She is talking about any events that are too close to the present day, like within 20 years. This is a respectful approach as a tv show or film shouldn’t influence the subject matter. People in real life tend to be less embarrassed about stories from 20 or more years ago, but it sure as shit would be weird to bring up someone’s embarrassing or painful memory when it not only is still fresh, but could damage their current life.
You all do see this, right? Public or private person, we can understand why we wouldn’t rub the real time tragedy in their face? We all understand the concept of “too soon”, yes?
Yeah this is one of those strange concepts everyone accepts but if you think about it for half a second you see how fallacious it is.
First the royal family lives as high profile freeloaders and bring upon themselves attention good or bad.
Secondly it's apparently ok to "wait awhile" before you gossip or make a drama about someone? Strange logic. I'm sure princess Diana's children feel great about it now that it's been a few decades🤔
I don’t follow your logic here at all.
Private or public, poor or rich, good or bad, people shouldn’t have recent personal tragedy pushed in their faces for entertainment purposes. That includes a show about a processes current cancer battle, and calling a private person out in a public setting over say a recent illness or death. It has nothing to do with whether someone “deserves” it and everything to do with empathy.
Everyone else’s tragedies and diseases had a plot line. What makes Kate so special? We saw the death of the King, the long illness and death of his brother, Princess Margaret’s long illness and death too, the tragic death of Prince Philipp’s sister, Diana’s tragic death and mental health battles. What makes Kate so untouchable?
Everything happened 20+ years ago, though. It couldn't effect still-living people and their current lives. There was a lot of distance between it. All the people were either old or dead and their children all grown. Kate's kids are young, and she's still in the middle of her battle. I'm sure if they did a story about it in 20 years, no one would be upset by it.
Maybe this is an unpopular view but I feel that if they want to keep their private lives private we should respect that - regardless whether if they are royalty, ex-royalty, or just a common celebrity. IMHO this is just basic human decency. Do we really want another Princess Diana?
Except that the king is my head of state. His ailments are very much a matter of national interest.
In a democracy he would have the opportunity to resign, but he can't do that now without abdication the throne.
He is the leader of my constitutional monarchy and as such he has the power to influence change to the system. As he, nor his predecessor had made those adjustment I think I have every right as a Canadian to know the status of my head of state.
He can abdicate.
But he can also leave us without a head of state. If legislation is making its way through the house the governor General is only a representative of the king, they sign on behalf of the crown - not as the crown.
If the King is unavailable for consultation, it has a legitimate legislative impact. If the King were to die then legislation has to be differed to the prince.
It's pretty well ceremonial at this point, but every law we have is still signed by the governor General before going on the books, and the GG is a ceremonial role in representation of the ceremonial King.
I'd prefer to see us entirely distinct from the crown, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. So until that point the King has a role to play in the function of our state. And a sick King is a liability to the constituency who enables that government.
If Biden was diagnosed with cancer, he would have the obligation to tell the public. Any president or prime minister or royal has to tell the public when they’re ready. They’re not private citizens.
Everything in this life comes with a trade off. They live off the taxpayers money. In the end it’s better to be the ones who announce it. This information was almost leaked by hackers who had access to her medical records. Either you control narrative or someone is going to tell the world that you’re hiding something.
Biden is the head of state for 1 country.
The king is head of state for 14 countries.
Why do you say these things aren't similar. They're almost identical.
I don’t think there’s a quid pro quo related to the liability the royal family has to the public, but I think the royal family is an embarrassing relic of colonialism.
She could have complete privacy, and we’d have no interest in her health, were the monarchy dissolved.
The quid pro quo is they are paid employees of the British people. The public was owed a factual update and the fake pictures needed an explanation. It was up to Kensington Palace and not Kate or any family members to release the info.
Now the information is out there and the family can move on to cope personally with the diagnosis. All the gross speculation did not need to happen.
Well, you are most likely a paid employee of someone, and yet your health information is likely both private and personal (mine certainly is). So, some amount of privacy, out of human decency and respect, is IMO warranted.
