“The headline you have broadcast is neither accurate nor could it be said to be an expression of ‘creative integrity,'” Associated Newspapers wrote to ViacomCBS. “It is a thoroughly dishonest misrepresentation of a newspaper headline and article which was the opposite of racist. No one viewing the programme would have understood this from the montage.”
Several real headlines from The Daily Mail and other tabloids were replicated in their entirety on the special. The program also displayed a partial quote from a 2016 Mail on Sunday opinion piece that Rachel Johnson wrote in 2016, soon after news leaked that Harry was dating Meghan and days before he confirmed their relationship, placed under a Daily Mail website header.
Rachel wrote, “If there is issue from her alleged union with Prince Harry, the Windsors will thicken their watery, thin blue blood and Spencer pale skin and ginger hair with some rich and exotic DNA. Miss Markle’s mother is a dreadlocked African-American lady from the wrong side of the tracks who lives in LA, and even the sourest spinster has to admit that the 35-year-old actress is extremely easy on the eye.” However, the text shown in the headline collage Oprah’s TV special contained the words, “rich and exotic DNA. Miss Markle’s mother is a dreadlocked African-American lady from the wrong side of the tracks…”
A 2017 front page headline published by the Daily Mail, for another opinion column, was highlighted in the Oprah special. One of the words was also censored, as at the time of its publication, some people considered its use racist, which the newspaper denied.
In his statement confirming his relationship with Meghan, who he would marry in 2018, Harry also condemned “abuse and harassment” lobbied against her. He wrote, “Some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.”
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