I usually write about things that move me immediately after I experience them—strike while the iron is hot, method style. ’Spare’, I wanted to read it at my own pace and observe the surrounding noise before offering my opinion.
It’s unchanged.
Although it amuses us endlessly, a discourse about Prince Harry and his family is ultimately about a much-needed media reform. Given that his family is in cahoots with tabloids, they are inevitably swept along on Harry’s takedown train.
To the superficial eye, the Oprah Interview, the Netflix documentary, and the release of ‘Spare’ seem like they’re about the Battle Royale between Harry and his family. Many would frame it as an internal conflict marked by issues of racism and misogyny within the British royal court. And for those not critically reflecting, it's easy to label them as royal outlaws simply seeking to profit from their titles.
This is fairly simple to decipher. Harry is not trying to take the monarchy down. Harry is trying to take down the British Tabloid Press, and they are decades overdue for a takedown. And the people who collude with tabloids, in this case, his family—well, he’s taking those too.
Many countries in the world know a clear difference between the regular, ethical press and tabloid press, meaning their citizens mostly know which is which, and tabloids don’t enjoy much of a reputation in most parts of the sane world. They are consumed for entertainment.
In Britain, the story is different; British tabloid media rules everything. It influences politics, supports political parties, takes down political figures, and sways elections. And it’s one of the most dangerous media in the world. Most of them are owned by Rupert Murdoch, and drawing a parallel here—he also owns Fox News in America.
I implore you to step out of the royal gossip mindset and think deeper about this. It’s imperative to evolve here. Instead of thinking about if you like or dislike Harry & Meghan, see what’s at stake here.
Many people already did. I read a tweet by @rapieress the other day, saying:
“We don't talk enough about Murdoch's corrupt influence on the world, which is why I support Harry & Meghan. Murdoch is a political opportunist who had traded newspaper support to governments in return for regulatory favors. Then there are his connections with Putin.”
This is much more important than Meghan’s mug irritating you for no viable reason.
What’s at stake here?
Media shapes the reputation of the people they write about. Opinions are formed by reading the media and its residue: discourse on social networks. People who are not in the public eye usually shake their heads when they’re warned about the dangers of tabloid reporting, not noticing they are being radicalized by it. If you think you've come to your own conclusion of not liking Harry and Meghan in this scenario, you're wrong.
All of you that hate her came to that conclusion with the help of the tabloids, with the assistance of the Royal Family, who assigned Meghan the role of exactly what you’re thinking about her right now, reading this.
They succeeded.
People who are not in the public eye and have no experience with tabloid media can be very careless about the damage it can do to a person. Those people usually see the negatives of the press as a punishment someone deserves for being rich and famous.
If you’re one of those people but you think you are a good person, think again. You reading these lies and believing them, you are complicit. Tabloid media and any unethical media are nothing but another form of abuse.
For all of you commenting Harry is talking too much, he should be quiet; you are wrong yet again. Asking someone to be quiet about unfair treatment is a form of abuse. An abuser always wants to silence his/hers victim and does not want the victim to shine the light on the abuse, so the abuse can continue.
The relationship between the tabloid media and the subject they lie about is one of an abuser and a victim.
The tabloid media NEEDS Harry to be quiet and complacent so they can continue making money by inventing stories about him he won’t rebuke. Harry speaking out in ‘Spare’ and in interviews interferes with their business model.
And if you wonder why his memoir was a bit tabloidy in some parts, that was clearly done on purpose. The story about the frosted penis is a tabloid-y story. He is giving you the type of bullshit stories they write about, so they can’t. HE wants to be a source of his own dumb stories. Also, mocking them a bit so you, the reader, understand the silliness of it all.
I once phoned a tabloid “journalist” after another barrage of dumb invented stories he wrote about me and told him, “If you need stupid shit being written, can you please call me? If you need drama, I’ll give you a far better drama than the one you are inventing, and it will also be true.”
He said no.
They want the freedom to invent the stories THEY want to invent about you.
Harry is doing THE ONLY thing you should do when tabloid media uses your life to create stories that make no sense, in his case stories that jeopardize the safety of his family, and finally, invented stories that the tabloids get rich on.
If you’re bothered by a man making a bank on HIS OWN LIFE, yet you aren’t bothered that the tabloid media is making bank on HIS life with invented stories, you are why this is happening, and why these tabloids persist to exist.
