# What do the dopers think of the Kate Middleton brouhaha **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 11, 2024, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723 "2024-03-11T23:52:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/341 "2024-03-21T15:42:22Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > > [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > > > **trying** to look at anyone’s records they’re not permitted to, let alone a royal. > > Bolding added. > > (And yes, it takes judgement to determine why someone looked at those records. Releasing info to the press is certainly an indication of that intent.) Exactly. It matters whether the breach was an inadvertent typo by the hypothetical nurse, or a deliberate snoop by someone, say, not involved in the care of patients. Or even a doctor, nurse, aide who’s not involved in the royal’s care team and would have no legitimate reason to be accessing the records other than curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/342 "2024-03-21T15:45:02Z")
Have they actually lost any trust at all? Did any of the people chasing and stirring up this _complete non-event_ begin from a position of trusting the Royal Family, or trusting information about them? Seems to me this has been more like an opportunity for people to express their existing views of non-trust. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/343 "2024-03-21T19:31:00Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > That reminds me of how [Knott’s Berry Farm](https://www.knotts.com/) started. I _love_ their fried chicken dinner and boysenberry pie. Yum! ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/344 "2024-03-21T19:43:34Z")
Photos that seemed to be accepted at face value in the past are suddenly being scrutinized, and accusations of Photoshop are being levied at other images, such as the Queen and her grandchildren where Louis is lit by a light source that isn’t touching anyone else in the room. I’d say there has been a shift in trust based on the sudden revaluation of old photos. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/345 "2024-03-21T19:47:09Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > I never accidentally opened a royal personages records, but I did oopsy into a famous Red Sox player’s account once. I’ve heard that some databases have the ability to flag certain records as VIPs. When they are accessed, they will have additional flags and alerts around their access. I think I heard this about the California DMV, as they don’t want employees browsing the records of celebrities. I’m sure the admins will then do further checks to see if it was accidental or if it’s a pattern of behavior. If someone has a pattern of “accidentally” clicking on the records of VIPs, then they would likely face some kind of disciplinary action. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/346 "2024-03-21T20:37:47Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > accusations of Photoshop are being levied at other images, such as the Queen and her grandchildren where Louis is lit by a light source that isn’t touching anyone else in the room. I’ll will have to refer those interested to the estimable [William Shatner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbJelY1kZNU) for my feelings on this revelation. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/347 "2024-03-22T02:20:51Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > > [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > > > I never accidentally opened a royal personages records, but I did oopsy into a famous Red Sox player’s account once. > > I’ve heard that some databases have the ability to flag certain records as VIPs. When they are accessed, they will have additional flags and alerts around their access. I think I heard this about the California DMV, as they don’t want employees browsing the records of celebrities. I’m sure the admins will then do further checks to see if it was accidental or if it’s a pattern of behavior. If someone has a pattern of “accidentally” clicking on the records of VIPs, then they would likely face some kind of disciplinary action. I would think that it would be a simple thing to have levels of access within the system. Someone without the proper permissions would not be able to access even if they try. We had that on several systems. Confidential investigations were tagged and you had to be a supervisor to look at the reports. Same with the body camera system. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/348 "2024-03-22T04:07:40Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Have they actually lost any trust at all? Did any of the people chasing and stirring up this _complete non-event_ begin from a position of trusting the Royal Family, or trusting information about them? > > Seems to me this has been more like an opportunity for people to express their existing views of non-trust. I mean, they’ve at least lost the trust of the AFP: When asked if the palace was still to be trusted as a source, Chetwynd answered candidly: “No. Absolutely not. Like with anything, when you’re let down by a source, the bar is raised and we’ve got major issues internally.” ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/349 "2024-03-22T04:56:27Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > New organizations have clear standards for the photos they publish. For example, from the [AP standards:](https://www.ap.org/about/news-values-and-principles/telling-the-story/) These standards seem to rule out using a mobile phone camera where blending multiple frames is a standard feature. I mean the spirit of the standards is very clear, but for anyone that wants to nitpick – an HDR image is not going to meet the standards. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/350 "2024-03-22T05:07:08Z")
I follow a couple of people on Twitter that posted nothing but this for days. I just glossed past them because I truly don’t give a shit. The only reason I know anything about it is from those fleeting Tweets. It’s not just that I don’t give a shit, it’s that I don’t understand why anyone else does either. It’s an edited picture? Welcome to the wonderful world of celebrity photos. Fercrhissakes, they’ve been tweaking photos of celebrities since about ten minutes after Louis Daguerre invented the friggin’ camera. I’d ask someone to explain why this is such big deal but, again, I really don’t give a shit. TL;DR - the whole thing baffles me. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/351 "2024-03-22T05:20:06Z")
