street of shame

Having your Kate and eating it
Royal Hackwatch , Issue 1620

WHAT was that terrible squealing sound ringing out across Fleet Street late on Friday afternoon after the nation's royal correspondents were given advance warning of the announcement Princess Kate was to make on the BBC that evening?

princess-cath.jpg
BENCH PRESS: After Kate's announcement of her illness, many columnists suddenly forgot their harsh words of previous weeks
It was the shrieking of a multitude of ferrets being hurled frantically into reverse...

Mail gaze
"How do all Kate's vile online trolls feel now?" shrieked the vilest of the Mail's own stable of trolls, Amanda Platell, in Saturday's paper, declaring that anyone who had "persisted in taunting her" during her illness should "rot in hell".

Would that include the columnist who, on 24 February, demanded "Don't lecture us all about Gaza William – just tell us how Kate is" and stropped: "If Charles can be open about his condition, why can't we hear about how Kate is getting on?"

The same one who, after Prince William's withdrawal from a royal memorial service because, as we now know, he had just learned of his wife's cancer diagnosis, scoffed: "It all leads to the perception of things falling apart – I can't see the late Queen ever pulling out of a service at such short notice, however pressing or desperate the personal circumstances might have been."

Her name? Amanda Platell.

Sun screening
The Sun was perhaps the smuggest of all last Saturday, pointing out in its editorial column: "A fortnight ago the Sun urged all those spreading baseless conspiracy theories about the princess to lay off. We hope the trolls who continued their vile behaviour hang their heads in shame today."

Indeed, the paper reproduced its front-page demand of 12 March to "LAY OFF KATE" – a plea it published in the same 24 hours as online pieces headlined "ROYAL UPDATE: How is Kate Middleton doing?" and "NIFTY TRICKS: How hidden image data revealed Kate's picture editing – including how many times it was altered". In the same week, the site published almost 70 pieces about Kate.

And it was the Sun which led the way in chasing down the princess. A week later, its front page was "Kate outdoors", based on rumours she had been seen at a farm shop – but it used an old picture, only adding to speculation.

The next day, the front page carried stills from a blurry but expensively purchased video of Kate and William in a car park, headlined "Great to see you again, Kate", and also used them as its splash the following day, along with an account from the member of the public who had filmed the couple and was now considerably richer thanks to the Sun.

How's that for laying off?

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gnitty

More top stories in the latest issue:

NO SAINT GREAVSIE?
Conspiracy theories abound at the Mail offices over the mysterious disappearance of Gerard Greaves, editor-in-chief of its US operations.

CABINET OF CURIOSITY
The Sun's "shadow chancellor" in its "cabinet of readers" is a woman who went £40,000 into debt and had overdrafts with six banks and run-ins with bailiffs.

SEEING A SHRINK
The Daily Mail took aim at manufacturers making products smaller but selling them at the same prices as before – but the Mail itself has just got smaller…

NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS
David "Rommel" Montgomery has told investors that National World will pursue a "wider content agenda" rather than actually reporting news.

THICK JUMPER
"Time for the Red Wall Tories to jump ship and join Reform," wrote Richard Littlejohn in the Mail – but has he seen Reform's renationalisation plans?

HARRY'S POTTERING
Prince Harry's legal team have aired new allegations over a cover-up of phone hacking at News International – not their first attempt to change details.

DOUBLE FAULT?
The Times's coverage of the All England Lawn Tennis Club's development battle suggests it might be moonlighting as a PR department for the club.

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