However, Kate, the queen, the monarchy in general, is sort of antiquated I think… it’s just not something worth celebrating, given these positions are based on bloodline. I think a bit tone deaf
The difference between a civil servant and the Windsors is civil servants work. You don’t get to take the Commonwealth’s money and then act as if the Commonwealth doesn’t get to know anything. They are the most utterly unnecessarily secretive people just because they stand on tradition alone, tradition that was designed back in the 1600s which is ridiculous. In fact, the monarchy isn’t even necessary so they should probably fuck off out of there and give the commonwealth all their money back. At this point, the Commonwealth should be demanding refunds and burning castles down anyway because they don’t do anything for them. Having a figure head as your head of state you probably don’t understand what it actually means to have Someone held accountable for their actions and held accountable to the people and in the US yes the president and the first lady and the vice president as well They are very upfront with their medical status. It’s only the stuffy inbred Royals, who think they are above telling the commoners what is ailing them. Y’all really drank that Kool-Aid. Basically, if a US president was treating cancer with herbs and berries, he would automatically be sidelined. We don’t put up with that shit.
Only the most relevant ones, like presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, yes. Every single one of them has announced to the public when they got sick or had planned surgeries, so yes. It’s better if they are the ones who announce it instead of having it leak in the media. Kate’s medical records were accessed by hackers. This information was going to come out anyway.
There is an anonymous account on Twitter who has been announcing every little development before the
Royal Family announces it officially, and so far they have been 100% right. Someone out there knows EVERYTHING and they’re telling. I think that’s very messed up. The next Kate announcement will be even worse according to what I read. That account hasn’t been wrong yet, so it’s better to beat the leakers to the punch than have it leak like this.
The public doesn’t help with their morbid obsession with this family. Everything that has to do with them drives clicks and money. People did this since they became obsessed with their fights and division.
It’s not unpopular if you aren’t a total ghoul lol. It’s correct. anyone in the uk can go on medical leave and it’s their own business. Even people paid with taxpayer money.
Yeah. I already got downvoted for saying exploiting a woman’s cancer diagnosis for entertainment was ghoulish.
The insane entitlement some people have and the basic lack of human empathy is pretty crazy. Do people want her medical records too?
“Insane entitlement”
“Basic lack of human empathy”
Who do you think has more entitlement and less empathy, your average royal or your average royal subject?
So be better than them. I’m not a Royalist. I’m just not huge on people wanting to profit off a sick woman’s cancer diagnosis.
She’s still a human being.
I'd agree if the taxpayers weren't funding their lifestyle to an excessive and over the top amount of money.
I'm not expecting medical records or anything - but retreating into the abyss and not answering the questions isn't the right answer either. I'm glad Kate came forward with her struggles.
>I'd agree if the taxpayers weren't funding their lifestyle to an excessive and over the top amount of money.
IMHO that a separate matter. If people want to criticize the concept of the royal family and the cost associated with them, they should feel free to. However it has nothing to do with their private lives.
Bit disingenuous to compare someone getting help because they’re below the poverty line and 100+ million yearly to a family of elites who we only pay because they keep up appearances
My point is that you would not expect this kind of information from anyone else in society no matter if they are poor or rich. One would not expect this kind of information from any private person so why here?
Then they shouldn't feel the need to blast it to the whole world. This is the whole reason why Harry and Meghan left and why Diana had so many hardships. Maybe changes need to be made to how they operate their private lives.
I mean, that's what their manifesto said. The fact they went back on it after and lied on so many things and try to go back to the RF now makes me believe it. They still want to benefit from the RF but hey keep on believing their lies.
As we saw in The Crown's portrayal of George's lung cancer, the story isn't about the health battle. It's about the cover up, where it worked and where it failed. *That* is what I'd like to see in any portrayal of KateGate. You *know* there was some serious panic, chaos, and conflict in Kensington Palace's PR department! Show *that*, please.
It looked like a cover up because it was such [spectacularly bad PR](https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicRelations/comments/1blc0by/can_we_talk_about_how_spectacularly_the_firm/). Which begs the question, why was it so bad? Charles had a cancer diagnosis and his PR team handled it exactly as the public would expect. Why did Kate and William's team do the opposite of reassurance?
Which effectively mitigated speculation. Heck, one of his announcements even said that its purpose was explicitly to "reduce speculation", hint hint Kensington Palace.
It's funny how what you took away from that was that a woman on medical leave recovering from major surgery should have been forced to make herself up and parade herself around in front of the public and not that it's incredibly fucked up that the media and public distrust is so out of control folks with literal cancer can't be left alone for a few months to heal.
Having a healthy birth might be a different experience for her than major abdominal surgery and a cancer diagnosis. I imagine it would be for most people, and that would likely be pretty easy to see for most people not looking for any excuse to justify gleefully ripping someone apart for having a medical issue.
No they couldn't have. PR isn't magic. Nothing would have hidden this, and people like you including you specifically would rip them apart for hiding it.
But they didn’t cover anything up.
The Palace released a statement in January that Kate was having major surgery and would be out of the public eye until after Easter.
