No, this is not a battle of the late ‘80s ballads.
Although ermine might have been more heavily involved if one of the plaintiffs was still
within the family business.
I refer, of course, to the current phone hacking trial, where Prince Harry, (the Duke of
Sussex) has just finished giving evidence in the high court.
I had followed it casually until yesterday morning when a media law expert noted the
risk of the “Streisand Effect”.
Fearing that Harry might at any moment break out into a rendition of “Memories” or urge
the media not to “Rain On His Parade” I listened closely.
However, this is not the Streisand Effect he was discussing, instead, this is a curious
but perfectly relatable phenomenon where someone effectively does something because you told them not to.
It was coined when the legendary singer songwriter attempted to stop photographer Kenneth Adelman from photographing her sprawling mansion in LA.
The thing is, Adelman’s project was NOT a paparazzi-style expose, it was part of a
huge plan to photograph the west coast of the US from a helicopter to show the impact
erosion over time.
Streisand sued, citing privacy but only succeeded in drawing MASSIVE attention to the
photo of her home which otherwise would likely never have occurred.
This is the irony of Harry’s crusade against the press. His goal is privacy BUT he is
opening himself to more and more scrutiny.
I had a similar enquiry a few months back from a business that was asking if I could get
an article removed from the media.
“Was it incorrect?” I asked.
“No but it is causing potential issues around privacy and security.” they replied.
My advice was to leave well alone for fear of opening Pandora’s Box and drawing
MORE attention to the story.
If I contact the media to ask them to remove an article (they won’t anyway) they will be
even more intrigued.
As I always say, there is such a thing as bad publicity.
So remember Barbara next time you take on the press and you keep your relationship
with the press “Evergreen”.
PS “Purple Rain” is still in my top 5 songs!