Monday 20 July 2015

Sensationalism and the threat to royalty

There's no doubt it's an eye catching headline. The photo of the Queen performing a Nazi salute has lain unseen for eight decades. In the last forty eight hours it has become one of the most well known, and notorious, images in the world. The reaction has been overwhelmingly in the Queen's favour with outrage from many quarters that a picture like this has been used with little context on the front page itself. Buckingham Palace has said it is disappointed and now the hunt is on to find out how the material, believed to be private family footage, came into the public domain in the first place. But away from the debate about that and the image itself another point remains. This story has dominated royal news in the last two days and other, more beneficial stories have slipped under the radar. Sensational headlines may sell papers but in this case they have silently threatened the Monarchy.


One story, a million more headlines - how it all began on Saturday July 18th 2015

And I say silently because it is a slow, behind the scenes issue. Before this image was published, the weekend looked like being a good chance to reflect on how The Duke of Cambridge had got on during his first week as a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance. Instead, everything has been about a photo that shows his grandma, as a child, doing what children do. Playing with the grown ups and trying to be like them. And these grown ups were doing what a lot of adults in England did in 1933 - they were laughing at a man whose comical appearances on the newsreels had grown ever more present through the year. Hitler had just been elected Chancellor of Germany when this video was taken and the true horrors of the Nazi regime were yet to be revealed. This video isn't anywhere near as sinister as the initial reaction to 'Nazi salute' might indicate.


The image that would have told the story better - uncle David with his niece, Elizabeth

That's not to say there isn't a case for the story itself to be published. The political beliefs of the man who was briefly Edward VIII have long been a case for debate. Within a year of abdicating his throne, he had been photographed - smiling - with Hitler. The extent of his sympathies with the Nazi regime remains a great unknown of modern British history. The Sun said, in its editorial on the day it published the photos, that it wanted to discuss Edward's politics and reveal more about them. That's great and if someone has interesting new material about the extent, or otherwise, of Edward's symapthies with the Nazis then I would be interested in reading it. Just don't try and sell it to me with a photo of a young girl taken out of context.



Uncle David, the king who gave up his throne, is the real focus of this story
(image thelostgallery via Flickr)


This weekend, the royal stories should have been about Prince William taking part in four rescue missions in his first week as an air ambulance pilot. It's not the world's sexiest headline and there are plenty who think William would do better taking part in four royal engagements every week rather than taking on a job and focusing his energies on that rather than his preparations to one day be king. That is as may be. The fact is, he's doing it and the threat to the Royal Family comes from the benefits that job brings being hidden by a sensationalised story.







Because I do believe The Sun to have sensationlised this tale. Personally, if I was writing a story about Edward VIII and his relationship with the Nazis then there's a perfectly good still at the end of the 17 second video showing him doing a Nazi salute while smiling in encouragement at his niece to do the same. But then that photo doesn't show Elizabeth herself saluting. She looks slightly bemused in that image. And would a grainy photo of Edward VIII and a headline about his politics be as shocking and sellable as a picture of the Queen and the headline that ran instead? I doubt it. So in my opinion, to choose that above a readily available image that really does illustrate the story The Sun says it was telling is sensationlism. Pure and simple.





But the fact remains that the story is out there. The response, so far, has been overwhelmingly in support of the Queen with many realising how little context has been placed on the telling of the tale. However, given the timing of the story another thing is true - that as the slow summer months take a hold this will be the last big royal story we get before activity resumes in September. The last big royal story before the Queen becomes our longest reigning monarch is this - a souped up tale of a few seconds' play from eighty years ago.


The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth of York, painted in 1933 - the year the now infamous photos were taken
("by Philip de László - http://www.jssgallery.org/Other_Artists/Philip_Alexius_de_Laszlo/Princess_Elizabeth_of_York.htm. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

And that is why sensationalism remains a threat to royalty. The monarchy relies on stability, on continuity, on never changing values and, of course, on good publicity. This story might be interesting enough to get just about everyone talking but it's also masking the good work done by the royals. Just hours before it broke, the Queen had been in Dagenham - one of the poorest parts of London - getting a rapturous response from many who thought royalty might never come to their part of the world. She was hailed by many as a unifying figure and her visits to schools striving to improve learning in the area and community projects was well received and helped highlight work that often goes unrecognised - perhaps because the bad things that can happen in an area make more sensational headlines.


 
It should be Dagenham and William that we remember this week for, not old photos used sensationally to tell a story of another royal.

 
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