the Media podcast that she had apologised for “misleading” the court.

The duchess had apologised for failing to remember email exchanges with her former communications secretary in which they discussed briefing Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, authors of Harry and Meghan’s biography Finding Freedom.

Rajan said on the podcast: “Initially, Meghan Markle had said she hadn’t helped Scobie with the book. She apologised for misleading the court on this.”

A clarification issued by the BBC today said: “The Duchess of Sussex has asked us to clarify that she apologised to the court for not remembering email exchanges with her former communications secretary, Jason Knauf, in her evidence, and said that she had no intention to mislead the court.”

Meghan complains to BBC over claim she misled privacy case
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1642436421
Archived link: https://archive.ph/JuWjN
 
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