Misleading headlines that backed racist claims by Meghan and Harry

There is nothing like a montage of screaming headlines in newspapers to support an argument that the British press is racist. The montage that appeared on the screen during the Ophrah Winfrey interview with Meghan and Harry was unbelievably disturbing and totally racist. But I thought at the time when the montage filled the screen that I had never seen such headlines before. I didn't recognise the vast majority of them and others looked more familiar but still didn't look right. Sure enough, the montage was not what it seemed. A third of the headlines had appeared in the worst gossip papers and magazines in the US and Australia - not UK at all - and the British ones, notably the Daily Mail and Guardian, related to outrageous racist comments made by other people and were not reflecting what the newspapers themselves felt. So, all in all, very distorted and very dishonest to brand the British press as racist when the so-called evidence in the selected headlines was wholly tainted. It really has been a lesson in twisted television-making. There is racism in British society, just as there is racism in the US, all of it to be condemned out of hand. But the British press is actually governed by very strict publishing and legal rules and whenever there is a hint of racism in a headline or story, there are always repercussions. And quite right too. But on this occasion headlines were wilfully shoved together to put the British press in the worst possible light so as to satisfy the allegations by Meghan and Harry that they are victims of racism. ITV which broadcast the interview the day after CBS in the US has quickly removed the offending headlines from the digital version but CBS has yet to react. A sorry tale all round and another example of how the Meghan and Harry interview will, in the end, do them no good at all.