It’s Essential to Think and Check What You Read

The late Larry King. He always encouraged people to THINK about what they read, and, more importantly, to QUESTION it.

He wanted readers and viewers to ask WHY something was happening and not blindly accept it.

Consider what is happening at the moment in the UK High Court. Prince Harry is trying to prove that Mirror Group Newspapers have been using illegal methods to get information to discredit him. He is being questioned by both his own lawyer and the counsel for MGN.

Prince Harry being questioned by Counsel for the Mirror Group.

Because it’s a civil case and not a criminal trial, the onus of proving this lies with him.

How Tabloid Journalism Works

Ex-editor of The News of the World, Andy Coulson (2003–2007). Photo credit: blogspot.com

In 2007, Coulson, on behalf of The News of the World, a Rupert Murdoch paper, said that a private investigator they were using was phone-tapping Prince Harry and Prince William. But made no apology and accepted no liability.

Coulson had previously worked Prime Minister David Cameron as his Director of Communications. In other words, his spin doctor.

He now runs his own public relations company and is giving strategic advice, which is helping Huw Edwards and his wife, Vicky Flind. It is probable that her statement to the media, that Huw Edwards is innocent and is now hospitalised with severe nervous depression, was his idea.

It gives Huw the sympathy vote and wrong-foots the media, making them appear callous and uncompassionate. His strategy has worked. They have ceased publishing any further information.

A second example of alleged phone-tapping, involving Prince William and Prince Harry, is discussed in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OekzS_JXp6I

Jane Kerr was the royal editor of one of Murdoch’s papers. Kerr admitted under cross-examination by Prince Harry’s barrister, David Sherborne KC, that she had not checked that Commercial Legal Services, the investigative firm she was using, was acting legally in getting information.

Mr Green KC, acting for The Sun, apologised for one instance where they had, in the past, hired an investigator to “dig up dirt” on a prominent person they were writing about, but made no comment about phone-tapping the royals.

Prince Harry was on top form in his answers in cross-examination.

The prince argued that the media had no right to follow him around during his tour of Afghanistan to gather titbits of gossip in the hope of embarrassing him. He was on active service. He was mentioned in dispatches. His work was not a matter of public interest.

This is an interesting exchange between the prince and Green.
Prince Harry: Are you suggesting that while I was in the army, that everything available for the press to write about?”

Green could only respond by saying it was his role to ask the Prince questions, not for Harry to ask him questions.

The prince’s lawyer also scored a hit when he told Jane Kerr, “You don’t remember, or you don’t want to remember.”