Claims extracted
18
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
22%
4 of 18 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
65/100
Evening Standard's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
142
Entertainment
Same framing elsewhere
6
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Charles Spencer has made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir chronicling his sister Diana that prompted an “unprecedented” response from Buckingham Palace who said “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.
uncertain
pain → make → reason
But in an extract of an interview with the BBC, Earl Spencer questioned whether the official response showed if the King was furious or embarrassed by the claim.
uncertain
King → question → claim
Speaking about an alleged row over Diana’s funeral arrangements involving her sons, the earl said: “(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened.
asserted
I → speak → idea
“And then he stopped, and I thought, ‘Oh now he’s going to pull himself together and say something more appropriate’.
“
asserted
he → stop → something
And then he said, ‘We’ll forget her soon enough’.”
asserted
We → say → her
Diana’s brother replied: “I really was so stunned, and I just, after a stunned silence, I said, ‘I cannot believe you just said that’, and I hung up on him.”
asserted
I → reply → him
Charles is said to have made the comments about his ex-wife in a row with the earl over whether the then Prince William and Prince Harry should follow Diana’s funeral cortege.
asserted
William → say → cortege
The earl says in his book – Swan Song: Diana, My Sister – he insisted to the then Prince of Wales that his sister would not have wanted her boys to make the difficult public walk behind her coffin, it is claimed.
asserted
it → say → coffin
The memoir is being serialised in the Daily Mail which says the book has been written to correct “untruths” told about his older sister, who died in a Paris car crash in August 1997.
asserted
who → serialise → August
During the telephone conversation, Charles told the earl he had walked in the funeral procession of his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, it is claimed.
asserted
it → tell → uncle
But the King “went nuts” when the earl pointed out that Charles had been 30 at the time of Lord Mountbatten’s funeral in 1979, it is alleged.
asserted
it → go → 1979
In response to the claims made in the memoir a Buckingham Palace spokesman said on Wednesday: “While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
uncertain
others → make → loss
Asked about Buckingham Palace’s response to his claims, Earl Spencer told the BBC: “Is he (the King) furious, or is he embarrassed?
uncertain
he → ask → BBC
Because I can tell you, here and now, those are exactly the words he said.
asserted
he → tell → you
“I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life.
asserted
I → have → life
“I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words he said, and I promise that to you now, genuinely, that is what he said.”
asserted
he → say → what
Asked whether he has “evidence” of the King’s comments, the earl told the BBC: “I told friends and family straight away, close friends and family, about what had been said, because it was so monstrous.”
asserted
it → ask → friends
He added: “I’m telling the truth.”
asserted
I → add → truth
The Aporia
