In the wake of the lawsuits filed by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex against various British media outlets, the royal reporters are having a difficult time coming up with an angle to discuss the lawsuits in a way which would make Harry and Meghan sound irresponsible and foolhardy. One of my favorite arguments to appear in multiple articles is this: by suing media outlets, Harry and Meghan are taking attention away from other royal shenanigans which desperately need to be exposed, like Prince Andrew’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein. The problem with that argument is that Andrew’s Epstein crap is an entirely different league, a league involving human trafficking, rape, pedophilia and multiple criminal investigations and civil lawsuits, and if people can’t pay attention to that AND other stuff, that’s their own fault. I’d also argue that the British press has spent the past three months smearing Meghan over sh-t like “wearing jeans at Wimbledon” and saying that’s equal to Andrew’s legitimate scandal. So spare me the “but now we can’t pay attention to Andrew!” cries.
What’s also funny is that Andrew doesn’t seem to be aware that he could legitimately be hiding out and not trying to get headlines at the moment. Instead, he’s pushing stories about how his big meet-up with Epstein in 2010 was to break off their friendship. LMAO. And now this: Andrew has hired a “spin doctor” to help with the bad headlines.
The Duke of York has hired a political spin doctor to help rebuild his reputation as it emerged Channel 4 is making a documentary about his friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Amber Rudd’s former special adviser Jason Stein will start working for Prince Andrew on Thursday as the palace braces itself for the hour-long expose, due to be aired in a fortnight’s time.
It is understood the Channel 4 current affairs team has contacted a number of former royal aides in a bid to investigate why the Duke stayed at Epstein’s £45 million Manhattan mansion four months after his release in 2010. The Duke later admitted it was an “error of judgment”. Mr Stein, who previously worked for Trade Secretary Liz Truss, accepted the role of ‘special adviser for communications’ two weeks ago after Ms Rudd quit as Work and Pensions Secretary last month over Boris Johnson’s Brexit stance.
The 28-year-old will report directly to the Duke’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk – rather than the Buckingham Palace press office. A royal source told the Daily Telegraph: “The Duke’s office has got a huge volume of work to deliver but a great deal of time is being taken up dealing with Epstein related enquiries which is where Jason will come in.”
Not to defend Andrew, but I suspect this “spin doctor” is likely just a communications guy dedicated to answering questions about the Epstein connection. That’s not exactly spin-doctoring, it’s just blocking off one person for this one need. But that’s the larger problem – Andrew’s “huge volume of work” is being overshadowed by the Epstein story. Andrew is deeply unpopular, no one wants him to represent charities or patronages and no amount of spin-doctoring or photo-ops with the Queen will help that.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I would not be happy if I lived in the UK and my tax dollars went toward paying for this. Wonder how much pushback there will be. This is pretty egregious IMO.
Pedo Andy & his troubles would be a great topic for Rowan Farrows new book…
I second this & thank god for Rowan Farrow.
Honestly I’m surprised they don’t keep a crisis communications person on retainer. It’s too little too late now…
Of course he needs a ‘spin doctor’. Everyone knows that the worst part about being accused of being involved in a sex-trafficking ring is the BAD PUBLICITY.
I want more photo ops with his mummy.
Why do I get the feeling that, while all this press about him is terrible stuff, Andrew is perversely giddy with excitement that he’s even in the headlines at all? He could so easily lay low and keep silent right now, but it’s almost as if he’s just thrilled he’s being talked about that he can’t help himself.
Too little, too late. He should have thought of this move before Epstein was arrested the first time, but no. Or maybe not get involved with this criminal activity to begin with. He belongs in jail. I hope he never lives this down.
Every time I see that pic of the queen and her pedo son with those big teeth baring smiles it reminds me of a pair of sharks.
Sorry, RRs, that having to cover Andrew and his crimes means you cant devote as much time to attacking Meghan for her jeans and famous friends etc. Life is just hard sometimes, you know?
As to the “spin doctor” – the only thing about it that I find surprising is that it has taken this long to hire one. To me that says that Andrew et al really underestimated how bad this was going to be.