United Kingdom: Harry and Meghan vs. the tabloids
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have declared “all-out war on the British newspaper industry,” said Jim Waterson and Caroline Davies in The Guardian. Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have filed two blockbuster lawsuits against media outlets in the past week. First, Harry sued the owners of The Sun and Daily Mirror tabloids over the alleged hacking of his mobile phone by journalists in the early 2000s. Days later, Meghan launched a legal case against the Mail on Sunday for alleged breach of privacy and copyright infringement over its publication of a private letter she wrote to her estranged father in 2018. “Neither of the actions appears to be guaranteed success,” said The Times in an editorial. The letter, in which Meghan pleaded with her dad to stop telling lies to the media, was handed willingly by her father to the Mail. And the phone-hacking case, which resulted in numerous prison sentences, may fall outside the six-year statute of limitations. But Harry seems determined to take a stand, saying the tabloids have “vilified” his wife “almost daily for the past nine months.”
Harry and Meghan aren’t fighting for their right to privacy, said Piers Morgan in the Daily Mail— they want to silence journalists for exposing their hypocrisy. The couple lecture ordinary folk about the need to cut carbon emissions, “then jump on private jets every two minutes.” They used $2.9 million in public funds to refurbish their luxury home, but Meghan wouldn’t let the public take photos of her at Wimbledon. The two live a life of phenomenal privilege but still “see themselves as poor, downtrodden, massively misunderstood victims of horrible press ‘bullies.’” Most pathetic of all is Harry’s invocation of his mother when moaning about the media, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times. The prince says he fears that his wife is “falling victim to the same powerful forces” that led to the death of Princess Diana in a 1997 car crash. But history isn’t repeating itself. All Meghan has had to deal with is a few gossip columnists criticizing her eco-absurdity and her refusal to release more photos of her royal baby, Archie. “It’s not quite the same as being chased to death by paparazzi, as Harry claims it is.”
“There’s something creepy about the clamor for the Sussexes to put out,” said Gabby Hinsliff in The Guardian. Give us another look at your kid, the press crows, and quit whining about your privacy. “The argument is reminiscent of drunk suits braying at a lap dancer they don’t feel has gone far enough for the money.” Behind all this lurk some ugly assumptions “that this particular princess, a mixed-race American divorcée from an ordinary background, might be fair game in a way other royal brides were not.” The royals cost the nation $100 million a year, and the public wants its money’s worth. “But it’s the crowd, not the people stripped bare before them, who seem diminished by the sight.”