But... he didn't say that

Journalist-activists diminish both disciplines

I honestly sometimes feel like I’m going mad.

Yesterday Prince William began trending on Twitter. He was visiting a Ukrainian Cultural Centre in London, and as he spoke to volunteers, part of what he said was clipped and shared around the internet; the Duke had said of the war that “it’s very alien to see in Europe”.

The copy filed at the scene by royal correspondent Richard Palmer suggested William had said Britons were more used to seeing conflicts in Africa and Asia.

Cue firestorm.

Nadine White, a journalist for the Independent, racked up over 30,000 retweets with a tweet which claimed “Prince William said it’s rather normal to see war and bloodsheed in Africa and Asia but not Europe”.

Except, he never said this. Even the copy provided by the royal correspondent didn’t say this. Video of the conversation later emerged, which showed he hadn’t made any reference to Africa or Asia. Palmer apologised, saying a remark William had made was misheard. The Duke’s full quote is as follows;

“Everyone is horrified by what they are seeing. It’s really horrifying. The news every day, it’s just, it’s almost unfathomable. For our generation, it’s very alien to see this in Europe. We’re all right behind you. We’re thinking about you. We feel so useless.”

Bosnians and Kosovans might raise their eyebrows at this, but broadly this is just a fairly standard expression of what we’re all feeling at the moment. It takes rather a lot of malice to paint this as driven by racism in some way.

Which didn’t stop people trying. Even after the corrections had been issued, nasty and spiteful pieces were still being penned about how it’s time to call out Prince William on racism. Even though he didn’t say it.

This is hardly the first time this has happened. Jess Phillips was hounded by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn for years for using what was a very obvious metaphor. Lies spread around social media at a speed that later corrections simply can’t catch up to; this story about Prince William will be quoted as gospel in future by anyone who wants to accuse him of being racist.

Is this what activism is, now? Does the truth matter, even a bit? For sure I don’t want to hear about biased mainstream media or fake news from anyone who continues to push this story after what really happened has come to light. At the time of writing, White’s misleading tweet remains up.

Maybe this is just a little inconsequential thing. William will be fine. But it speaks to a lot of really bad tendencies in 2020s political discourse. A huge firestorm with serious accusations, before the facts of what had happened had been established. An online feeding frenzy. From many who pushed the story, a refusal to apologise or back down. And at root, a total lack of humanity.

Isn’t intention important? Surely anyone could see William was trying to show empathy, to convey his horror at the situation in Ukraine? We’re all human, and we can’t always speak with one hundred per cent precision, so even if you think Prince William didn’t get the words out in the best possible way, can we not start from a place of assuming good intentions and approaching this in good faith?

It’s tiring, because there is so much nonsense on the internet, and this is just one really small and fairly irrelevant example. This week, Russia is pushing conspiracy theories about how photos of the attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol were staged, and this is being taken at face value by credulous idiots. There’s so much misinformation out there.

But I do think it is worth highlighting this example. First because there is video of the exchange which means there is no room for doubt as to what happened, but second because this is being done in the name of anti-racism.

Sometimes, claims don’t get the scrutiny that they warrant because they come wrapped in a cloak of goodness; nobody wants to be the person to criticise anti-racism campaigners for anything, so things get a pass.

But it’s important that there is scrutiny. If someone is advocating for a cause you support, you can demand more from them! If these people are speaking for you or things you believe in, demand honesty, demand integrity, demand humility. Particularly if they happen to be a journalist.

These aren’t optional extras for activism or for journalism; they should be the bedrock, the foundation. Instead, here we have a man being smeared over something he didn’t say and didn’t mean, by people who know that he didn’t say it and didn’t mean it.

One function this kind of journalist-activism does provide is it shines a big spotlight on those who see journalism as just a form of activism, and are hence failing at both. Because it’s certainly not Prince William who is coming out of this whole sorry episode with his reputation in tatters.