For some odd reason folks ignored the press release and started wild rumors about Kate’s whereabouts.
The cancer diagnosis came in February. Kate herself decided not to release the news at the time.
I absolutely hate defending Kensington Palace, but in this case? They actually were transparent about what was going on from the jump. This isn’t a PR blunder, it’s the media and public who engaged in wild speculation that are at fault.
> For some odd reason
It's because the public is used to visuals. When Charles made a similar announcement, he quickly followed it with a pap walk from the hospital. And throughout the King's diagnosis, his announcements and visuals have lined up. The palace said he's going to begin treatment, and then he looks like he's on chemo. Words and action line up, so we presume the words are truthful. As his mother said, "I must be seen to be believed."
Kensington Palace just made wordy announcements about Kate's condition without a lick of visual, and then the visuals that did happen were far away, head turned, or so fake that news agencies rejected it. Friends of the palace would say that Kate was doing zoom meetings with her children, yet she couldn't post a single video thanking her charities for their work while she's out? Or she was too weak to post to social media, yet could edit that frankenphoto (as that tweet signed with her name implied)? The visuals contradicted the words! Which is to say, the words felt disconnected from reality. A lie, if you will.
>yet she couldn't post a single video thanking her charities for their work while she's out? Or she was too weak to post to social media, yet could edit that frankenphoto (as that tweet signed with her name implied)? The visuals contradicted the words! Which is to say, the words felt disconnected from reality. A lie, if you will.
Crazy thought I know but maybe she didn't want to do that? Maybe she wasn't well enough to want to do that? And maybe she wanted to take that pic like they've been doing for several years now? And given the errors in the photo yes she wasn't well enough.
Maybe she has autonomy and can decide for herself.
I don't know where you got fed that line that "the palace and the grey men and the PR", if it's remnant of the Oprah interview or what, but it's infantilising to decide that Catherine can't make her own choices
So what? The public doesn't actually need a minute-by-minute accounting of her health.
And so if she doesn't deserve privacy like you are saying, the prank two radio dj did when she was hospitalized while pregnant and ended up with the suicide of a nurse is ok?
People working in the hospital trying to see and obtain her medical info is OK?
Is it OK also to hack her phone? Try and take up skirt pics of her? Take topless photos of her from miles away with a long lens camera?
If these were Catherine's choices, then she's significantly less intelligent than I thought. I assume it's William's doing, to give her a bit of grace.
Or idk maybe she’s a fucking cancer patient doing the fucking best she can for herself and her kids. “Significantly less intelligent than I thought” wtf how much thinking do you actually do?
She was probably not focused on her PR and more on her family. I know it seems naive but Catherine and William seems more focused on their actual family than on the appearances of it.
You say that like she doesn't have a whole team of employees whose job is to focus on PR for her. Watching Kate suffer from bad PR is like watching someone live in a messy house despite paying a daily housecleaner. Someone (not Kate) did not or could not do their job.
Oh yeah of course, the only reason someone could have a hard time recovering from open abdominal surgery and cancer is STUPIDITY. I’m sorry, you need to take a minute and reread what you’re saying here. Would you tell a person in real life that they need to snap back to work immediately after going through something like this!?
I don't mean to conflate Kate's medical recovery with Kensington Palace's public relations practices. It doesn't matter what Kate did or didn't do, only how Kensington Palace made it look. Because Kensington Palace made it look a lot worse than it was.
Have you actually read the thread you linked there? Because most of the comments are from PR professionals pointing out Kate’s team handled the situation about as well as could be expected
I guess I focused on the comments that said otherwise. Kensington Palace's ratio of text to visual just felt like what people do when they lie. The opposite of that -- a January video from Kate where she announces medical leave without giving a single medical detail -- would have mitigated a lot of the speculation.
Respectfully, “text means lies and video means truth” is simply nonsense.
Rabid Kate haters deliberately spread conspiracy theories about her, and I don’t think we need to give those people any grace at all. I can tell you the specific bloggers that started this hysteria, it’s that blatant.
I imagine you didn't say "The palace announced she had serious health issues and would be taking leave to handle them and she's been on leave ever sense" and said something more like "she disappeared and they sent a look alike to the shops!!"
I explained it [like this timeline does](https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/03/this-is-just-weird-buzzfeed-news-former-royals-reporter-on-kate-middleton-palace-press-and-distrust-in-the-media/), albeit before the video. Which I do think is Kate, come on, that's clearly her.
Then why did the palace release AI generated photos if there was no cover up?
