Petulant Press’ Sussex Giveaway

Our free and fearless press not only treats its own rather differently to the way it portrays its targets - the recent death of former Sun chief reporter John Kay being an excellent example - it is especially unforgiving of anyone who has had the audacity to take them to court. This last habit has been superbly illustrated by today’s selective tabloid meltdown.

Press wants more of these moments. But may not get them

As the BBC has reported, “The Duke of Sussex has said he wants to ‘break the cycle’ of the "pain and suffering" of his upbringing with his own children … During an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast, Prince Harry compared his life as a ‘mixture between The Truman Show and being in a zoo’”. But he was not indulging in a blame game.

“He told host Dax Shepard: ‘I don't think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody, but certainly when it comes to parenting, if I've experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I'm going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don't pass it on, basically’”.

Some papers mentioned the interview - the Mirror and Telegraph have items on their front page - and the Daily Brexit, formerly the Daily Diana, but officially called the Express, carries a larger teaser telling “PRINCE HARRY BARES HIS SOUL”. But the Oh What A Giveaway moments are reserved for the Murdoch and Rothermere press.

Would that be the same Murdoch and Rothermere press against which Haz and Megs have launched a number of legal actions? As the late Derek Jameson might have put it, it surely would. And for those titles, what, given the Mail on Sunday’s latest humiliating defeat in a line of humiliating defeats, would the most sensible course of action have been? What would a sensible person have done? What would Nietzsche have done?

But the iron law of the press demands that anyone who has taken them to court has to be given both barrels at every opportunity. So free sheet Metro (Rothermere owned) has “Harry takes aim at Royals”, contrasted with grovelling coverage of the Duchess of Cambridge, who the Mail used to dislike, until they found a target who was not white.

The Murdoch Sun (Haz is taking Rupe’s troops to court for alleged hacking) sneers “Harry’s Bitter Swipe at Charles [they used to hate Brian, but needs must, eh?] … Dad passed his pain on to me … I will not do that to my kids”. The bit about Haz’ difficulty coping with his mother’s death was relegated to the small print. And then came the Mail.

“As duke tells podcast [hack looks down nose at supposedly lower form of journalistic life] he must break cycle of ‘genetic pain and suffering’ passed on from Charles and Queen … JUST HOW LOW CAN HARRY GO?” Not half as low as your Sunday sister paper, pal. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 “Indian Variant” gets a desultory footnote. Priorities, eh?

A former Prime Minister has been defending an enterprise with which he was intimately involved, and which has been likened to a Ponzi scheme, Priti Patel’s immigration enforcement just got shown where to get off in Glasgow, the Middle East could be about to erupt into conflict, and the Brexit shitshow continues to threaten any prospect of sustained economic recovery. But all this takes second place to Sussex bashing. Again.

Anyone might think the Sun and Mail have an unhealthy obsession. And they’d be right.

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