10/03/2021
The interview that Oprah Winfrey recently aired with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has provoked significant reaction, with a significant split between those who are supportive of Harry and Meghan and those who have reacted extremely negatively.
It seems quite odd that an individual's attitude towards the Royal family, doesn't appear to have greatly influenced the way they have reacted to the young couple's withdrawal from Royal life or this interview. In fact, the largest factor in how different people have responded to the whole scenario appears to be their age. For the most part, young people are appalled at how Harry and Meghan were treated by the British media and supportive of them stepping back from official Royal duties. Those older members of our society seem to have bought into the narrative forced upon them by the newspapers and other media sources.
I have spoken to countless friends and family members who have expressed extremely negative views about Meghan; calling her manipulative, controlling, greedy, attention-seeking and many other things.
I did ask some of them whether they knew Harry and Meghan personally, or at least had close friends who were part of the Royal couple's inner circle. None of them had that privileged access to information.
So I asked whether, in fact, it was the case that the media moguls were moulding their opinions, through the stories they wrote.
This was immediately discounted, with people saying they don't read the newspapers. The thing is, you don't have to read the newspapers to be infected by their hate. It doesn't just appear in the hard copy print that you buy in a newsagent; it's covered on the news channels and it's heavily posted about on social media. In fact, especially given the impact of COVID on our social lives, the discussions I have had with people about this have all been on social media.
So, there can really be no doubt that people's impressions about Meghan have been affected to some degree by what was written in the press. Aside from the racist overtones evident in some of the newspaper articles, there were the direct comparisons between the two wives; Prince Willian's Catherine and Prince Harry's Meghan. Here's a few examples of this.
In every one of the examples above, Prince William's wife is painted in a positive manner whilst Prince Harry's wife is slated. The subject matter in each case is the same, the difference is in how the British press presented the story to the great British public.
They, the news media organisations, had an agenda and they succeeded in ramming it down people's throats. What's more, most people didn't seem to realise that they were being manipulated.
During the Oprah interview, examples of the truly disgusting things that were said about her were shared, with press cuttings shown on the screen:
Daily Mail: "Exclusive: Harry's Girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed - so will she be dropping by for tea?"
Daily Stormer: "Petitioners Demand That "Monkey-Faced £$%& Whore" Meghan Markle Not to be Given a Royal Title"
BBC's Danny Baker on comparing royal baby Archie to a chimp
The Sun: "Sussex Split Meghan Markle and Prince Harry 'won't slot in line' and be 'controlled' by Prince William as Fab Four split, royal expert reveals"
The Sun: "Markled Difference Ambitious Meghan Markle 'doesn't realise' she can't be the star of the show as Kate Middleton will be Queen, royal author claims"
The Telegraph: "BBC comedy portrays Megan Markle as 'trailer trash' American who threatens to knife Kate Middleton"
Daily Mail: "Meghan's seed will taint our Royal Family"
Daily Mail: "The real problem with Meghan Markle: she just doesn't speak our language"
There really can be no ignoring the fact that the press were guilty of attacking Meghan Markle and, without doubt, there was an incredibly racist element to some of the attacks.
The British news media, and, let's face it, news media in many other parts of the world, deliver an extremely biased version of 'news', that frequently is far removed from fact and is instead steered by the power and control of the media barons that own the newspapers and news outlets.
In fact, we can no longer claim to have 'newspapers' in the UK, we have 'opinion publications' that won't let the truth get in the way of their narrative.
I did watch the interview, whilst writing this piece, and felt that both Harry and Meghan came across extremely well. Their answers to questions appeared to be honest and heartfelt and, for the most part, were incredibly respectful of the Queen and other members of the Royal family. I don't think they betrayed, or really spoke badly about any of the family.
It is certainly clear that the institution of the Royal family could have been more supportive of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. We don't really know who is to blame for this, but it seems to me that the senior staff supporting the Royals have a significant responsibility for the failures to look after the mental health of the couple.
Ian Murray is the Executive Director of the Society of Editors in the UK. Whilst I was already thinking about this story and my own anger at how Harry and Meghan had been treated, it was seeing him appearing on the TV this morning that spurred me into writing this blog post.
He claimed that British journalists are racist. He wasn't saying "some British journalists aren't racist," he was saying that all of them aren't racist. Even when provided with many examples of clearly racist reporting, he continued to defend British journalism.
His failure to acknowledge that there is any issue, let alone the actual scale of it, means there is absolutely no chance of the issues being addressed in the short term. For a start, if he cannot accept the facts as shown, he cannot be trusted to oversee any attempts to address the problem.
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