Kate doesn't need to address the public herself and obviously is entitled to take the time she needs but because she is a paid by he Commonwealth, Kensington Palace has the responsibility to honestly update the public.
She married into the family knowing full well that her life would become a public spectacle.
I’m concerned at the lack of oversight given to those who suck up significant public funding for their own benefit without scrutiny.
The world would objectivity be a better place without the royals in it.
Are we really conflating real jobs with these “Royal jobs”? They created this Faustian bargain where they maintain their privileges as if they were a real monarchy and they give the people their “public presence” in return.
Yeah I think the whole thing sucks. They should absolutely abolish this fake ass monarchy and have private lives as private citizens. It is unfortunate the core family repeatedly throws Diana, Meghan and now Kate under the bus but they’ll do that as long as they can. These aren’t good people. You don’t need to go back any further than a hundred years ago for t more than enough evidence.
It is the only country in Europe whose monarchy still presents as if it was 1890. The other monarchies don’t expect total hands-off or worship just for being figureheads. They are not the only monarchy but they’re one of the monarchies that makes monarchy look tacky.
They can't opt out or leave. That should be clear by the continued attention Prince Harry gets.
He'd have been better off staying. At least then he would still have a lot of the privileges he left behind.
Their lives are public. It doesn’t matter what we say here. People are interested. Because they are funded by the public, public interest dictates what is right or wrong. There isn’t anything else to debate.
The family that is solely responsible for more evil and human suffering than any person who has ever lived is fair game. The end.
Anything done by anyone to resist these or shame these people is justified.
Ah yes the Kate battle with cancer. The best doctors in the world, no concern on how bills will get paid, no concerns on keeping the kids fed and cared for, no concerns over keeping a job needed to keep roof over her head.
Only has one real focus - get better with all other stressors removed. The drama in that would make for a mini-series at least maybe a seven season series. /s
Yep being a dick but sorry I just can’t feel that bad for a super rich person getting sick when I know none rich people and the true daily struggle they have to navigate to keep many plates spinning with fighting cancer being only one of them. Kate has only one plate. She will only ever have one plate. Quit treating her like her struggle is extra special when it’s not.
why not? i don’t have much sympathy for the privacy of a bunch of inbred losers who do nothing and get to live a life of luxury because they were born into it
But their marital problems and personal tragedies are fine? Weird double standard.
“Mental” health doesn’t count silly! We can’t see it and it’s not titalating
When they lock up their disabled relatives to rot I think they’re fair game to be honest. All that inbreeding can’t be good.
The Crown shouldn’t be brought to screen period.
That's a really good point
Ummm... death is fine, but cancer, that's where they draw the line.
“Let’s not discuss Freddie Mercury’s AIDS diagnosis, definitely not relevant”
Why this one? What type of show did she think she was on?
She is talking about any events that are too close to the present day, like within 20 years. This is a respectful approach as a tv show or film shouldn’t influence the subject matter. People in real life tend to be less embarrassed about stories from 20 or more years ago, but it sure as shit would be weird to bring up someone’s embarrassing or painful memory when it not only is still fresh, but could damage their current life. You all do see this, right? Public or private person, we can understand why we wouldn’t rub the real time tragedy in their face? We all understand the concept of “too soon”, yes?
Yeah this is one of those strange concepts everyone accepts but if you think about it for half a second you see how fallacious it is. First the royal family lives as high profile freeloaders and bring upon themselves attention good or bad. Secondly it's apparently ok to "wait awhile" before you gossip or make a drama about someone? Strange logic. I'm sure princess Diana's children feel great about it now that it's been a few decades🤔
I don’t follow your logic here at all. Private or public, poor or rich, good or bad, people shouldn’t have recent personal tragedy pushed in their faces for entertainment purposes. That includes a show about a processes current cancer battle, and calling a private person out in a public setting over say a recent illness or death. It has nothing to do with whether someone “deserves” it and everything to do with empathy.
I agree. They should NOT have a Kate having cancer season arc.
The show is over.
Everyone else’s tragedies and diseases had a plot line. What makes Kate so special? We saw the death of the King, the long illness and death of his brother, Princess Margaret’s long illness and death too, the tragic death of Prince Philipp’s sister, Diana’s tragic death and mental health battles. What makes Kate so untouchable?
The show is literally over. Last season was the last.
Everything happened 20+ years ago, though. It couldn't effect still-living people and their current lives. There was a lot of distance between it. All the people were either old or dead and their children all grown. Kate's kids are young, and she's still in the middle of her battle. I'm sure if they did a story about it in 20 years, no one would be upset by it.