If you don’t care, you don’t care. I don’t care about the winners of America’s got Talent. But there are people who do. I don’t know why. We love our famous folks and celebrities. People stand in lines at book signings, and go gaga at Music fests looking to see/hear their favorite and maybe catch a picture of them. It’s a truly human thing. The picture kerfuffle maybe a little much. People trying to get her private medical records, a criminal act? I don’t know the laws. The heart wants what the heart wants. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/352 "2024-03-22T15:32:57Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Except insofar as she provides an unfortunately irresistible excuse to recite the immortal verse > > > [@](#): > > > > A young man called Cholmondeley Colquhoun > > Kept as a pet a babolquhoun. > > His mother said, “Cholmondeley, > > Do you think it quite colmondeley > > To feed your babolquhoun with a spolquhoun?” Have you heard about poor Lady Belvoir? She’s quite doolally with felvoir! That poxy Lord Bicester Passed it on when he kicester If it kills her we’ll surely all grevoir. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/353 "2024-03-22T16:19:43Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > But here you have an alleged “right” that is only accessible via very expensive involved legal process (super injunction are only available via the High Court, no one who is not very very rich is getting one). That completely meaningless, and not really a “right” at all, whether or not the “right” is itself valid or not. If you claim to have freedom of religion, but if you want to worship anything other than Lutheranism you need to apply for permit from the supreme court then you don’t have freedom of religion. > [@griffin1977](#): > > You are not stripping away rights. There are two sides to the “privacy” coin. My “right to privacy” means taking away your right to talk about things I think are personal. If I am rich and you are not, I can use the power of the state to punish you when you bring up things I want to keep private, but you can’t afford to do the same, so I can talk about your private life as much as I want. That is inherently far worse than neither of us being punished by the state for discussing each other’s private lives. Yes! Inequality in access to justice is a real and pervasive problem that should be fixed. I agree! The answer to that is still not to simply do away with rights in principle. Just like in your non-Lutheran permit example, the answer is not to do away with freedom of religion altogether. Make the process more equal! Widen the scope and scale of legal aid! > [@griffin1977](#): > > I don’t have the right to know that Joe Bloggs shat himself on his sofa last year. But I do have the right to make a joke about it if I do know, the state should have not use its power to stop me from making that joke. No matter how rich Joe Bloggs is, taking away my right to comment on a factual event that happened, is an abuse of power that restricts our freedom speech. Make a joke to whom though? People who also already know about Joe’s unfortunate sofa incident? Or is making a joke going to be the medium through which you publicise Joe’s private business? Given that this is Joe Bloggs and not some public individual, why on earth do you think you have the right to spread embarrassing facts about his personal life to all and sundry? How come you don’t have the right to know about his business at the beginning of this paragraph, but everyone listening to your jokes does at the halfway mark? > [@griffin1977](#): > > Your “right of privacy” does not trump my right to know what was on TV last night in the US. It may not. But it equally may. If what was on TV last night on the US was an intrusion into some individual’s private life that isn’t justified by public interest, how do you suddenly have the right to further breach that person’s privacy? The right to privacy is as real as the right to freedom of speech, and when they conflict as rights often will, it is not axiomatic that freedom of speech must always prevail. It’s a question of weighing up the merits and harms of both sides. For example, this story has prompted a focus on the Cholmondeley marriage (it never feels less ridiculous to type that name out) including speculation about the Marquess’s sexuality. If this is a case of a gay man being outed, is there any justification for that whatsoever? ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/354 "2024-03-22T18:03:37Z")
She has cancer and is getting chemo. > **[LIVE: Kate Middleton diagnosed with cancer, undergoing chemotherapy](https://abc7chicago.com/amp/princess-of-wales-kate-middleton-cancer-kensington-palace/14558390/)** > > The Palace has not said what type of cancer the Princess of Wales has but said it was discovered in post-operative tests after her abdominal surgery. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/355 "2024-03-22T18:04:11Z")
Don’t know if this should be a separate thread, but I just heard (CBS News) that Princess Kate has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemo. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/356 "2024-03-22T18:04:12Z")
> **[Princess of Wales says she is undergoing cancer treatment](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68641441)** > > The Princess of Wales has begun preventative chemotherapy after cancer was found. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/357 "2024-03-22T18:07:16Z")
Sorry to hear that. Hope they caught it in time that she’ll be able to see her kids grow up. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/358 "2024-03-22T18:20:30Z")
from what i am hearing is that they were waiting until the kids were at home on break to tell them and be with them, before making it public. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/359 "2024-03-22T18:22:50Z")
Again, not knowing really anything but the surface bitching I’ve seen on Twitter, I’m thinking … are you ghouls happy now? Or are they just going go with they don’t believe her and will continue to pour shit on her? ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723/360 "2024-03-22T18:33:30Z")
The point of the discussion here isn’t that she owed anyone details of her medical condition. People here are asking why the palace thought sending a faked photo to news agencies was a better way to deal with this than the truth, or best of all, what they were doing originally: just keeping quiet about it. I have the utmost sympathy for her and her family having to go through this. I wish they hadn’t made it even worse than it was on its own. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-the-dopers-think-of-the-kate-middleton-brouhaha/998723.md?page=19)