On March 22nd, Kensington Palace released the Princess of Wales’s video, where she announced that doctors had found cancer after her abdominal surgery and she was undergoing chemotherapy. The video was carried everywhere, on television and online. Several American channels carried the video live as it was released, and obviously it was major news across the board in the UK. Apparently, people took issue with the BBC coverage of Kate’s announcement and the BBC’s seemingly wall-to-wall coverage thereafter. Similar to the deaths of QEII and Prince Philip, the BBC went way overboard and there were complaints. The Daily Mail says that the Beeb received “more than 100 complaints,” which honestly sounds like a pretty low number? In any case, the BBC issued a statement:
The BBC has received more than 100 complaints over its ‘excessive and insensitive’ coverage of Kate’s cancer diagnosis, it has emerged. The Princess of Wales announced she was undergoing treatment for cancer in an emotional video on March 22. The BBC aired the full video and has hit back at criticism saying it was ‘mindful’ of its reporting approach, and did not speculate on details that had not been made public.
In a statement responding to the complaints, the corporation said: ‘We broadcast in full the highly personal video message from the Princess of Wales, in which she spoke directly to the public about her cancer diagnosis. Our coverage reflected the significance of this story and the outpouring of support for the princess from around the globe. We explained to our audience what was known about Catherine’s condition, but did not speculate on details that had not been made public.’
The corporation detailed its reporting approach and said it always gives ‘careful consideration’ to the editorial decisions made.
The statement continued: ‘Our reporting made clear that this is a difficult time for the princess and the rest of the Royal Family; we have been mindful at all times to approach our coverage with sensitivity.’
‘As part of our analysis, we examined the intense speculation there had been in the preceding weeks about the princess’s health. We also reported on Catherine’s request for privacy and detailed the statement from Kensington Palace regarding the princess having the right to privacy in relation to her medical issues. We always give careful consideration to the editorial decisions we make. While we have a responsibility to report on stories that are of interest to our audience, we appreciate that not everyone would have approved of the approach we took.’
“As part of our analysis, we examined the intense speculation there had been in the preceding weeks about the princess’s health.” Ah, I guess that was the reason for the complaints. Honestly, though, I’m on the BBC’s side in this limited issue – they were contextualizing the reason why Kate’s video was so significant and why it was such a global headline. It’s because Kate had been missing for months and Kensington Palace had been caught lying and manipulating photos as proof-of-life for a missing princess. The “where is Kate” controversy was WHY Kensington Palace had to release the cancer-announcement video. Of course, that doesn’t explain why KP had been lying for weeks beforehand, even promising that Kate would be resurrected for Easter Sunday. If anything, the BBC needs to investigate more and call out the lies even further. They won’t though. Especially since they’re still being so squirrelly about how the cancer-announcement video was made.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Kensington Palace.
