ITV has been forced to edit part of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's interview with Oprah Winfrey after it was revealed that it included "misleading" headlines which portrayed the British press as racist.
Headlines that were flashed on screen throughout the interview were seemingly tweaked to support the idea that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex received biased coverage.
Associated Newspapers, the publisher of The Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail and MailOnline has made an official complaint to CBS about the headlines.
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Liz Hartley, editorial legal director at Associated Newspapers, said: "As a responsible broadcaster with integrity we believe [...] that you will deprecate, as we do, the deliberate distortion and doctoring of newspaper headlines in the misleading montage of British newspapers broadcast in 'Oprah with Meghan and Harry'.
"Many of the headlines have been either taken out of context or deliberately edited and displayed as supporting evidence for the programme's claim that the Duchess of Sussex was subjected to racist coverage by the British press.
She added: "This editing was not made apparent to viewers and, as a result, this section of the programme is both seriously inaccurate and misleading."
The letter was sent after the Telegraph and Mail published articles to demonstrate how some British newspaper headlines had been distorted or taken out of context.
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The Telegraph reported that a third of the headlines included in the broadcast were from non-UK gossip magazines and 11 were from American and Australian supermarket tabloids, its analysis showed.
The paper also found that some articles were reports exposing racial slurs by others, not racism towards Meghan, as suggested by CBS.
Hartley picked four examples, including "most egregious" example which was the use of the headline: "Meghan's seed will taint our royal family".
The headlines appear during the section of the interview where Oprah asks Meghan about having suicidal thoughts after a swathe of negative coverage.
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Oprah said via voiceover: "When Meghan joined the royal family in 2018, she became the victim of unrelenting racist attacks
"There was constant criticism, blatant sexist racist remarks by British tabloids and internet trolls
"The daily onslaught of vitriol and condemnation from the UK press became overwhelming and in Meghan's words, almost unsurvivable."
Hartley said: "It is a thoroughly dishonest misrepresentation of a newspaper headline and article which was the opposite of racist.
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"No one viewing the programme would have understood this from the montage."
ITV has said it will remove two of the newspaper headlines shown during the Meghan interview.
The programme showed a headline from The Telegraph that read: 'The real problem with Meghan Markle: she just doesn't speak our language.'
The paper said the headline was taken out of context.
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An ITV spokesman confirmed to the Telegraph and said it would remove three Daily Mail, MailOnline and Mail on Sunday headlines, plus a headline wrongly attributed to the Guardian.
The Telegraph headline will remain in the interview, which is still available to watch on ITV Hub.
The "Meghan's seed" Mail on Sunday headline and The Guardian headline: "BBC's Danny Baker on comparing royal baby to a chimp".
The Guardian has said it can find no record of the latter headline appearing on its website. In any case it would have been a reference to a photo which the former Radio One DJ Danny Baker shared on Twitter showing a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee accompanied by the message: "Royal Baby leaves hospital".
CBS and Harpo Productions have been contacted for comment.
Featured Image Credit: CBSTopics: TV and Film, News, ITV, Royals, Meghan Markle