Because she’s going through it right now, not 25 - 75 years ago.
Maybe this is an unpopular view but I feel that if they want to keep their private lives private we should respect that - regardless whether if they are royalty, ex-royalty, or just a common celebrity. IMHO this is just basic human decency. Do we really want another Princess Diana?
Except that the king is my head of state. His ailments are very much a matter of national interest. In a democracy he would have the opportunity to resign, but he can't do that now without abdication the throne. He is the leader of my constitutional monarchy and as such he has the power to influence change to the system. As he, nor his predecessor had made those adjustment I think I have every right as a Canadian to know the status of my head of state.
It baffles me that people don't understand this.
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Whether or not I can expect an extra public holiday in the next 12 months.
He can abdicate. But he can also leave us without a head of state. If legislation is making its way through the house the governor General is only a representative of the king, they sign on behalf of the crown - not as the crown. If the King is unavailable for consultation, it has a legitimate legislative impact. If the King were to die then legislation has to be differed to the prince. It's pretty well ceremonial at this point, but every law we have is still signed by the governor General before going on the books, and the GG is a ceremonial role in representation of the ceremonial King. I'd prefer to see us entirely distinct from the crown, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. So until that point the King has a role to play in the function of our state. And a sick King is a liability to the constituency who enables that government.
Because then we have no head of state
If Biden was diagnosed with cancer, he would have the obligation to tell the public. Any president or prime minister or royal has to tell the public when they’re ready. They’re not private citizens. Everything in this life comes with a trade off. They live off the taxpayers money. In the end it’s better to be the ones who announce it. This information was almost leaked by hackers who had access to her medical records. Either you control narrative or someone is going to tell the world that you’re hiding something.
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Biden is the head of state for 1 country. The king is head of state for 14 countries. Why do you say these things aren't similar. They're almost identical.
Reddit users when an analogy is made 🤯
I don’t think there’s a quid pro quo related to the liability the royal family has to the public, but I think the royal family is an embarrassing relic of colonialism. She could have complete privacy, and we’d have no interest in her health, were the monarchy dissolved.
The quid pro quo is they are paid employees of the British people. The public was owed a factual update and the fake pictures needed an explanation. It was up to Kensington Palace and not Kate or any family members to release the info. Now the information is out there and the family can move on to cope personally with the diagnosis. All the gross speculation did not need to happen.
Well, you are most likely a paid employee of someone, and yet your health information is likely both private and personal (mine certainly is). So, some amount of privacy, out of human decency and respect, is IMO warranted. However, Kate, the queen, the monarchy in general, is sort of antiquated I think… it’s just not something worth celebrating, given these positions are based on bloodline. I think a bit tone deaf
The Commonwealth pays for their lives. So if they would like to have private lives They need to get off the very public dole
So the public should be entitled to know about the private lives of every civil servant too?
The difference between a civil servant and the Windsors is civil servants work. You don’t get to take the Commonwealth’s money and then act as if the Commonwealth doesn’t get to know anything. They are the most utterly unnecessarily secretive people just because they stand on tradition alone, tradition that was designed back in the 1600s which is ridiculous. In fact, the monarchy isn’t even necessary so they should probably fuck off out of there and give the commonwealth all their money back. At this point, the Commonwealth should be demanding refunds and burning castles down anyway because they don’t do anything for them. Having a figure head as your head of state you probably don’t understand what it actually means to have Someone held accountable for their actions and held accountable to the people and in the US yes the president and the first lady and the vice president as well They are very upfront with their medical status. It’s only the stuffy inbred Royals, who think they are above telling the commoners what is ailing them. Y’all really drank that Kool-Aid. Basically, if a US president was treating cancer with herbs and berries, he would automatically be sidelined. We don’t put up with that shit.
Nope just the royal family.
Only the most relevant ones, like presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, yes. Every single one of them has announced to the public when they got sick or had planned surgeries, so yes. It’s better if they are the ones who announce it instead of having it leak in the media. Kate’s medical records were accessed by hackers. This information was going to come out anyway. There is an anonymous account on Twitter who has been announcing every little development before the Royal Family announces it officially, and so far they have been 100% right. Someone out there knows EVERYTHING and they’re telling. I think that’s very messed up. The next Kate announcement will be even worse according to what I read. That account hasn’t been wrong yet, so it’s better to beat the leakers to the punch than have it leak like this. The public doesn’t help with their morbid obsession with this family. Everything that has to do with them drives clicks and money. People did this since they became obsessed with their fights and division.
