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Don’t generalise about “rubbish” press, editor tells Harry

A senior regional editor has urged Prince Harry not to make generalisations about what he termed the “rubbish” British press.

The Prince hit out at newspapers in a series of TV interviews carried this week in the wake of his return from active military service in Afghanistan.

He said what was printed in the press was “always rubbish” and claimed the public were “guilty” for buying newspapers in the first place.

But Northern Echo editor Peter Barron has branded Harry’s comments as “disappointingly arrogant” and warned him not to tar the local and regional press with the same brush.

In a blog post, Peter said he admired the Prince and respected his determination to be a real soldier serving in war zones.

But he went on:  “I think he’s wrong to generalise in his scathing and disappointingly arrogant attack on the “rubbish” British press and to tell the British public that they are all “guilty” of buying papers.

“There are elements of the British press which are rubbish. But there are also elements of the British press, not least local newspapers, which perform a great public service: exposing wrong-doing; campaigning for communities; fund-raising for charities; championing all kinds of causes.

“It would have been nice if Prince Harry had resisted getting out his huge tar brush to blacken the entire British press and acknowledged that there are good and bad in every profession – including the armed forces.”

Peter also pointed out that the British press has been asked in its entirety to keep his deployment to Afghanistan secret – and had kept its side of the bargain.

In his interview, the Prince said it had been “great” being in Afghanistan because it was “away from all the media back home.”

8 comments

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  • January 24, 2013 at 9:47 am
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    couldnt give a fig about the Royals but I thought he was refreshingly frank.
    I think Peter is a little patronising. Intelligent local readers appreciate the difference between the nationals and local press. They only have remember the self-centred treatment given to Princess Diana by most sections of a national media greedy for sales.
    The real problem the local press has is maintaining its own standards in the light of vastly reduced staff levels and obsession with design rather than content.

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  • January 24, 2013 at 11:35 am
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    If you challenged Harry directly on the subject I bet you’d find he doesn’t even know there are such things as local papers. No-one is more London-centric than the younger members of the Royal Family.

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  • January 24, 2013 at 12:55 pm
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    Peter Barron makes his weekly appearance stating the obvious…

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  • January 24, 2013 at 2:04 pm
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    Number of journalists killed in 2012 – 70!
    Number of Apache attack helicopter pilots killed – 0!

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  • January 24, 2013 at 2:46 pm
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    No real soldier would talk to the media about killing other human beings, or liken real combat to an x-box game. So his opinion about the press is based on ignorance, and conversations he’s had with his dad after chatting to the fairies. Harry’s self-serving “fun” in Helmand merely puts the lives of real soldiers in further peril. Who cares what he thinks?

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  • January 24, 2013 at 4:09 pm
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    The Barron can’t sneeze without making it onto HTFP

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  • January 24, 2013 at 5:43 pm
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    Is Peter Barron the only editor in Britain with an opinion? Somehow I knew it was him when I read the HTFP headline. Another easy lift……

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