Sussexes - Clueless Press, Free Publicity

If ever evidence was needed to back up the suggestion that the sad and desperate convocation of bottom-feeders within our free and fearless press known otherwise as Royal correspondents was light on actual facts, but good at creativity when faced with a blank sheet and a deadline, the past week’s tirades against Haz and Megs has brought it in bucketloads.

Led by the Murdoch and Rothermere press, against whom Harry has taken legal action which looks like it will prove expensive, and not for him, the level of bile aimed at the Sussexes for the heinous crime of making their own way financially and taking part in a Netflix documentary series has been ramped up to the max, starting with last Sunday’s Mail on Sunday.

“As couple reveal wedding night photos to plug their next Netflis bombshells … HARRY AND MEGHAN ARE TOLD: STAY AWAY FROM CORONATION” thundered the front page headline. The MoS was keen to stress that this wasn’t any old invention, but was backed up by “A coalition” of senior figures.

Then, as trailers for the second tranche of three Netflix documentaries were released, and the content of those shows became widely disseminated, the abuse really kicked in. Yesterday’s Daily Mail frothed “After Harry’s savage onslaught on William and King Charles … DIGNITY IN THE FACE OF TREACHERY”, with a photo of the Waleses attending a carol concert.

The Murdoch Sun, using the same Wales family photo, rather let itself go: “Harry lays into ‘screaming’ Wills … He calls father The King ‘a liar’ … He has gall to demand apology … But The Firm put on a united front … THE TRAITOR & THE DUTIFUL”. Shouting TRAITAH at someone who has served his country as Haz has is not clever. Especially given today’s U-Turn.

For some reason, the Sun has sat this one out: perhaps the all too obvious volte face would have alerted readers to the lack of veracity in Friday’s welter of abuse. It has been left to the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph to tell “Sussexes will receive invite to Coronation … Royal family will not respond to calls for titles to be stripped in bid to retain ‘dignity’”.

And the Mail, having just inflated an otherwise anodyne Netflix documentary to the status of a “savage onslaught” and whined about “treachery”, now agrees. “EXCLUSIVE: Why Meghan’s STILL invited to Coronation” it admits, although the claim of exclusivity is clearly misleading. This, whisper it quietly, is not merely the Mail and MoS disagreeing with one another.

No, it is an all too clear illustration that all those obscenely overpaid Royal “correspondents”, “experts” and indeed “editors” don’t have a Scooby Doo most of the time. What they do know - as Peter Hunt, who dispenses punditry on constitutional and Royal issues, Tweeting after seeing those Friday front pages, has told - is that “Prince Harry is taking legal action against the publishers of the Daily Mail and the Sun. (And also the Daily Mirror)”.

Not only that, the attention given to the Sussexes and their docu-series has been very good for business: as CNBC has reported, “‘Harry & Meghan’ becomes Netflix’s biggest-ever documentary debut … ‘Harry & Meghan’ racked up 81.55 million viewing hours globally in its first week of release, Netflix said Tuesday … The show appeared in the Top 10 TV list in 85 countries, including ranking number one in the U.K.” Do go on.

“The series, which Netflix billed as an ‘unprecedented and in-depth’ documentary, appeared in the streamer’s Top 10 TV list in 85 countries, and ranked number one in the UK … By comparison, season five of ‘The Crown,’ now in its fifth week of release, recorded 18.9 million views over the week”.

There is more. “‘Harry & Meghan,’ which was directed by Oscar-nominated Liz Garbus, marks one of a series of programs the Sussexes are producing under a commercial deal with Netflix … Their production house, Archewell Productions, is due to release another Netflix series, ‘Heart of Invictus,’ in 2023”. Perhaps our free and fearless press would like to bad mouth that, too.

Had the Murdoch and Rothermere press said nothing about the Haz and Megs Netflix show, those viewing figures and hours would not have been anything like that good. Even worse for the press, some of those viewing hours have been contributed by their own Royal “experts” tuning in to binge watch the series just so they can then slag it off.

Clueless and counterproductive press. So Netflix never had it so good.