Early this week, a news story about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex hit the internet—just as the couple had wrapped up a successful tour to Nigeria.
Or should we make that…a “news that shouldn’t be news” story?
Page Six, followed by other outlets, reported that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were “ordered to halt soliciting or spending for their Archewell Foundation” after their foundation, Archewell, was declared “delinquent.” That label was slapped on the Foundation by the California Registry of Charities and Fundraisers after certain tax filings (which included an annual report and a registration fee) were not received in a timely fashion.
A source close to Archewell refuted any suggestion that Archewell was operating outside of acceptable standards, stating that the California state filing, renewal, and payment were sent via tracked mail to the Attorney General's Office and were received on schedule…but the physical check that was sent was never received. Archewell only became aware of this when the delinquency notice was issued.
If that sounds like a snooze-fest of a breaking news story to you, I’d say you’re right! But from the way that Sussex detractors (both in the media and online) were carrying on with the story, you’d have thought they used Archewell to fund a campaign to light forest fires and got shut down by the US Attorney General’s office.
Meredith and I instantly knew we needed to put our heads together once again here to discuss not just the way that this non-story became a story but also some very sleek and sexy topics like logical fallacies and media literacy. Enjoy!
Mashups with Meredith are exclusive for our Substack subscribers and don’t appear anywhere else! To support our work, consider signing up as a subscriber.
A note on timing: as of 3 pm ET on Tuesday afternoon (when we recorded!), Archewell sources indicated that a new check was already in the mail. By the time we were editing this footage (just a few hours later), the “delinquency” issue was resolved, and the Foundation was back “in good standing,” according to a spokesperson for California’s Department of Justice. Even CA Governor Gavin Newsom weighed in during a speech on the mental health system:
“There’s been an unbelieveable amount of attention…placed on the Archewell foundation… [They] do extraordinary work particularly women and girls’…but notably around mental health. I just want folks to know, not only are they in compliance, it was a technical paperwork issue that was wildly over-hyped. With respect, I hope people who ran those headlines run this headline—that it was a very typical, technical issue around paperwork that persists for so many others as well. They are in full compliance, and they are a celebrated organization that does great work in the state of California… There was a bit of piling on that was deeply unfair to that charity.”
Be sure to give Meredith a follow; she’s our community’s resident expert in media literacy and the British royal reporting sphere:
Share this post