Invisible Contract

Something that Prince Harry said in his interview with Oprah Winfrey (aired in the US on March 7th and in the UK on March 8th). 

During their interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex cast that invisible contract as close to a Faustian bargain, which royals accept for fear of tabloids turning on them. Barker

It is not that the royals enjoy their media duties, or view them as a responsibility, but that the only way to survive the press is to strike a deal with it. Bland

Alex Barker quotes David Yelland, former editor of the Sun.

There is no conspiracy. Both sides have complete contempt for each other. ... But the press and the royals need each other.

An unnamed royal expert told Archie Bland that politicians had similar arrangements.

“This is the same battle every prime minister has. There is a quid pro quo relationship – there’s a reason senior officials try to build relationships with editors. It’s about negotiating for favourable coverage.”

In his submission to the Leveson Inquiry (2012), Lord Mandelson denied the existence of an explicit Faustian pact between the Labour Government and the Murdoch organization involving commercial concessions. Quite a narrowly scoped denial, one might think. Particularly as Mandelson himself was sometimes cast as Mephistopheles by his political opponents.

In an earlier article (1999), Rachel Sylvester offered a more nuanced view of this relationship

The love affair between Blair and Murdoch has become an obsession for the left. ... But, in fact, the honeymoon between Blair and Murdoch did not last long after the general election. ... This is not a love affair, it is a marriage of convenience in which both parties will use the other to their own advantage when they can and then dump them when they cannot.

 

Clancy argues that

Media representations of the royal family are a prism; a central affective and ideological project to distance the monarchy from capitalist vulgarity and aristocratic debauchery, and reproduce monarchical power by producing consent.

 (The idea of the production of consent comes from Gramsci via Stuart Hall.)

 

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Alex Barker, The 'invisible' pact binding the UK royals and their tabloid tormentors (FT, 10 March 2021) (paywall)

Daniel Bentley and Lauren Turner, Leveson Inquiry: Lord Mandelson denies deal with Rupert Murdoch (Independent, 21 May 2012)

Archie Bland, How Meghan disrupted invisible contract between royals and press (The Guardian, 13 March 2021) 

Laura Clancy, The Corporate Power of the British Monarchy: Capital(ism), Wealth and Power in
Contemporary Britain (Sociological Review 69/2, March 2021) p. 330-347

Laura Clancy and Hannah Yelin, Monarchy is a feminist issue: Andrew, Meghan and #MeToo era monarchy (Women's Studies International Forum Volume 84, January–February 2021)

Rachel Sylvester, FOCUS: See you in Europe, Tony (Independent, 10 April 1999)

Alex Taylor, Harry and Meghan: What's the media's invisible contract with British royalty? (BBC News)

Vanessa Thorpe. Major's banned Faust ad revealed (24 October 1999)

Kevin D Williamson, The Infernal Art of the Deal (National Review, 6 August 2019)