King Charles and Charles Spencer: Name the Move

Buckingham Palace does not comment on books. It has said so for a hundred years. Last week it said it again, inside a comment on a book.

Charles Spencer, Diana's brother, writes that Charles sounded "giddily elated" on a phone call after Diana died. That is his account, and nobody has independently backed it up. The Palace answered with 42 words about how "the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason." Molly McPherson reads the statement line by line and finds three tells: it breaks its own rule in its first clause, every word doing damage is a kind one, and there is no denial anywhere in it.

She names the move the pat on the head: answering an accusation by going after the person's memory instead of the claim, in the language of sympathy. Then she looks at why silence no longer protects the royal family, what already fixed a crisis about this same woman in 1997, how Trump reacts when the press pool takes his microphone away, Piers Morgan's legal growl, and what the Muck Rack numbers say about who is taking the hit.

She finishes with the statement she would have written instead. Find the uncle.

Molly is a crisis communication and reputation management consultant, APR, and the host of The PR Breakdown. This episode was recorded live on her Substack.

00:00 "We do not comment," said in a comment
02:48 Rewatching Harry and Meghan
07:12 The zone of genius: Meghan and Diana
10:06 Why Charles Spencer wrote the book
11:10 The timeline, 16 to 22 September
12:19 The Palace statement, read in full
13:01 Three tells in 42 words
16:52 The pat on the head
18:18 Could they have said nothing?
20:59 The mask
21:41 Balmoral, 1997
24:12 Never complain, never explain
28:33 Trump and the press pool
32:55 Piers Morgan and the legal growl
36:16 Where it stands
37:02 The Muck Rack numbers
40:08 The statement I would have written
41:55 Find the uncle
44:00 Nobody in the room sat in Diana's chair
44:43 The golden rule


Every week I break down the biggest PR crises in the news: the slips, the moves, the scandals, and the lessons behind the headlines. I'm Molly McPherson, crisis and reputation strategist, known to my audience as the PR Lady. This channel is home base for the podcast and my weekly Substack live chats. Subscribe and follow along.

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