"I would argue that television and particularly the BBC were instrumental in puffing up the Royal Family to a level where they were inflated out of all, all proportion to their relevance on the national scene"
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Morton’s jab lands because it dresses a cultural indictment as a reasonable “I would argue,” then slips in the verbal pin. “Puffing up” isn’t neutral media critique; it’s the language of PR, of a product being aerated for sale. By the time he reaches “inflated out of all, all proportion,” the repetition does the work of an eye-roll you can hear: not just overvalued, but grotesquely mis-sized for modern Britain.
The target isn’t only the Royal Family. It’s the feedback loop between institution and broadcaster, where television turns ceremonial monotony into national drama and the BBC’s quasi-official tone can confer legitimacy by sheer frequency and framing. “Instrumental” suggests the BBC isn’t a passive mirror but a tool - an amplifier that helps convert tradition into relevance, and relevance into deference. Morton’s phrasing implies complicity: public-service broadcasting, tasked with informing citizens, becomes a prestige pipeline that sells monarchy as civic glue.
Context matters because Morton is the biographer who made the palace’s private life legible as tabloid-grade narrative, most famously through Diana. He’s speaking from inside the ecosystem that monetizes royal intimacy while criticizing the machinery that makes that intimacy feel politically significant. The subtext is blunt: the monarchy’s power today is less constitutional than televisual. It’s sustained by airtime, not governance - a brand kept afloat by the nation’s most trusted narrator.
The target isn’t only the Royal Family. It’s the feedback loop between institution and broadcaster, where television turns ceremonial monotony into national drama and the BBC’s quasi-official tone can confer legitimacy by sheer frequency and framing. “Instrumental” suggests the BBC isn’t a passive mirror but a tool - an amplifier that helps convert tradition into relevance, and relevance into deference. Morton’s phrasing implies complicity: public-service broadcasting, tasked with informing citizens, becomes a prestige pipeline that sells monarchy as civic glue.
Context matters because Morton is the biographer who made the palace’s private life legible as tabloid-grade narrative, most famously through Diana. He’s speaking from inside the ecosystem that monetizes royal intimacy while criticizing the machinery that makes that intimacy feel politically significant. The subtext is blunt: the monarchy’s power today is less constitutional than televisual. It’s sustained by airtime, not governance - a brand kept afloat by the nation’s most trusted narrator.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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