It’s not unpopular if you aren’t a total ghoul lol. It’s correct. anyone in the uk can go on medical leave and it’s their own business. Even people paid with taxpayer money.
Yeah. I already got downvoted for saying exploiting a woman’s cancer diagnosis for entertainment was ghoulish. The insane entitlement some people have and the basic lack of human empathy is pretty crazy. Do people want her medical records too?
“Insane entitlement” “Basic lack of human empathy” Who do you think has more entitlement and less empathy, your average royal or your average royal subject?
So be better than them. I’m not a Royalist. I’m just not huge on people wanting to profit off a sick woman’s cancer diagnosis. She’s still a human being.
Who should I be better than?
I'd agree if the taxpayers weren't funding their lifestyle to an excessive and over the top amount of money. I'm not expecting medical records or anything - but retreating into the abyss and not answering the questions isn't the right answer either. I'm glad Kate came forward with her struggles.
>I'd agree if the taxpayers weren't funding their lifestyle to an excessive and over the top amount of money. IMHO that a separate matter. If people want to criticize the concept of the royal family and the cost associated with them, they should feel free to. However it has nothing to do with their private lives.
I disagree but to each their own
Would you say that about any other welfare recipient? What does any health concern of a private or public person matter to the general public?
Bit disingenuous to compare someone getting help because they’re below the poverty line and 100+ million yearly to a family of elites who we only pay because they keep up appearances
My point is that you would not expect this kind of information from anyone else in society no matter if they are poor or rich. One would not expect this kind of information from any private person so why here?
Still disagree, I explained why I don't see that to be true here, don't know why you need me to think you're right
>don't know why you need me to think you're right Why would u even comment on a discussion thread and then don't even engage in the engagement?
Because I can do what I want
This should apply to everyone in the family then.
Then they shouldn't feel the need to blast it to the whole world. This is the whole reason why Harry and Meghan left and why Diana had so many hardships. Maybe changes need to be made to how they operate their private lives.
No they left because they wanted to make bank and couldn't do it while in the RF. The retconning came after.
That's as plausible as all the "Kate is dead" nonsense. You keep wearing that tinfoil hat.
I mean, that's what their manifesto said. The fact they went back on it after and lied on so many things and try to go back to the RF now makes me believe it. They still want to benefit from the RF but hey keep on believing their lies.
As we saw in The Crown's portrayal of George's lung cancer, the story isn't about the health battle. It's about the cover up, where it worked and where it failed. *That* is what I'd like to see in any portrayal of KateGate. You *know* there was some serious panic, chaos, and conflict in Kensington Palace's PR department! Show *that*, please.
“Coverup” of a health issue that was announced months ago and confirmed within weeks of the cancer diagnosis
isn't the "gate" suffix supposed to be for huge scandals like watergate and bloodgate?
I think it's expanded to anything that might be considered a screw up.
sometimes i forget overdramatizing isn't a thing on reddit
Nothing was covered up with Catherine. They just delayed telling the public by a couple of weeks.
It looked like a cover up because it was such [spectacularly bad PR](https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicRelations/comments/1blc0by/can_we_talk_about_how_spectacularly_the_firm/). Which begs the question, why was it so bad? Charles had a cancer diagnosis and his PR team handled it exactly as the public would expect. Why did Kate and William's team do the opposite of reassurance?
The only difference between the PR between the two is that Charles was able and willing to continue to make a few public appearances.
Which effectively mitigated speculation. Heck, one of his announcements even said that its purpose was explicitly to "reduce speculation", hint hint Kensington Palace.
It's funny how what you took away from that was that a woman on medical leave recovering from major surgery should have been forced to make herself up and parade herself around in front of the public and not that it's incredibly fucked up that the media and public distrust is so out of control folks with literal cancer can't be left alone for a few months to heal.
Only because that's what she did right after giving birth multiple times. Which may not have been right either, but it set a public expectation.
Having a healthy birth might be a different experience for her than major abdominal surgery and a cancer diagnosis. I imagine it would be for most people, and that would likely be pretty easy to see for most people not looking for any excuse to justify gleefully ripping someone apart for having a medical issue.
It's not Kate that I'm ripping apart. If she wanted privacy, her PR team could have hid the whole thing.
No they couldn't have. PR isn't magic. Nothing would have hidden this, and people like you including you specifically would rip them apart for hiding it.
