172: Princess Kate's cancer announcement video draws skepticism and bot defenders

Introduction: Minutes 0 to 6:00 I met our Celebitchy Zoom group in person! I talk about my friend’s tiny dog. Chandra had an encounter with a Great Dane. Royals: Minutes 6:00 to 24:00 Our last episode, #171, was two weeks ago. We had just seen the video of Princess Kate revealing that she had cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. We were hit with over a hundred comments from new accounts all saying variations of the same thing right after that video was released. Christopher Bouzy has called out the bots on Twitter. The NY Times published an article in early 2020 about the then-Cambridges buying Instagram bot followers. In podcast #170 we talked about the Mother’s Day frankenphoto. Major photo and news agencies issued a kill order for that photo. In light of that, and the very bizarre and obviously not Kate market video released by the Sun and TMZ, some people have questioned the video of Kate announcing her cancer. We wonder what’s happening and Chandra has no theories. The video was filmed by BBC studios and we haven’t heard many details about it. There were thinkpieces in the Washington Post and the NYT about the conspiracies. Getty images put editor’s notes on the photo and video and refused to comment further about it. Last week one of the biggest royal stories was about how the Middletons are so broke they didn’t even pay the insolvency firm that restructured their business, Party Pieces, when they sold it and went into bankruptcy. It’s clear that the press has been given the go-ahead to go after the Middletons. There were multiple stories about this. Uncle Gary’s appearance on Celebrity Big Brother underlined that the Middletons are broke. The British press always invents some new thing the Sussexes have to go to. There’s a ceremony for Invictus’s anniversary in May in London. England also wants to host Invictus in 2027, but hopefully Harry will not fall for that. Charles is also said to have invited the Sussexes to Balmoral this summer. Other major stories are about how the monarchy is now way too slimmed-down and how Beatrice and Eugenie need to be working royals to pick up the slack. We’re also hearing BS about how Meghan supposedly got between Kate and Harry because they were so close before Meghan came around, which sounds like royal fan fiction. Harry wrote in Spare that he barely saw William and Kate. Harry has a wife whom he adores and this storyline is offensive. I like what Chandra wrote about the press in her piece about Peter Philips being unlucky in love. The palace comms departments are quiet and the royal rota has been left to make up storylines. We also heard that William was seen at a pub in Norfolk with Carole Middleton! Comments of the Week: Minutes 24:00 to end Chandra’s COTW is from Brassy Rebel on the post about Beatrice and Eugenie covering Hello. My COTW is from Samuel Whiskers on the post about loofahs harboring bacteria. Thanks for listening bitches!