The Sun Cares - But Not About Veterans

The sheer desperation exhibited by today’s edition of the Murdoch Sun, making the most tenuous connection between a Netflix documentary mostly promoting the upcoming Invictus Games and its supposedly proud support for wounded veterans, gives the game away big time when it makes the whole story about the Duke of Sussex. Because without Haz there is no story.

They only cared - about their own bottom line

So there has to be some confection of righteous outrage by the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker. This looked, on the face of it, to be a challenging proposition: one look at the BBC report on Haz’ documentary shows there to be no mention of the press, and certainly not of the Sun. It’s mainly about how he had no support when his mental health unravelled.

One intensely personal passage in the narrative is where Haz told “Losing my mum at such a young age was trauma that I had that I was never really aware of. It was never discussed, I didn't talk about it and I've suppressed it like most youngsters would have done … Unfortunately like most of us, the first time you really consider therapy is when you're lying on the floor in the foetal position, probably wishing that you dealt with some of this stuff previously”.

So what does the caring, compassionate Super Soaraway Currant Bun do in response to this opening up? Simples. It ignores it completely and instead puts the boot into Haz, claiming that he has besmirched the good name of the press. The resulting hit piece carries the by-line of Nick Parker, welcomed back to the Sun after his conviction for handling stolen property.

The same Nick Parker who authored an article claiming that an incident on board a flight from Brussels to Malta, where a group of males started a brawl, was down to “Gypsies”. Without any evidence that the group were GRT. That’s his level. So what’s today’s tedious Haz bashing rant?

Here we go: “NEW NETFLIX OUTRAGE … As Prince claims that the media ignored wounded Brit soldiers, Sun says … WE DID CARE HARRY … And we still do”. And to that I call bullshit: anything the Murdoch press does is to promote its own agenda, and make money for itself. Sadly, former military commander Lord “Morny” Dannatt gave them a quote, apparently without first stopping and thinking as to whether he was being given the full story.

So let’s get this straight: the Murdoch doggies are jumping down Haz’ throat because their bad faith, indeed vicious and malignant smearing of the Sussexes makes money for Themselves Personally Now - not out of any concern for wounded veterans. That is an inversion of reality.

The subtlety and nuance of the Sun's approach is explained

Who is the one helping to devise, promote and run the Invictus Games? Clue: it isn’t anyone at the Sun. Who is the one opening up about mental health? Clue: it isn’t anyone at the Sun. And perhaps most revealing of all, who is the one taking legal action against the Murdoch press? Can you see it now?

Also, the Sussexes make money for the hostile press: “When it comes to driving revenue and media interest, no other couple in the world comes close to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. In a new study of newsworthiness and the value they bring, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex bring in over £1.1M every three months, nearly double that of Prince William and Kate Middleton”.

Do go on: “every time a news outlet talks about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, they are generating a lot more value than any other married subject … A new study has analysed the value of traffic the most written-about married couples have brought to online media publications over the past three months, and they’ve estimated that the Sussexes have brought in a value of £1,182,440”. More value than Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

There is more. “Prince Harry is the most valuable personality to write news articles about among all married couples, having brought in an estimated £611,955 in traffic value alone between May and August this year … Trailing behind, and way below Harry and Meghan, the Prince and Princess of Wales come in fourth, totalling £592,559”. J-Lo and Ben Affleck were third.

A spokesman for the company doing the research told “Our study has found that media publications benefit more when they write about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle than about any other celebrity couple. This includes even the King himself and the heir to the throne … What is really interesting is that these same publications might write about other couples, but people will still care more to find out what Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are up to”.

This makes the bad faith hackery of the Sun, Mail, Express and all the others a win-win exercise: slag off Haz and Megs, but get so much traffic from their stories that they make more money out of it (the King and Camilla were only 5th, with the Beckhams having to make do with a lowly 6th).

Now you know why the Sun does it - to make more money for itself.

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