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During 43 years in journalism, (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), it was always drilled into the head of our Editor Welshman Phil Parry, to check at least three times, to ensure a recollection is correct, and once again this is underlined by a growing backlash against Earl Spencer’s book about his sister Princess Diana, with one paper choosing to lead on Piers Morgan saying that the book should be removed from shelves over a factual error, while another put on its front page a columnist’s comment that the Earl was a “cad”.
Mr Morgan said he accepted the apology but that his lawyers would be “laying out that we want the offending pages to be removed from this book. And if that means they pulp the first edition, so be it”. It is understood that Penguin, the publishers, will be amending this one point in future editions of the book.
Earl Spencer described being “flabbergasted” to learn that newspaper editors had been invited to Diana’s funeral. “The only one who sounded surly, as opposed to merely confused or embarrassed [when uninvited], wasPiers Morgan of the Mirror, who snarled with annoyance before he hung up”, he wrote.
He went on to claim that he assumed Mr Morgan must be feeling “guilt” over the Sunday Mirror publishing photographs of Diana wearing a leotard in a gym four years before, but Mr Morgan said the Sunday Mirror published the pictures in November 1993, yet he only started working at the Daily Mirror in 1995.
Meanwhile the Daily Mail (which has ironically secured the rights to print excerpts of the controversial book, that everyone else has followed up), today put on its front page an attacking comment from its columnist Sarah Vine: “My message to the four times married colossal cad Earl Spencer: People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…”.
All of this has come after other extraordinary events, including the Earl being interviewed by the BBC’s former Political Editor, Laura Kuensberg, in which he said that he is “telling the truth” about a phone call with King Charles in the days after his sister’s death in a car crash.
When I started in journalism in 1983, a mantra was drilled into me by the instructors: “Check, check, check…”
This, of course, means that everything you publish must be triple checked to ensure it is accurate.
It is conceivable that this is emphasised by Earl Spencer’s shock allegation about (now) KING Charles soon after the death of his former wife Diana, Princess of Wales.
The Earl claimed in a new book on his sister, ‘Swan Song’, to be released next week, that a Palace aide had told him that Charles had proclaimed: “we’ll forget her (Diana) soon enough”.
An extract from his memoir was published in the Daily Mail yesterday.
In the extract, Earl Spencer said the then-Prince of Wales subjected him to a “stream of anger” after he insisted Diana would not have wanted her sons Prince William and Prince Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to walk behind her coffin during the funeral procession.
In ‘Swan Song: Diana, My Sister’, the earl said he was told by a palace aide that the late princess’ sons would walk behind her coffin, however, Earl Spencer objected to the move and claimed he received a phone call from Charles soon afterwards.
The comments may or may not be a correct recollection, but clearly Buckingham Palace was unhappy, and took the rare step of issuing a public statement.
It declared: “While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss”.
Whatever the truth is at the heart of this difficult issue, it is obvious that everything must be verified (which may or may not have been done), because they can cause a tremendous stink!
Check, check, check!
‘Swan Song: Diana My Sister’ is published ahead of the 30th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death in Paris, next year.
Some of the stories Phil has covered over the years (when sources were always checked), as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a a different kind of book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Tomorrow – for him establishing the correct identity of individuals has always been essential, but today this is made more difficult by fake pictures and films being created using Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the waters being muddied by onlookers spotting the comic potential of high-profile figures looking like others!