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- Britain’s Kate, the Princess of Wales, Patron of The Forward Trust talks with visitors at HMP High Down in Sutton, England, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023, during a visit to learn about how the charity is supporting those in the criminal justice system to manage and recover from their addictions.,Image: 804839504, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: POOL, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Kin Cheung / Avalon
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- Sittingbourne, Kent, UK, 27 September 2023: HRH The Princess of Wales joins a family portage session at the Orchards Centre, Multi Agency Service Hub in Sittingbourne, Kent to highlight the importance of supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families. The session is ran by the Kent Portage Team. ***NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS***,Image: 808854205, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: ***NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS***, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Paul Grover / Avalon
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- CARDIFF, WALES – OCTOBER 03: Catherine, Princess of Wales and Prince William, Prince of Wales visit Fitzalan High School as they celebrate the beginning of Black History Month on October 03, 2023 in Cardiff, Wales. In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush, The Prince and Princess meet teachers and pupils working across a number of projects at the school, including the gardening project which aims to encourage young pupils to learn how to grow plants and food from scratch.,Image: 810534986, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 11: Catherine, Princess of Wales speaks to students and staff during a visit to Nottingham Trent University to learn about their mental health support system on October 11, 2023 in Nottingham, England. The Prince and Princess of Wales are carrying out engagements across the UK to mark World Mental Health Day and to highlight the importance of mental wellbeing, particularly in young people.,Image: 812878211, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 11: Catherine, Princess of Wales speaks to students and staff during a visit to Nottingham Trent University to learn about their mental health support system on October 11, 2023 in Nottingham, England. The Prince and Princess of Wales are carrying out engagements across the UK to mark World Mental Health Day and to highlight the importance of mental wellbeing, particularly in young people.,Image: 812878347, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- London, UK, 01 November 2023: The Princess of Wales takes part in a Dad Walk in the local park during a visit to “Dadvengers”, a community for dads and their children, in Arnos Grove, north London, to highlight the important role that dads play in their children’s earliest years as part of her Shaping Us campaign on early childhood. Dadvengers is predominately an online community which works to support dads on their journey through parenthood. It has a strong focus on mental wellbeing and supports new fathers in a variety of ways including through online training programmes, podcasts, and more recently the in-person Dad Walks.,Image: 818765193, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: ***NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS***, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Yui Mok / Avalon
Notice the BBC said they got the video from KP, they’re not holding the bag for, is it Unable or AI.
When the video first came out, did KP say it filmed by the BBC?
They said it was filmed by a BBC crew. And that video does not look like it was AI generated. They probably just tweaked the lighting and cut & pasted until it was to Kate’s liking
Jan, I did notice that. Supposedly BBC Studios filmed K, but KP distributed this video. One of my tech-savvy neighbors gave a bunch of us a demo in filters and AI…According to him, this might have been used. In any case, he’s of the opinion that the quality is poor for something filmed by a professional studio.
Lone Ranger Funeral Truther here. I feel like KP now has two voices, Kate and William’s. They have different agendas. The answer to everything is why was Kate hospitalized in the first place. Considering the financial struggles of the Middletons, divorce seems inevitable.
True and the 100 complaints were filed at their demand and were mostly from their employees probably. lol it’s like the one person that yells I love u William at every event lol everybody wanted to onow if she was alive and there’s no need for those complaints because everything thatbwas said came with good intentions. Anyway, I wish her the best but watch what preventative cancer treatment means: it means hysterectomy to prevent certain types of cancer. I dont recall a report confirming her chemo treatment? there are no preventative chemotherapy treatment. You got cancer you do it, you dont have cancer, you dont get chemo. Preventative chemo doesnt exist. Lies and words play salads for sympathy but mostly more vacation without disturbing peasants who pay for it all.
No, @Still, plenty of people here have explained their own cancer treatments. You get a colonoscopy, for example; they find a polyp & remove it, per protocol; they biopsy that polyp, again per protocol, & they find cancer; they then schedule surgery to remove x amount of inches of colon to either side & biopsy that, again per protocol. Then, usually, you get referred to an oncologist who will likely advise a series of chemo just to be sure. The cancer is most likely gone, excised via surgery, but you can never be 100% sure & your survival rate (i.e., to the first five years after diagnosis) will be higher if you undergo chemo. That is likely what Kate is doing & has called ‘preventative chemotherapy’.
You know, if you buy that she had cancer & has undergone treatment/s for it.
It was filmed by BBC Studios.
BBC and BBC Studios are two separate different things.
God, that dead-eyed thumbnail is truly the creepiest photo I’ve ever seen of Kate.
Although, for the one and only time her face shape is kind of giving the Windsor markets Bigfoot video?
Yes, I see that – interesting. What’s more interesting is her face in the video reveal is quite obviously square in shape.
Oh, poor babies – a whole 100 complaints for all of their coverage? ITV got over 57,000 complaints when Piers Morgan said Meghan was lying about feeling suicidal and that was just one thing one person said.
