March 8, 2021

The Sunday night prime-time special with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex — interviewed by Oprah Winfrey — didn’t make many front pages that I could find in the United States, (if you see more, let me know) but it’s certainly dominating the news cycle here and in the United Kingdom.

And the coverage itself is something.

More than a year ago, BuzzFeed News reporter Ellie Hall wrote “Here Are 20 Headlines Comparing Meghan Markle To Kate Middleton That May Show Why She And Prince Harry Left Royal Life.” That’s a useful primer for this.

Hall wrote, “Harry and Meghan have said publicly that they believe they have been treated unfairly by the UK press since the moment news broke of their relationship — that they are bullied, that there are racist undertones to coverage of them, and that they have been held to a different standard than Harry’s brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka Prince William and Kate Middleton).”

Now let’s compare how Oprah’s interview was covered. We’ll start with some U.K. tabloids.

These are via Paperboy:

 

Here are some fronts via SkyNews:

 

 

 

Now let’s look at how other sites in the U.K. covered this online. Here’s The Daily Mail:

 

The Oprah interview did make front-page news in the U.S. Here are two examples via Freedom Forum:

I checked on U.S. news and entertainment sites, too, and found this on their homepages:

 

 

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Kristen Hare is Poynter's director of craft and local news. She teaches local journalists the critical skills they need to serve and cover their communities.…
Kristen Hare

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