Dear Gossips,

The UK is mourning the death of a monarch for the first time in the time of 24-hour live television and social media. I live in Canada, a member nation of the Commonwealth, and I also work in media, my office is in a broadcast centre, so I saw this first-hand all weekend with King Charles’s proclamation streaming everywhere, and the cameras following the Queen’s coffin travelling through Scotland and all of the other appearances that the British royal family has been making over the last few days. This was the stately spectacle that the architects of London Bridge had always intended. It’s been and will be interesting to see how the Firm manages these events in our present reality, but it’s also been interesting to see how the media has been handling it, in particular certain members the British media.

The Daily Mail’s f-ckery is not breaking news. But this is a good example to highlight just how bent their coverage can be, especially on an occasion this significant. If their royal editor can’t get it right on the most basic of facts – that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were out there meeting the public alongside Prince William and Kate, which hundreds if not thousands of people witnessed, and which was also well-documented by television cameras, still cameras, and mobile phone cameras – how can they be trusted with any facts?

The problem though is that they’ve already done so much over the last few years to shape public opinion with their fallacies. It’s like how so many people got radicalised by QAnon on Facebook – this is the danger of disinformation. Much of what so many believe about Harry and Meghan comes from the Daily Mail because their f-cksh-t gets disseminated everywhere, picked up by other media outlets, so that people don’t even know they’re learning a falsehood about the Sussexes that originated from there. And it’s not just limited to your aunt and uncle, there are journalists who also buy into online conspiracy theories and then platform them through their own “royal expert” status. Something to keep an eye on in the coming days.

As for London Bridge, the Queen’s coffin was transported from Balmoral to Edinburgh yesterday, accompanied by Princess Anne. This would of course have been the Queen’s wishes. Princess Anne greeted the Queen’s cortege with a deep curtsey upon arrival at the Palace of Holyroodhouse and she will also accompany the Queen as she makes her way back to London tomorrow.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Princess Anne Gossip

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