Eurydice, The BBC might be in shock because they are unused to having their programming questioned? I agree that 100 or so complaints doesn’t seem excessive.
Exactly what I was here to say, but I didn’t have the actual figures. Thank you.
100 complaints and my first thought was 🧐 I have seen reports that WanK have a staff of 60, so who were the other 40 complainers? Perhaps the Middleclan🥴?
Shock, Horror, Probe, the tabloids dislike the BBC for telling the truth so of course a hundred complaints was terrible.
I wonder how long before people start asking Where she is again,because they will.
Bingo! Stories like these are mere distractions form the elephant in the room. KP really think they’ve gotten away with pulling the wool over people’s eyes, after failing to fulfill any of the promises of her return dates. For me, nothing has changed; among other things, I find it rather bazaar that people who can’t stopped jawing about not seeing the Sussex kids, suddenly don’t care about not seeing the Wales children for months. I really don’t know what’s going on, but I’m seeing lots of “unalive” mumblings, and the coma rumor is resurfacing as well.
Exactly, Proud Mary. People seem to be forgetting about, or sweeping it under the rug, that Kate & the kids haven’t been seen since Christmas. It’s now April. People are just ok with that? People believe this fake-looking video is real, in the age of completely realistic-looking A.I.-created videos, and after Kensington Palace issued nothing but fake photos & video of Kate prior to this one since Christmas???
I don’t understand why people are so easily fooled; how they don’t see that KP has just followed their usual mode of operation since the “Where’s Kate?” stuff started, and issued yet another fake video. Why would KP have had to issue nothing but FAKE photos/video of Kate but then suddenly just THIS one is real?? Nope. It’s A.I. created. I know some people don’t believe that, (and this will, i’m sure, mean nothing to people) but my computer graphics friend (who uses A.I. technology to make videos) reviewed it and said it’s A.I.-created, without a doubt. A computer expert who works for the Pentagon said the same. I choose to believe these people, as well as my own eyes, and also with keeping in mind KP’s prior pattern of behavior, and their very big motive to lie.
More & more i’m worried that Kate might not be alive and the fake cancer announcement is their way of easing the public into announcing her death. Something very bad (other than cancer) is going on and i wish more people would become aware of this.
I’m wondering where she is too. I don’t believe that video. I’m still waiting for her to show up to a live event then I will believe. Until then people are still wondering.
More importantly, they aren’t asking whereTF WILLIAM is? We’re supposed to believe he’s still on a break “celebrating Easter?”
If I were a Brit, my complaint would be that all of this has taught KP a troubling lesson: disappearing for a while is an excellent way to get coverage. It’s going to encourage them to be ever lazier. While I do believe that Kate is genuinely being treated for cancer THIS time (though the timeline still needs a lot of clarification), I would absolutely not put it past them to fake a health crisis in the future when it’s proved to be this easy to generate positive, sympathetic press. I mean, we’re all fierce critics of Kate around here, but virtually all of us expressed concern when she was missing, and real compassion when the reason was revealed.
I agree with your overall point, but I think what will happen is that the cancer diagnosis will be used for years to cover up her laziness. I dont’ think they’ll invent a new health crisis – I think it will be “the princess has been advised by her doctors to take a lighter schedule” and “the princess wants to spend time with her children in light of recent health news” and I dont think we will ever see her break 100 engagements in a year again.
How long will the disappearing happen. William should be taken to task by not appearing or helping out the monarchy and his father. He can still do those school runs. And he may not even be under the same roof as Kate.
I thought Carole was doing the school runs
The funniest thing is they disappear for weeks all the time, and this probably wouldn’t have gotten much attention at all if they hadn’t said AHEM EVERYBODY Kate won’t do any work again til at least Easter. I still think despite the cancer, this is everything Kate ever wanted- an excuse not to work and a hard case for Will to dump her from now on.
