Are the British Press As Bad as Prince Harry Says?

Here's my opinion, based on my experience

(Image used under license from Shutterstock.com.)

On Tuesday, in a single sitting, I read Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare. I’ve written a review for NBC which you can read here.

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about a central assertion of Harry’s: His allegation that the British press, particularly the tabloids, are singularly deplorable.

Harry can’t stand their intrusion or the unfairness of the made-up or exaggerated stories. Harry says that the same paparazzi who hounded his mother to her death forced him and Meghan to flee the country. He says they don’t report on the royal family as much as do business with it—in the guise of reporting.

On “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night, Harry looked emotional and exhausted as he blamed the British media for irresponsibly singling out what he’d said about killing 25 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan without, he said, providing the necessary nuance and context of the description in his book. Their sensationalism, he said, had endangered his family.

Is his characterization fair?

I’ll give you my perspective.

I’ve worked in both English and American media. I moved to the U.S. when I was 27 and, two years later, I spent 18 months or so as a senior editor at the New York Post before moving on to the world of American long-form journalism and then on to TV and podcasting.

Here’s what I observed.