Associated Newspapers, which owns the British tabloid Daily Mail, wrote to ViacomCBS demanding the removal of “inaccurate, misleading and divisive” content from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with CBS with Oprah Winfrey.
Associated Newspapers’ lawyers complained about a montage in the program that intended to feature British newspaper headlines. They argue that the CBS special showed images that were tampered with or featured as headlines when they were not. They asked for the images to be removed from the online interview and before it was repeated this evening.
“Many of the headlines were taken out of context or deliberately edited and displayed as supporting evidence for the program’s claim that the Duchess of Sussex was subjected to racist coverage by the British press. This issue has not been made apparent to viewers, and as a result, this section of the program is seriously inaccurate and misleading, ”said Elizabeth Hartley, legal director of the Associated Newspapers group.
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“I appreciate your urgent confirmation that the offending content will be removed from the program that is being made available to the public. We also understand that a new broadcast is being planned for tonight. The assembly must therefore be excluded before such transmission. “
Associated Newspapers lists three examples in its letter, arguing that the most “striking” was an image containing the headline: “Meghan’s seed will contaminate our royal family”. The company said this was an edited version of the original headline, which reported on the suspension of a UKIP member for his racist texts about Markle. UKIP is a political party in the United Kingdom. The original headline was: “Meghan’s seed will contaminate our royal family ‘: the glamorous lover of the UKIP chief, 25, was suspended from the party because of racist texts about Prince Harry’s future wife.”
Lawyer Hartley said: “It is a totally dishonest misrepresentation of a headline and newspaper article that was the opposite of racist. Nobody watching the program would have understood that of the montage. “
The letter was sent in the midst of a firestorm in the UK due to the treatment that the press gave Markle. Concerns were raised about the racially charged nature of the coverage of the Duchess of Sussex after Prince Harry accused the British tabloids of being “fanatics”. The Associated Newspapers’ intervention also had its legal fight with Markle over the publication of a letter to her father as a backdrop. Markle secured a major victory in the ongoing battle last month.
Oprah with Meghan and Harry aired on Sunday, March 7th. The special was produced by Harpo Productions. Executive producers were Terry Wood and Tara Montgomery. Brian Piotrowicz was the executive co-producer.
Deadline contacted ViacomCBS for comment.