What is interesting to me is that Kate’s doctors say they got the cancer out and the treatment is just preventative, so they think she doesn’t have cancer. The King has cancer and is receiving similar treatment as well as being an old man, so why do we see more of the King than we do of Kate?
so people were complaining because BBC’s coverage was not just “poor Kate, lets all leave her alone now and act like the previous few months never happened” and they dared to contextualize the video? Or were they complaining because there was too much over the top coverage of it?
anyway 100 complaints doesn’t sound that significant to me, but maybe its just throwing the BBC off in general that people are reacting to their royal coverage in a way they might not have 10 years ago?
I wonder if they were upset because it cut into their regular programs, like with Phil’s funeral.
Equality, You might be on to something there.
No, there was no Kate coverage here that cut into regular programming. There actually really not been much Kate coverage here, obviously her cancer announcement was the main story on the news but nothing outwith actual news shows (and maybe being mentioned on shows like Loose Women, which is the UK version of The View).
No regular coverage has been cancelled or affected in any way – that would simply never happen in Britain for anything less than a major death.
Right! They’re not really saying why people complained, just that there were complaints.
Thanks, SamuelWhiskers.
I just noticed that this article is from the DF. I agree that the BBC is probably not accustomed to having people complain, Becks1.
Yes, it sounds like some people were just sick of hearing about it and wanted coverage of things deemed more important.
Oh, the BBC get thousands of complaints about everything, all the time. They even used to have a TV show that was just them reading out and replying to some of the complaint letters they’d received that week.
This is just a nothingburger story by the Mail designed to create the impression the British public are outraged about “poor Kate.” 100 people is nothing, though. I can easily believe there’s that small a number of Kate fans with nothing better to do.
As Eurydice rightly pointed out, there were many thousands of complaints over PM abusing Meghan.
@SamuelWhiskers did they not cut into the regular programming to air the video? News channels here in the US did. They didn’t devote hours to coverage, but they did air the video at 2pm east coast time and then spent about 15 minutes talking about it. I had assumed channels like the BBC did the same, since the article says the BBC ran the video in its entirety. That would have been about 7pm on the 22nd.
Agree with SamuelWhiskers: this is a creature of the tabloids.
@Becks1 Good god no! It was the lead story on the news programmes but if you didn’t watch the news or look at tabloids, you wouldn’t even know about it. The idea of it interrupting actual programming is just completely unthinkable.
They actually did that in the US?! That’s crazy!
The did air the video as breaking news on the 24/7 news channels, of course – and BBC1 airs several news programmes throughout the course of the day. So it aired during routine news coverage, but no programmes were interrupted.
There’s actually been relatively little coverage about it. Even Have I Got News For You didn’t mention it. Royal fever is a thousand times more intense in the USA than here (most Brits don’t really take any interest in royals), admittedly the Kate missing thing did go far beyond usual levels of interest, but since the cancer video came out I’ve barely seen a word about Kate outside of tabloids.
Just to say I double checked, and it was the top story as ‘breaking news’ in the main BBC1 news programme, which airs every day at 6pm. And the video was posted online at 6pm that day, so it dropped online and was broadcast on the BBC News more or less simultaneously.
Normally there is a 5 hour time difference between Britain and the East Coast, so I assume you guys must have already put your clocks forward for summer, and we hadn’t?
KP chose 6pm as their video release time very purposefully, to catch the main evening news. And of course they pre-warned all the press that it was coming.
Eta: I misspoke. Obviously the cancer diagnosis got a TON of coverage, I didn’t mean you could avoid knowing that Kate has cancer. I meant there’s been little coverage of Kate in the meantime, from after the cancer video.
Well not every channel, but the big three broadcast channels did – ABC, CBS and NBC. And then the 24/7 news channels (CNN did, not sure about Fox, but I’m assuming?) But if you were watching something besides those channels I’m assuming there was no break in coverage. So it sounds like BBC probably was the same and ran it at the top of that same hour.
but since then I haven’t seen a lot of talk about her/the royals besides the standard issue stuff on the morning shows like Today. People mag will talk about the royals all day long but that doesn’t really have the influence it used to.
