“No, completely not,” Chetwynd mentioned, when requested if the Palace was nonetheless a trusted supply. “Like with something, once you’re let down by a supply the bar is raised.”
Final weekend, a number of information companies — together with The Related Press (AP), Reuters, Getty Photographs and AFP — issued “kill notices” for a Mom’s Day photograph launched by Kensington Palace, which confirmed the Princess of Wales embracing her three smiling kids.
The photograph had been launched partly in an obvious bid to quell a surge of on-line conspiracy theories concerning the whereabouts and well-being of Kate, who has not been seen in public since she underwent belly surgical procedure earlier this yr. However the world’s prime media companies shortly pulled it from circulation after discovering that it appeared to have been manipulated— a bombshell which solely fueled the already out-of-control rumor mill.
Kate later admitted to enhancing the photograph, apologizing for “any confusion.” However the harm was accomplished, because the scandal infected the disaster of belief already brewing in Kensington Palace.
“One factor that’s actually essential is you can’t be distorting actuality for the general public. There’s a query of belief,” Chetwynd mentioned.
Chetwynd mentioned AFP initially validated the photograph, however that ought to by no means have occurred because it “clearly violated” its pointers.