Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed and there was intense competition to get the first picture of the couple kissing. The Mirror appeared to have done so, although, on closer inspection, it looked as if it had taken an image run by the Mirror ’s sister paper the People of the couple gazing at each other on a boat and had digitally moved their positions so they seemed much closer together. It seemed the other sister paper, the Sunday Mirror, had acquired genuine snaps and was refusing to share them. There were rumours of shouting matches between Piers and Sunday Mirror editor Bridget Rowe, not least because Piers used his pictures the day before hers were due to run. The readers didn’t care, though; they just wanted as much of Diana as the media could provide.
The rest of Fleet Street were more concerned, however, as Piers appeared to have stolen a march on them. There were accusations of picture manipulation and another row broke out, but Piers fought back in trademark style. Everyone did it, he claimed, pointing out there had been no complaints from readers – and, of course, this proved thecase. Most hadn’t even been aware of what had been done and, while the two appeared to be much closer together, there was no actual kiss as such.
If restrictions were brought in, warned Piers, ‘every picture editor I know is going to have to look deep into their soul and ask themselves have they ever cropped a picture closer? Have they ever removed people from a background? Everyone does it. It doesn’t change the news value or integrity of a picture. If we had had Dodi Fayed kissing Diana when they hadn’t been kissing, that would have changed the integrity of that picture. We haven’t had a single complaint from any reader. Why would they feel conned? I totally deny we changed the image integrity in that picture. It was quite clear, twenty-four hours later, that those two heads had been considerably closer than our picture.’
Alas, only two weeks later, HRH Princess Diana was dead. After she was killed in a car crash in Paris with Dodi on 31 August 1997, Piers suddenly discovered that he was in the midst of the biggest story in years and the papers went into overdrive, reporting on each sensational development of the case and at times actually bringing the royal family to book.
In the immediate pandemonium surrounding Diana’s death, it quickly became apparent that everyone – the royal family, the political establishment and the media – was in a totally new world, making it up as they went along. As far as the media was concerned, the brutal reality was that such a huge story involving such a popular figure sold newspapers. Every newspaper competed with its peersto bring out daily supplements about the late Princess’s life and a whole industry grew up not just in the days following the shocking news but for years afterwards.
But the media also reflected what the public themselves wanted to say. Most of the royal family had been at Balmoral, their castle in Scotland, when the news broke, and that, perhaps unwisely, is where they stayed. As Diana’s body lay in London and preparations for the funeral began, mourners began to gather in the streets, many sobbing quite openly. New Prime Minister Tony Blair perfectly summed up the situation in a speech in which he referred to Diana as ‘The People’s Princess’. The nation’s mood was such that it required a connection between Monarch and people, but, in a rare moment in her long reign, Queen Elizabeth II actually got it wrong.
As the royal family sheltered in Balmoral, the mood in the capital turned ugly. There had been no public message from the royals and, much in contrast to what the people wanted, there was no flag at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. The reason for this was protocol: no flag ever flew over Buckingham Palace, only the Monarch’s standard, and if the Queen herself had died it wouldn’t have been done. However, the people required a symbolic
The rest of Fleet Street were more concerned, however, as Piers appeared to have stolen a march on them. There were accusations of picture manipulation and another row broke out, but Piers fought back in trademark style. Everyone did it, he claimed, pointing out there had been no complaints from readers – and, of course, this proved thecase. Most hadn’t even been aware of what had been done and, while the two appeared to be much closer together, there was no actual kiss as such.
If restrictions were brought in, warned Piers, ‘every picture editor I know is going to have to look deep into their soul and ask themselves have they ever cropped a picture closer? Have they ever removed people from a background? Everyone does it. It doesn’t change the news value or integrity of a picture. If we had had Dodi Fayed kissing Diana when they hadn’t been kissing, that would have changed the integrity of that picture. We haven’t had a single complaint from any reader. Why would they feel conned? I totally deny we changed the image integrity in that picture. It was quite clear, twenty-four hours later, that those two heads had been considerably closer than our picture.’
Alas, only two weeks later, HRH Princess Diana was dead. After she was killed in a car crash in Paris with Dodi on 31 August 1997, Piers suddenly discovered that he was in the midst of the biggest story in years and the papers went into overdrive, reporting on each sensational development of the case and at times actually bringing the royal family to book.
In the immediate pandemonium surrounding Diana’s death, it quickly became apparent that everyone – the royal family, the political establishment and the media – was in a totally new world, making it up as they went along. As far as the media was concerned, the brutal reality was that such a huge story involving such a popular figure sold newspapers. Every newspaper competed with its peersto bring out daily supplements about the late Princess’s life and a whole industry grew up not just in the days following the shocking news but for years afterwards.
But the media also reflected what the public themselves wanted to say. Most of the royal family had been at Balmoral, their castle in Scotland, when the news broke, and that, perhaps unwisely, is where they stayed. As Diana’s body lay in London and preparations for the funeral began, mourners began to gather in the streets, many sobbing quite openly. New Prime Minister Tony Blair perfectly summed up the situation in a speech in which he referred to Diana as ‘The People’s Princess’. The nation’s mood was such that it required a connection between Monarch and people, but, in a rare moment in her long reign, Queen Elizabeth II actually got it wrong.
As the royal family sheltered in Balmoral, the mood in the capital turned ugly. There had been no public message from the royals and, much in contrast to what the people wanted, there was no flag at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. The reason for this was protocol: no flag ever flew over Buckingham Palace, only the Monarch’s standard, and if the Queen herself had died it wouldn’t have been done. However, the people required a symbolic
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