jerryk on Nostr: Prince Harry's hatred of the media, pretty much everyone in the media, is pretty ...

Prince Harry's hatred of the media, pretty much everyone in the media, is pretty legendary by this time. I think Donald Trump may have finally surpassed Prince Harry in sheer hatred of the media by this time, perhaps even Elon Musk too, but, Harry's utter loathing for the world press corps is of much longer standing in its estimable ferocity.

In his personal memoir, "Spare", it is quite clear that loathing of the media is the defining aspect of Harry's entire existence. Now, to be entirely fair, I doubt any of the Royals have any profound affection for the media, the media are regularly very hard on the Royals, the relationship is highly adversarial. Now, to some extent this is of course the case with all celebrities, the rich and famous, their relationship with the media is love-hate, at best. People resent the rich and famous, and everyone knows it, especially the media. So, if a newsman can make a celebrity look very bad, the newsman will be very popular indeed! So, no real surprise that Harry and the other Royals shouldn't be overfond of the media.

In some ways, this problem is particularly acute for the British Royal Family, because a rather large proportion of the British population is far from sure they actually have any social utility, at all. So, a significant proportion of the news media are actively trying to get the Royals in as much trouble as they possibly can, at all times, by any and all means at their disposal. And, in Harry's case in particular, this issue is profoundly aggravated by a number of circumstances. Firstly, Harry is now only fifth in line to the Crown, he is exceedingly unlikely to ever be King. Which, effectively, means Harry is not of any real potential significance at all, in the great scheme of things. This can hardly help his standing with the media, can it? From their point of view, Harry is a non-entity who is merely in the way of what remains of British Royal Greatness.

Secondly, Harry has had no great personal success he can call on. Of course, how many British Royals in the last few centuries have had any great personal success, you ask? Fair enough. But, not all British Royals have had problems with drugs and alcohol -- quite a few, yes, but by no means all -- like Harry has. Also, Harry has not done well academically. Again, this doesn't really matter a great deal, but, it does provide further grounds for attacking him, and ridiculing him. Also, his wife's father is apparently some kind of sex criminal. Of course, given Uncle Andy, I suppose the media can't really get that all excited about that particular piece of trivia.

Finally, and this is really most important, a case can actually be made that Harry's mother was done to death by the media, and Harry certainly believes this is quite literally true. This elevates Harry's confrontation with the media beyond the level of mere farce, to high epic tragedy with possibly genuinely metaphysical implications. Harry is pure good, the media is pure evil, and the late Princess Diana, his mother, is, perhaps the Holy Virgin. Well, not quite that, I suppose! Maybe Mary Magdalene, though.

Now, of course, Diana was William's mother too, but, you see, William will shortly be King, and that really changes everything for him. Rather than hatred of the media being the defining aspect of his existence, the defining aspect of existence for William is the immediate prospect of being King of England. That isn't quite all it once was, certainly, but, it's still a very critical public relations role, a major source of revenue for the UK, and even a position of considerable, although rather ambiguously defined, political power. William has something interesting to look forward to, by definition. Anything Harry gets, he has to fight for, for himself. His Royal Position isn't really important enough to guarantee him much beyond a modest living. If he wants more, he has to fight for it.

And, that's really the reason Harry hates the media so much. Because, rather than helping him succeed, the media does anything and everything in their power to prevent it. They see him as a worthless parasite, and report and present him as such. Of course, Harry is probably nothing very special, but, he's probably a bit better than the media choose to present him, since it's more fun to see Harry fail, than to see him succeed.


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