Tabloids falsely accuse Harry and Meghan of manipulating images like Kate Middleton did

After trust in Kensington Palace was undermined by a photo manipulation scandal blamed on Kate Middleton, tabloids tried to drag Prince Harry and Meghan Markle into the mess with false accusations against professional photographers.

It’s been an embarrassing few months for the Prince and Princess of Wales’ Kensington Palace, culminating in them being deemed no longer a reliable source and compared to North Korea and Iran after Getty, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters stop distributing a photo of Kate Middleton with her children because it appeared to have been doctored at the source.

On Monday, a second photo taken by Kate Middleton of Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral in August 2022 with several of her grandchildren was marked by Getty as “source enhanced,” after news outlets issued a “Deletion Notice” for a Mother’s Day photo of Kate Middleton with her children, which had been manipulated to the point of being an inaccurate representation of events. On Wednesday, Reuters updated “its procedures relating to the review of images of Kensington Palace after confirming a second altered photograph”, a spokesperson said.

Pete Souza, the former presidential photographer for Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan, pointed out that the Middleton Mothering Day photo manipulation was not just “photoshopping,” used to process professional images, but rather a “fake” or “altered” image ” – something that, he pointed out, former President Donald Trump also did while he was president.

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And so, naturally, Rupert Murdoch’s Page Six took action on Wednesday to accuse a professional photographer of digitally enhancing the christening portrait of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s son, Archie, based on an editorial note in the Getty system.

However, this note was later removed and Getty confirmed that the image had not been altered. Photographer Chris Allerton called it not only false, but defamatory to suggest that he had materially changed the image: “It would be absolutely false and indeed defamatory to suggest that I have in any way materially changed or manipulated any of the subjects or content of the image.” . €

How did that note get there?

Maybe the note was there while the photo was “under review”, since it seems that all the real photos are right in the wake of “KateGate” (but then why isn’t that note on all the photos?), but professional photographer and Recent Oscar Nominee for his short film The after, Misan Harriman wrote that the note should never have been placed there:

“Just spoke to Chris Allerton, Getty Images should never have put that editor’s note on his image, I’m sure @gettyimages will make a statement on this in due course. More importantly, the newspapers should have talked to him and Getty to be 100% sure BEFORE publishing what has now become a global non-story about his work. He is a great photographer who doesn’t deserve any of this. Please leave this man alone.

This isn’t the first time tabloids have tried to confuse what’s happening with photographs of Kate Middleton with the Sussexes, who left royal life in March 2020 and eventually settled in Southern California.

Last week, the aforementioned Misan Harriman was falsely accused of doctoring the pregnancy announcement image of her Sussex daughter, Princess Lilibet. Harriman responded by doing what Kensington Palace (KP) has not yet done, namely sharing the original and metadata:

From the original Jpeg without the black and white grading, I expect a full apology and retraction @MailOnline @Telegraph @victoria_ward

No trees or lawns have been moved or swapped, this is the image straight from the camera.

Also that is a Jacaranda tree, not a willow. pic.twitter.com/A9wmrlq5Ow

— Misan Harriman (@misanharriman) March 13, 2024

This is remarkable both of these cases of false accusations of photo manipulation play, perhaps unintentionally, into online conspiracies about the Sussexes’ children, who are steeped in dangerous racism.

Both accusations about the photos of the Sussexes are not only false, but neither of the two images has the cloning problems that the two images taken by Kate Middleton have and which are visible even to the untrained eye once you know where to look.

News outlets are currently on high alert for fake and deceptive AI images and videos, along with deep fakes like the fake call using President Biden’s voice to tell voters not to vote that day. The fake photo of Kate was offered to fans in an attempt to make it clear that she was fine, even though they hadn’t seen her since the surgery was announced. When it turned out to be fake, concerns increased.

News services are now examining photos from Kensington Palace, which many royal supporters say is unfair. Some advocates say “everyone does it.”

But that’s the point. People at home putting a filter on or “Photoshopping” a family photo because it’s hard to get a good one of kids squirming is not the same thing like a photo shared by members of the Royal Family, especially at a time when the Princess of Wales had not been seen since Christmas.