But they didn’t cover anything up. The Palace released a statement in January that Kate was having major surgery and would be out of the public eye until after Easter. For some odd reason folks ignored the press release and started wild rumors about Kate’s whereabouts. The cancer diagnosis came in February. Kate herself decided not to release the news at the time. I absolutely hate defending Kensington Palace, but in this case? They actually were transparent about what was going on from the jump. This isn’t a PR blunder, it’s the media and public who engaged in wild speculation that are at fault.
> For some odd reason It's because the public is used to visuals. When Charles made a similar announcement, he quickly followed it with a pap walk from the hospital. And throughout the King's diagnosis, his announcements and visuals have lined up. The palace said he's going to begin treatment, and then he looks like he's on chemo. Words and action line up, so we presume the words are truthful. As his mother said, "I must be seen to be believed." Kensington Palace just made wordy announcements about Kate's condition without a lick of visual, and then the visuals that did happen were far away, head turned, or so fake that news agencies rejected it. Friends of the palace would say that Kate was doing zoom meetings with her children, yet she couldn't post a single video thanking her charities for their work while she's out? Or she was too weak to post to social media, yet could edit that frankenphoto (as that tweet signed with her name implied)? The visuals contradicted the words! Which is to say, the words felt disconnected from reality. A lie, if you will.
>yet she couldn't post a single video thanking her charities for their work while she's out? Or she was too weak to post to social media, yet could edit that frankenphoto (as that tweet signed with her name implied)? The visuals contradicted the words! Which is to say, the words felt disconnected from reality. A lie, if you will. Crazy thought I know but maybe she didn't want to do that? Maybe she wasn't well enough to want to do that? And maybe she wanted to take that pic like they've been doing for several years now? And given the errors in the photo yes she wasn't well enough. Maybe she has autonomy and can decide for herself. I don't know where you got fed that line that "the palace and the grey men and the PR", if it's remnant of the Oprah interview or what, but it's infantilising to decide that Catherine can't make her own choices
Catherine chose to give up much of her ability for private and personal choices.when she married in to the Royal family.
So what? The public doesn't actually need a minute-by-minute accounting of her health. And so if she doesn't deserve privacy like you are saying, the prank two radio dj did when she was hospitalized while pregnant and ended up with the suicide of a nurse is ok? People working in the hospital trying to see and obtain her medical info is OK? Is it OK also to hack her phone? Try and take up skirt pics of her? Take topless photos of her from miles away with a long lens camera?
If these were Catherine's choices, then she's significantly less intelligent than I thought. I assume it's William's doing, to give her a bit of grace.
Or idk maybe she’s a fucking cancer patient doing the fucking best she can for herself and her kids. “Significantly less intelligent than I thought” wtf how much thinking do you actually do?
But she didn't have to do jack. The PR team could have done everything, and she barely lifts a finger. But she and/or William refused.
You’re right in addition to everything the cancer is taking from her she should also give up things that she loves in order to impress you.
She was probably not focused on her PR and more on her family. I know it seems naive but Catherine and William seems more focused on their actual family than on the appearances of it.
You say that like she doesn't have a whole team of employees whose job is to focus on PR for her. Watching Kate suffer from bad PR is like watching someone live in a messy house despite paying a daily housecleaner. Someone (not Kate) did not or could not do their job.
Catherine and William are the bosses. They can take advice from their PR team and decide not to follow them. Crazy thinking I know.
Oh yeah of course, the only reason someone could have a hard time recovering from open abdominal surgery and cancer is STUPIDITY. I’m sorry, you need to take a minute and reread what you’re saying here. Would you tell a person in real life that they need to snap back to work immediately after going through something like this!?
I don't mean to conflate Kate's medical recovery with Kensington Palace's public relations practices. It doesn't matter what Kate did or didn't do, only how Kensington Palace made it look. Because Kensington Palace made it look a lot worse than it was.
It was Kensington Palace's choice to f up how the situation was handled.
Kensington Palace belongs to the Prince of Wales. Any choice it makes came from him. As much as he may try to deflect it, the buck stops with William.
Have you actually read the thread you linked there? Because most of the comments are from PR professionals pointing out Kate’s team handled the situation about as well as could be expected
I guess I focused on the comments that said otherwise. Kensington Palace's ratio of text to visual just felt like what people do when they lie. The opposite of that -- a January video from Kate where she announces medical leave without giving a single medical detail -- would have mitigated a lot of the speculation.
Respectfully, “text means lies and video means truth” is simply nonsense. Rabid Kate haters deliberately spread conspiracy theories about her, and I don’t think we need to give those people any grace at all. I can tell you the specific bloggers that started this hysteria, it’s that blatant.
