“Royal commentator” Dickie Arbiter was crying on Twitter on Wednesday about how people are still talking about the Princess of Wales’s janky Mother’s Day photo and the subsequent sh-tstorm. Arbiter tweeted: “Many of today’s UK morning papers are still squeezing the pips out of the Wales’ Mothering Sunday pic – you’ve had your ‘pound of flesh’ and some – time now to move on people.” Time to move on?? Really? That’s not what he would have said if the Sussexes had been tangled up in a similar situation. Besides that, the story hasn’t ended – things are still happening all around the Frankenphoto Fiasco. The global new director of Agence France-Presse was just interviewed and he ripped into Kensington Palace and compared them to North Korea.
One of the world’s biggest news agencies has claimed that Kensington Palace is no longer a “trusted source” after the furor over Kate Middleton‘s doctored Mother’s Day image. Phil Chetwynd, global news director of Agence France-Presse (AFP), told BBC Radio 4’s Media Show that the agency has reviewed its relationship with the Prince and Princess of Wales and will rigorously inspect future picture handouts from the royals.
Such a statement would have been unthinkable just a few days ago, but Chetwynd said the image raised “major issues” for AFP. He admitted that the agency should never have verified its use because it “violated our guidelines.” Middleton has apologized for “confusion” over the photo, which she attributed to an “experiment with editing.” Kensington Palace has not commented further and has declined to publish the original image, which was purportedly taken by Prince William this year.
Asked by Media Show presenter Ros Atkins if Kensington Palace is a trusted source, Chetwynd replied: “No, absolutely not. Like with anything, when you’re let down by a source the bar is raised … We sent out notes to all our teams at the moment to be absolutely super more vigilant about the content coming across our desk — even from what we would call trusted sources.”
Chetwynd revealed that the major news agencies, including Associated Press and Reuters, spoke before issuing notices to “kill” the picture on Sunday. He said Kensington Palace was asked if it would provide the original, but the agencies did not receive a reply and the image was pulled.
Chetwynd said it is unusual for media agencies to demand that photos be taken out of circulation. “To kill something on the basis of manipulation [is rare. We do it] once a year maybe, I hope less. The previous kills we’ve had have been from the North Korean news agency or the Iranian news agency,” he explained.
Chetwynd added: “One thing that’s really important is you cannot be distorting reality for the public. There’s a question of trust. And the big issue here is one of trust, and the lack of trust and the falling trust of the general public in institutions generally and in the media. And so it’s extremely important that a photo does represent broadly the reality that it’s seen in.”
Something which I want to reemphasize, which has gotten somewhat lost in the days-long fiasco: “He said Kensington Palace was asked if it would provide the original, but the agencies did not receive a reply and the image was pulled.” I’ve seen many royalists claim that international media outlets are “bullying” poor Kate and that how was she to know that she bungled the photo-editing so badly. KP knew on Sunday, as soon as Reuters, AP, AFP and Getty got in touch with them and began pressing them for an edited copy, that they had f–ked up. They even had a chance to get ahead of it or simply release the “original.” Instead, they froze in panic and refused to speak to these news agencies. What an unprofessional way to do business.
As for everything else Phil Chetwynd says… the comparison to North Korea, the “absolutely not” to whether KP is a trusted source, the promise to examine everything coming out of the palace… this sh-t is getting good. I hope these agencies, like CNN, go back into the archives and examine those as well. I’m adding more KP-released photos in this post to highlight!
Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.