However, unlike King Charles who is also struggling with health issues, the Princess has not been seen leaving hospital nor has her family been seen visiting her, apart from a brief visit from her husband, the Prince of Wales.

The secrecy of Kensington Palace became the center of international attention when Prince William failed to show up at the last minute at the memorial service for his godfather, which he was due to speak, which took place on the grounds of Windsor, where says live.

There were a total of three sightings of Kate, one of which involved her in a car with her sick-looking mother, distributed by US outlet TMZ, which was not approved by the Palace and therefore was not shared by British media, the second was this Mother’s Day photo that was removed by news reports, and the third was a TMZ video released on Monday, which is so grainy that even more conspiracies thrive.

Of course, everyone has the right to their own privacy, but there are fairly standard ways to assure people that a public figure is okay, including a clear video of the person opening supporters’ cards or a photo with a message to supporters. When these are not done, it raises questions.

The backstory:

Perhaps the tabloids keep in mind that Princess Diana was hounded to her death by tabloid photographers, although her brother Charles Spencer has pointed out that the scrutiny of Kate Middleton is not as dangerous as the press attention given to Princess Diana . But tabloids don’t show the same level of concern for privacy as others. Americans are raising awareness of the difficulties faced by several “married men,” which is probably not a positive outcome as it confirms issues raised more recently by the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry.

It’s troubling to see the impact of media intrusion, especially on women, who our culture loves to build up and tear down, from Diana to Hillary to Meghan to Britney to Kate: misogyny is thriving.

For example, Kate Middleton took responsibility for the Mothering Day photo changes that led to the unusual “kill notice” at the same time as the British press was saying how terribly ill Kate was. The original photo was also labeled as being taken by her husband. It’s hard to imagine Kate working in her sickbed to create a fake photo, but then a recent video posted by TMZ and The sun showed what we’re told is a healthy Kate Middleton carrying a bag after abdominal surgery (though not everyone on the Internet buys this video).

It’s worth asking why her husband doesn’t take responsibility for a photo he allegedly took.

When racism is added to this toxic mix, it can become unsustainable.

In January this year two neo-Nazis were jailed for 15 years for terrorism against Prince Archie, the first son of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. In 2019, a “far-right” teenager who “branded Prince Harry a “race traitor”” and suggested he should be shot was jailed for four years.

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle were recently hounded by photographers in New York after an event. In February, an NYPD letter filed as part of a lawsuit by the prince in Britain confirmed the couple’s claims “that they were victims of a ‘reckless’ chase by paparazzi.”

These threats of violence against the couple and their children are alarming and raise questions about why the tabloids are trying so hard to drag the non-working Sussex royals into this PR disaster, knowing that the hatred they foment is dangerous.

Prince Harry is currently suing several British tabloids over allegations of illegal news-gathering tactics which they deny, and recently settled a lawsuit with the Mirror Group. On Wednesday 20 March, “lawyers for victims of illegal intelligence gathering – including Prince Harry – will seek to add further explosive allegations to the mix… sources have likened the allegations to a “crime novel where the twists read like a mafia story,” Byline Investigates reported. Indeed, last Wednesday, “current Sun editor Victoria Newton has just been named in Prince Harry’s High Court case over alleged illegal intelligence gathering.”

Interestingly, many of the media outlets mentioned fail to note this potential conflict of interest in their articles about the couple.

As the royal family grapples with this public relations crisis, confidence in the stability of their role is being undermined. If we look at this in the broader context of the West’s attempted destabilization and add that days ago Russia spread a false story claiming that the King was dead, we can see links to our own institutional crisis in the United States – as well as the results of the exploitation of hatred and division.

All Kensington Palace photos will be examined and will likely include photos of the Sussexes when they worked as royals.

But the tabloids, some of which are being denounced right now by Prince Harry, are wrong to confuse a fake photo with their general hate machine against the Sussexes. The world is now watching and it turns out that much of what Prince Harry and his mother, Princess Diana, have been saying in the tabloids is true. Look how soon they try again, regardless of the photographers’ professional reputations or threats against their subjects.