想进外刊学习群的同学，请加我微信HLSHW666，群内分享完整版文章，和所有我讲过的外刊原文

Even Photoshop Can’t Erase Royals’ Latest P.R. Blemish

A Mother’s Day photo was meant to douse speculation about the Princess of Wales’ health. It did the opposite — and threatened to undermine trust in the royal family.

Mar 11, 2024, The New York Times

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a digitally altered picture of an absent British princess is apparently worth a million.

That seemed to be the lesson after another day of internet-breaking rumors and conspiracy theories swirling around Catherine, Princess of Wales, who apologized on Monday for having doctored a photograph of herself with her three children that circulated on news sites and social media on Sunday.

It was the first official photo of Catherine since before she underwent abdominal surgery two months ago — a cheerful Mother’s Day snapshot, taken by her husband, Prince William, at home. But if it was meant to douse weeks of speculation about Catherine’s well-being, it had precisely the opposite effect.

Now the British royal family faces a storm of questions about how it communicates with the press and public, whether Catherine manipulated other family photos she released in previous years, and whether she felt driven to retouch this photo to disguise the impact of her illness.

It adds up to a fresh tempest for a royal family that has lurched from one self-created crisis to another. Unlike previous episodes, this involves one of the family’s most popular members, a commoner-turned-future queen. It also reflects a social media celebrity culture driven in part by the family itself, one that is worlds away from the intrusive paparazzi pictures that used to cause royals, including a younger Kate Middleton, chagrin.

外刊精读133期：英国凯特王妃失踪了？？一次P图引爆全网猜疑

英语何太急

外刊精读133期：英国凯特王妃失踪了？？一次P图引爆全网猜疑