The Sun is not a newspaper. Toilet paper has more value

Repeat after me:  The Sun is not a newspaper.  It is a rag.  Coverage of real news is an anathema to editor Stig Abel and his not-so-merry band of pseudo-journalists.  The daily rag is owned by Rupert Murdoch.  This alone should tell you that there is no interest in reporting real news. 

On Thursday's the Sun's cover story was about film footage of the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII), the Duchess of York and her two daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.   The footage shows the Duchess of York and Princess Elizabeth, then about 7 years old allegedly making the Nazi salute. 

It is believed that the Duke of York (George VI) was behind the camera, and the filming took place at Birkhall in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power.

It can only be assumed that the Duchess and her daughter were mimicking the Nazi salute, and they certainly were not alone in doing so during the 1930s and 1940s.  (Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator comes to mind.)  What was the purpose by publishing these photos and film?  Did Murdoch and his crème-de-la-scum editorial team really think that this image would bring down the monarchy?

Really, Mr. Abell?  Did you think the United Kingdom would rally around you and call for the end of the monarchy?   Please, what was the purpose for this release?  

Stig Abell is not a journalist.  He does not have a clue about ethics in journalism.  He knows nothing about who, what, where, how or why: the important ingredients for a news story.    I sincerely doubt that the none of the Sun's writers could ever handle a real breaking news story or understand true investigative journalism.

There is no question of the Royal Family's loyalty to the United Kingdom, and their hatred of Adolf Hitler and Fascism.  Hitler once described Queen Elizabeth as the most "dangerous woman in Europe."

The late Queen Mother's views were largely influenced by her close friend, D'Arcy Osborne (12th Duke of Leeds), who was based at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1930s.   Osborne was "appalled" by Nazism.  He wrote to the then Duchess of York in early 1934, describing Nazism as a "nauseating and ridiculous affair [with] its spurious Aryanism and its German theology."

The Queen Mother's official biographer, William Shawcross. noted that Osborne shared "the Duchess's misgivings about Germany."  In 1940,  Queen Elizabeth wrote to the American First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt: "When we think of our gallant young men being sacrificed to the terrible machine that Germany has created."

Nor did the Queen Mother care for Sir Oswald Mosley, Bt, a distant cousin, who founded the British Union of Fascists.   She wrote to D'Arcy Osborne in January 1938:  "We don't want Mosleys, perhaps something will turn up."

I hope the Palace orders an investigation into how this film was acquired by the Sun, especially, if the original film was kept in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/11748985/Hunt-for-source-of-leaked-royal-Nazi-salute-film-footage.html

There is nothing newsworthy about this story.  I would not be surprised if there were other occasions when members of the Royal Family made fun of Hitler and his goose-stepping cronies in the mid-1930s before his real intentions were made known. 

Mr. Abell needs to be held accountable for his unethical journalistic practices.  He should take a leave of absence and apply to the Columbia Journalism School (Columbia University) where he will "learn how to think critically and be both ethical and street smart."   Critical thinking and ethics:  not required to be the managing editor of Sun.  Shame on Stig Abell for once again taking the low road.