ETA yes I think we put our clocks forward a few weeks before you all do! So it was the 4 hour gap at that point.
Regular programming wasn’t interrupted in Australia, either. It was of course one lead story. I think the difference is that Kate is not monarch, nor will she ever be, so not sovereign head of state.
Americans consider the monarchy entertainment, high voltage celebrity. But we in the realms view the constitutional monarchy differently. It is the system of government.
Charles’ cancer is more important to us than Kate’s. There are naturally a few outliers to this theory … we have those in Australia who read No Idea inter alia and so immerse themselves into the fan fiction fairytale of royalty, but they are definitely the minority.
I’m guessing people complained that maybe there was not enough respect for Kate when they talked about her being missing for so long. Or talked about the frankenphoto. That she should have been given privacy. And she apologized for the photo so why does the bbc even dare to bring it up again!-type vibes. Like I can see 100 royalists possibly complaining about that. The same royalists who have mocked Harry and Meghan for years about “privacy.” But the bbc did not clarify so there’s no way of knowing what exactly the complaints were about.
People complain to the BBC all the time about all sorts of things. As someone else commented above, Points of View was a BBC programme dedicated to just that! I complained on the News app when they used a header pic of Serena Williams on a story about angry tennis players when most of the article was about men.
This sounds like a few DM readers clutching their pearls that the BBC dare mention any of the weirdness that had been going on since she initially disappeared. 100 complaints is a drop in the ocean. It’s the ‘but she has CANCER’ mindset, everything else is supposed to be moot and St Kate can do no wrong.
British Bullsht Corporation strikes again, and at the same time disassociated from BBC studios
Well, they are two separate things. I’ve worked for the BBC tons over the past 20-odd years and functionally and practically there’s no connection between the two. Obviously there’s a link at a corporate level, but they operate completely independently.
It’s interesting Samuel that they chose the studios 🤔
Exactly Mary. Hope you’re doing well back at home 💐
100 complaints in a country of almost 67M. Many would not hesitate to call it indifference.
This is just distraction. Distraction to the fact we have not seen Kate since Christmas and that the cancer video is AI generated and FAKE. It is so obvious at this point. I don’t know what is really going on with her but what we have seen so far is all lies. The video is fake.
Also, what’s really interesting is the recent pics added to Getty Images. The latest are pictures of card board cut outs of Charles and mainly Kate. And I believe the same day they issued the disclaimer to her video they literally posted two pictures of Charles and Kate side by side. The one of Kate was her in the same exact sweater she was in for the cancer video but from her November engagement. Getty IMO is saying the quiet part out loud. Nobody wants to be seen saying outright the video is fake because of the content delivered in that video. And there are some that will loudly scream you are a horrible person for questioning that.
Nonetheless, I trust my eyes and what I know regarding AI. And I trust others that have also pointed out so many other discrepancies and anomalies that I missed. And I trust Deep Media for pointing out the fact as well. And it tracks with the previous lies and all the fake and fraudulent photos and videos we have already been given. They literally just progressed in their stage of lies of fraud.
Julianna, thanks for letting us know what Getty has done–that has to burn the brf.
So, they had 100 complaints. Alrighty then. Enough said.
Well caught Julianna. I’ve felt since day one something very off is going on here and quite different to what we’ve been told.
BBC royal commentator Johnny Dymond was discussing on radio program and said he’d wrapped up his report on 1pm and then received a message advising him NOT to leave the building as a video giving sad news about Kate was to be released at 6pm. Weren’t some members of RR given preview of video so they could file copy to comply with news embargo until 6pm. People were complaining to that show that the coverage was too much and endlessly repeated and given undue prominence given other important breaking news on the day.
Lol, they received 104 complains about Doctor Who having a trans character a few months ago, too. Some people got nothing better to do. I wonder how many of the 100 overlap.