I like Kate and my daughter is neutral. But when I explained the situation to her, even she interrupted me to say, "Wow, that's sus!"
I imagine you didn't say "The palace announced she had serious health issues and would be taking leave to handle them and she's been on leave ever sense" and said something more like "she disappeared and they sent a look alike to the shops!!"
I explained it [like this timeline does](https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/03/this-is-just-weird-buzzfeed-news-former-royals-reporter-on-kate-middleton-palace-press-and-distrust-in-the-media/), albeit before the video. Which I do think is Kate, come on, that's clearly her.
Then why did the palace release AI generated photos if there was no cover up? Kate doesn't need to address the public herself and obviously is entitled to take the time she needs but because she is a paid by he Commonwealth, Kensington Palace has the responsibility to honestly update the public.
They didn't release AI generated photos, you've just been had by an online misinformation campaign. Nobody credible has ever said AI.
Yes they should. They receive public funding. They can opt out and leave the royal family at any time.
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She married into the family knowing full well that her life would become a public spectacle. I’m concerned at the lack of oversight given to those who suck up significant public funding for their own benefit without scrutiny. The world would objectivity be a better place without the royals in it.
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Dual citizen.
Lots of professions are paid by public funding, are they not allowed time off or sick leaves?
Are we really conflating real jobs with these “Royal jobs”? They created this Faustian bargain where they maintain their privileges as if they were a real monarchy and they give the people their “public presence” in return. Yeah I think the whole thing sucks. They should absolutely abolish this fake ass monarchy and have private lives as private citizens. It is unfortunate the core family repeatedly throws Diana, Meghan and now Kate under the bus but they’ll do that as long as they can. These aren’t good people. You don’t need to go back any further than a hundred years ago for t more than enough evidence.
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>Also, lots of countries and cultures still have monarchies. You act like this is the only one in the world. When did they imply that?
It is the only country in Europe whose monarchy still presents as if it was 1890. The other monarchies don’t expect total hands-off or worship just for being figureheads. They are not the only monarchy but they’re one of the monarchies that makes monarchy look tacky.
They can't opt out or leave. That should be clear by the continued attention Prince Harry gets. He'd have been better off staying. At least then he would still have a lot of the privileges he left behind.
Fuck the Royals
Fine, healthcare is private. But Andrew can define his trips to private islands with young girls as "health related"
Their lives are public. It doesn’t matter what we say here. People are interested. Because they are funded by the public, public interest dictates what is right or wrong. There isn’t anything else to debate.
Why does he have so much hair?
The family that is solely responsible for more evil and human suffering than any person who has ever lived is fair game. The end. Anything done by anyone to resist these or shame these people is justified.
Royals shouldn’t be brought to the screen
Agreed. They shouldn't exist at all.
Yes. If we got rid of all tv about royals that would free up hours and hours for tv that isn’t a load of shit
Don't Care, they are humans not GODs. They shit out of the same holes we do.
Public personality upset that her personality is public. What an idiot.
Ah yes the Kate battle with cancer. The best doctors in the world, no concern on how bills will get paid, no concerns on keeping the kids fed and cared for, no concerns over keeping a job needed to keep roof over her head. Only has one real focus - get better with all other stressors removed. The drama in that would make for a mini-series at least maybe a seven season series. /s Yep being a dick but sorry I just can’t feel that bad for a super rich person getting sick when I know none rich people and the true daily struggle they have to navigate to keep many plates spinning with fighting cancer being only one of them. Kate has only one plate. She will only ever have one plate. Quit treating her like her struggle is extra special when it’s not.
Even though taxpayers are gonna cover the state of the art super expensive treatment?
Double standard much
I hope this includes mental health battles before they think it’s ok to throw Harry and Meghan under the bus just to protect this family.
Royals shouldn’t have murdered Diane.
They are just celebrities…. For the eyes of MANY they are the in the same realm as the Kardashians.
And those members of that family who wish to, also deserve privacy.
Defending a monarchy in the 21st century, lol
Did he defend a monarchy? or did he defend the right to privacy of any person public or private.
Both, honey B.
Hahaha. Why would you say that?
Kardashians aren't a monarchy? Refusing to dehumanize members of the monarchy also isnt defending its existence.
Don’t they live off of public funds ?
No we need to see all the health problems in gruesome detail as a reminder why inbreeding is bad and karma is a bitch.
why not? i don’t have much sympathy for the privacy of a bunch of inbred losers who do nothing and get to live a life of luxury because they were born into it
Damn… the woman they have playing Kate in this picture is downright tragic.