I feel very sorry for William over the publication of the photos of his wife bare chested. Most especially for the not so distant memory of his mother. I feel sorry for Kate too but she has a lesser burden.
If William is being properly advised, he will keep his anger to himself and maintain dignity. Getting directly involved in the legal circus that will be created by the journalists he is fighting will play into their hands.
The damage is done. As we’re finding with the anti American riots, images on the web are as accessible in Egypt as they are in the Pentagon; much the same can be said of Kate’s boobs. Frankly, some would argue that the only thing that French Closer did, was monetize what most people can see for free.
The issue that Harry has is with the invasion of privacy. It appears that the funding of the photographer‘s enterprise was provided by French Closer and it might be argued that without Closer’s sponsorship, the photographer would not have got the break he did (presumably as a staff photographer the upside of all this is rather smaller than the potential downside – jail).
The proprietors of Closer are playing a higher stakes game, the upside for them is the revenues from this week’s sales, the downside is jail and closure and universal opprobrium (though they will probably regard themselves as champions of the free press).
Those who have most to win out of this are the British tabloids who are able to hold themselves up as reconstructed upholders of post Levinson values while continuing to coin the cash through prurient revelations. You may “never see a nipple in the Daily Express” but they are only a click away.
The losers are Harry and Kate who’s holiday has been trashed and whose honeymoon is now well and truly over. Welcome to your mother’s world. May you have better support than she did.
There’s no way back once you cross this river, the issue is how Harry and Kate react. We need these two as our cultural ambassadors and as icons of sense in the way their grandmother has been . It is unthinkable that this could have happened 60 years ago to a young Elizabeth and Philip but the parallels are still there.
If this is a test, it is a test for British popular opinion. If this issue degenerates into frenzied xenophobia then it will be the worst for Britain. If it continues to be a source for the tabloids (and the radio phone-ins) then it will be the worst for Britain.
The best will be the proper use of legal process with as little involvement from William and Kate as possible. This grotty little episode is best put in a box and forgotten about.
There are more important things for people to worry about.
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- Topless Kate photos: Irish tabloid newspaper publishes pictures (guardian.co.uk)
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