A news presenter has shot back at Prince Harry’s criticisms of royal press coverage as he labels the claims a “straw man argument”. Dan Wootton said that he and other members of the media had been briefed by the Duke’s communications team, despite Harry’s belief the palace didn’t put out a statement to protect him.
In a trailer for an upcoming interview with US-based outlet CBS, Harry claims he was “betrayed” by the royal family, due to “briefings, leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife.”
He went on to claim that Buckingham Palace claimed to not be able to “put out a statement to protect [the Sussexes]”, but would do so for other members of the family.
But Mr Wootton claimed: “Prince Harry’s communications team briefed the media (including me) during him and Meghan’s entire time in the Royal Family, right up to the Megxit story. It’s literally their job. This is a straw man argument by the Sussexes.”
A straw man argument refers to intentionally misrepresenting an opposing viewpoint or person in order to make them easier to criticise.
In the trailer, the Duke elaborated: “The family motto is ‘never complain, never explain’, but it’s just a motto.
“They will feed or have a conversation with a correspondent, and that correspondent will literally be spoon-fed information and write the story, and at the bottom of it, they will say they have reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.
“But the whole story is Buckingham Palace commenting. So when we’re being told for the last six years, ‘we can’t put a statement out to protect you’, but you do it for other members of the family, there becomes a point when silence is betrayal.”
He further added to this claim by stating in the recently-released Netflix documentary by criticising the concept of a “royal correspondent”, arguing: “Royal correspondent is a title I suppose that is given to a select group of journalists so that those newspapers can use them and their stories with ‘royal correspondent’ as credible fact, just so that whatever the papers print can come with extra credibility.
“I mean, anyone can be a royal expert. The whole point of it is to lend legitimacy to media articles, and they get paid for it. And that sort of press pack of royal correspondents is essentially just an extended PR arm of the royal family.”
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His comments have sparked uproar among some members of the media – including from Ailsa Anderson, who served as communications and press secretary to the late Queen.
She told ABC’s Good Morning America: “In the 13 years that I worked for the royal household, there is not one occasion where I ever briefed against another member of the royal family. It would be completely counterproductive; it would damage the institution. It would be wrong, and the Queen would not sanction it.”
Meanwhile Jack Royston, chief Royal Correspondent for Newsweek, observed that Harry’s claims inadvertently lended legitimacy to leaked negative stories about Meghan Markle.
He wrote: “For others who want to know the palace perspective on the transatlantic royal rift, those anonymous sources may now seem far more credible.
He added that Harry’s statements mean that it is more likely that there has been a “real, and potentially well-placed, palace staffer behind a significant number of quotes attributed to a ‘royal source’ that might otherwise have been perceived as fiction.
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“That may bring back the focus on a number of other stories about the couple, including the December 2018 allegations that Meghan’s staff found her difficult to work for.”
Mr Royston referred to an email sent by Jason Knauf, former Kensington Palace communications secretary, which was leaked to the Times, and which accused Meghan of bullying two PAs out of the royal household.
The accusation was strongly denied by Meghan’s communication team, who stated that the email was leaked as a smear intended to undermine her criticisms of the royal family in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Another interview with Prince Harry, with ITV’s Tom Bradby, will also be released this Sunday – a trailer for which indicates the Duke will similarly discuss press coverage of he and Meghan.
After referring again to “the leaking and planting” of stories, the Prince added: “I want a family, not an institution.” He also said: “They feel as though it is better to keep us somehow as the villains.”
Express.co.uk is awaiting a comment from Buckingham Palace
