Media’s Sad Royal Meltdown

Their supposedly Royal correspondents stayed up through the night, glued to their CBS live feed, and dutifully paid attention to a one-hour interview laced with another hour of commercial breaks, just so they could get ahead in the desperate scramble to score sales and clicks off Oprah Winfrey’s exclusive chat with Haz and Megs.

I say! High DYAH she?

The result has exceeded expectations, with the Daily Mail taking the biscuit in no style at all with its 0300 hours edition, headlined “MEGHAN ACCUSES PALACE OF RACISM”. As if the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker have any room to talk about racial prejudice. And talking of the Mail, former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, editor at large at Mail Online, has led the pack of those crying about what Meg told Oprah.

Evening all

Morgan is key to the genre of those howling at the effrontery of a couple in being able to decide, of their own free will, to have a chat live on air with one of their Los Angeles neighbours. His whole demeanour typifies the howling pack of nonentities: the crying, the obsession, the venturing beyond mere criticism into forthright abuse, and above all the sadness. Because those ranged against Haz and Megs are deeply sad people.

And what's more, Ron

There is Morgan, helplessly trying to shout down Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, who you can tell as she’s a doctor, by ranting “I’m not going to allow you to trash the Queen”, when she wasn’t. There is long-serving BBC Royal “expert” Nicholas “Poison Carrot” Witchell, valiantly defending Prince Charles, while knowing Brian can’t stand the sight of him.

Come on Dr Shola, you tell him!

There is the sad quartet of alleged Royal defenders Dickie Arbiter (formerly Brenda’s press secretary), his daughter Victoria, now covering matters Royal for CNN, Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty mag (circulation: very small), and Richard Fitzwilliams (former editor of International Who’s Who), all exposed as phoneys after Josh Pieters and Archie Manners got them all to pontificate on the Oprah interview even though they hadn’t seen any of it.

There is the sadness of Nick Timothy, a shoo-in for the title of worst political advisor ever, trying to climb aboard the Megs hatred bandwagon by sneering about Haz and Megs being “Woke”. Yes, they’re alert to injustices in society and especially racism. That is sort of the point, in case the bloke who nearly lost the 2017 General Election missed it.

There is the sadness of Press Gazette, the tone-deaf voice of the press establishment, moaning “Meghan and Harry interview airs in the UK at 9pm tonight on ITV after being broadcast overnight in the US. Pair have aired extensive details about their private life while continuing to fight Mail on Sunday in court over privacy breach”. There’s a difference between choosing to share something, and someone else doing it without permission.

Ordinary people show their sympathy for the press

There is the sadness of being unable, or unwilling, to acknowledge the braveness shown by Haz and Megs in being open about mental health issues, to show a human and honest side to the world in the face of what they will have known would be an onslaught of hostility from those for whom human, open and honest are so many dirty words.

Someone came out of the Oprah interview with Haz and Megs very badly indeed. And, whisper it quietly, none of those coming out of it badly were Oprah, Haz or Megs.

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