Why Did A Reporter Just Apologize To The Royal Family?

Cancel culture is not specific to the United States alone, as past comments have led a British journalist to apologize to the royal family for comments he made almost 10 years ago. Though the royals and the British press have a long, fraught history — which in part led to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's departure from the British family — this reporter is apologizing in an attempt at impartial professionalism.

Amol Rajan is the current Media Editor of the BBC, a position created when he took the role in 2016. He worked prior at the British newspaper The Independent from 2007, being appointed Editor in 2013 — becoming the first non-white editor of a major U.K. paper. The Calcutta, India-born editor presented a two-part documentary for the BBC on November 22 called "The Princes and the Press," which examined the relationship between the British press and the royal family. Though The Telegraph found it underwhelming, it led to controversy as the royals called into question Rajan's impartiality as a journalist — even before the doc aired. With old articles resurfacing, Rajan apologized for his previous comments as a columnist at the Independent.

Though the BBC insists that Rajan is impartial and "[left his] past views at the door" upon joining them (via The Telegraph), the republican-viewed Brit (which is a different meaning from American Republicans) was opinionated in his column for the Independent, and made many anti-royal statements against the family and the idea of a hereditary monarchy in general.

On December 2, Amol Rajan tweeted an apology to the royal family in general, atoning for "foolish commentary from a former life," in which he "wrote things that were rude and immature." "I look back on them now with real embarrassment, and ask myself what was I thinking, frankly." He also said, in a second tweet, "I'm completely committed to impartiality and hope our recent programmes can be judged on their merits."

As an anti-monarchy republican, it makes sense that none of the royal family seemed safe from Rajan's wrath in his Independent days. He criticized nearly everyone, per The Telegraph: In 2012 he called Prince Philip a "racist buffoon," described Prince Charles as "scientifically illiterate," and said he dislikes them both for "champion[ing] policies that would lead to the murder by starvation of millions of Africans."

While he had said, "I have absolutely nothing against Prince Harry, or Prince William or Catherine Middleton, or the Queen," he took shots at them too. When William and Kate were expecting their first son, Rajan wrote that they should send the child to a "normal school," and their public role was a "total fraud." Even the queen was not safe, as Rajan called her Diamond Jubilee a "celebration of mediocrity," and described the royals by saying "this clan is unusually full of fools." Ouch. No wonder the queen's former press secretary didn't believe Rajan would be totally impartial now.