OT: Princess Kate Diagnosed with Cancer
Sad news out of Kensington Palace today that Catherine, Princess of Wales, has been diagnosed with cancer. The type of cancer was not announced, though she is undergoing chemotherapy. This follows the news last month that King Charles has been diagnosed with cancer.
Regardless of one's feelings of the Royal Family, Kate is only 42 and is a mother to three kids. Hopefully she (and Charles) beat this horrible disease.
It's really the American media's fault. The British care - which fair enough - but our media is lazy and views the royal family* as news we HAVE to pay attention to as well.
I mean, seriously --- CBS broke into the college basketball games to report this! Why???
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* small letters delibrate. The whole idea of royalty, pfffft --- we did away with kings and queens over here! And we did it for a reason! Those folks are neither more special or better than anyone else!
Pretty sure the media is responding to the American appetite for the royal family obsession. The question remains, why are there so many people here so taken with it. And since I don't particularly care about them one way or the other, I can't really say.
Well, I suppose I've gotten cynical as regards the news and the media ......... but I believe the media frequently artificially CREATES the American people's appetite, as opposed to the other way around.
Seriously --- CBS broke into the college basketball games for this!. Really? She isn't dead. She isn't in any immediate danger of dying. College basketball fans are disproportionately men, who are less liable to care. There was no reason at all where this had to be reported immediately.
Yet, the suits at CBS decided, yes - we must let everyone know NOW!
I agree that the overlap between college basketball fans and royal family watchers is not great and I was surprised when they cut in with it. I don't know if they figured as part of their calculation that the tournament has a higher number of women viewers than your typical Northwestern-Florida Atlantic basketball game.
As for the whole chicken and the egg thing with creating the interest in the royal family, I mean, you don't care about them and neither do I. And as you note (and I anecdotally believe this to be true) women are more likely to care about the royals than men. Are you suggesting that women are more susceptible than men to listen to whatever the lazy media tells them to? Or maybe we only care about basketball because the news tells us to?
The media artifically creates news and stirs up shit to get the attention of ALL groups --- women, men, whites, non-whites, Republicans, Democrats, people whose first name starts with a Vowel, etc etc.
As for men --- ESPN does this on a damn daily basis. Men are just as susceptible as anyone else* - I only mentioned women in my previous post because it was in the context of CBS' break-in (women being more likely to consume more royal family news vs men, and less likely to consume less college hoops).
The Big 3's News divisions, FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, all of them: they make more $$$ when there is more news. Now, big huge real news items like 9/11 and Wars in Ukraine and hurricanes, they don't happen all the time. So what to do, to make $? Create news and reasons to watch!
Anyway, I'm ranting. But if everyone in American media decided to do a blackout on royal family coverage for a year, I doubt there'd be overly much pent-up demand from the populace.
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* Arguably, men are MORE susceptible. The older I get, the more I think my gender, in the aggregate, is the more deficient one when it comes to common sense.
Obviously I'm familiar with media created controversies. I hesitate to name the big one from last football season considering my audience here.
As far as royals, a very cursory look suggests there's more of a generational divide than anything, and despite it being shoved down our throats, interest is waning (both here and the UK) because young people just don't give a shit.
March 22nd, 2024 at 11:26 PM ^
But they do care about what some chud on TikTok does.
Yikes.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:33 PM ^
Maybe because the majority of Americans have ancestry linked to the UK? Some people like to look at their heritage and celebrate it. Others couldn’t care less.
“Regardless of one's feelings of the Royal Family”
It’s a shame you need to write this, it wasn’t that long ago that the idea of wishing harm to those we disagree with wasn’t acceptable, now it’s considered normal by far too many. Hope her and Charles kick its ass, and ANYONE else that’s suffering from it.
well, if putin, xi, and the hermit king came down with it i might not lose too much sleep.
Cancer does not discriminate. Young or old, rich or poor, black or white, male or female, it can attack us all. It. Does. Not. Care.
I hope she makes a full recovery. No child should ever have to grow up without their mother.
A lot of BS thrown her way. I have always liked her and agree with OP that she is a a good mom and wife to be rooted for. Prayers to the whole family.
I just don't understand all the lying and photoshops. Just admit the truth from the beginning.
Unless this is also a lie or covering for something they're still trying to hide.
Just about every middle aged women photoshops shit to make their family (and herself) look better. And oh just about every young women does that too. Oh what a horror!
Remove filters from the photo apps and this world may burn to the ground within hours.
That's not at all what happened. They digitally stitched different photographs together to create a falsehood of normality. Then lied about it, then asked for the unphotoshopped versions and lied about that too.
It's just a farce at this point.
Two things can be true. The biggest rumor being that she was away from the family because she caught the prince cheating. So she could be having cancer treatments, and also being awol from the family for other reasons on top of that.
March 22nd, 2024 at 10:09 PM ^
I've never put a filter on a photo or photoshopped a photo to be a better version of myself, or anyone in my family. That's such a weird notion, but I'm also not of that generation so.....I don't take many photos of myself to begin with. I do take photos of my cats, however.
I did not expect the reaction here. Thought the strongest of it might be that she probably wasn't a good CC anyway. A relatively young woman with three young kids just had to prepare them for an unthinkable outcome.
I was born in England, but can't say I understand the royal fascination. Dumb or not, many of them take their roles leading charities and being an example of something quite seriously. Can't say I'd want to trade places, even with all the money attached.
Regardless, when I think of a 42-year-old battling cancer, that scares me. All the other stuff seems rather trivial.
March 22nd, 2024 at 10:01 PM ^
All these decent people want is their privacy now, let them have it.
If you don't care, why post?
if you are fortunate enough to have access to the best cancer care, four of the top 5 centers in the world are in the US, led by MD Anderson and Sloan, Kettering, Mayo and Faber.
March 22nd, 2024 at 10:16 PM ^
Faber College. "Knowledge is Good."
March 22nd, 2024 at 10:15 PM ^
I feel for her. She's in an untenable position -- a global public figure, hounded by the media anyway, which can't be easy, then she gets cancer and has to somehow manage the hounds while also dealing with three young kids, which she wants to do in private. Not to mention the shock of learning you have cancer at age 42. I hope she has a complete recovery.
March 22nd, 2024 at 10:17 PM ^
Royal or not--which pfft--a 42 year old with three kids having cancer sucks.
March 22nd, 2024 at 10:25 PM ^
I'm not a fan of the royals (or the imperialist English), but Kate merely married into that dysfunctional cabal of despicable mediocrities. She is young and strong and I hope she is able to beat the big C.
March 22nd, 2024 at 11:22 PM ^
Name a country and you will find indigenous empires who massacred huge amounts of people and destroyed countless cultures along the way.
Elizabeth I was far from mediocre. Same for Edward I and III. Henry V wasn’t either, but he was a genocidaire.
Democracies don’t solve the issue of mediocrities achieving power.
March 22nd, 2024 at 11:31 PM ^
That video message was incredibly sad.
Hoping for the best.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:15 AM ^
I'm not a royal watcher, but fuck cancer is always a message I can get behind.
Please expound on your virtual commitment if you want..
unless you are uneducated about the first slaves brought to the colonies…
but I’m guessing you are
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:38 AM ^
I don’t know who that is but I hope she gets better.