A Royal Mess: The Firing of Michael Shea
Published on November 23rd, 2020 at 6:20 p.m.
by Tess Hensley.
The field of public relations is filled with pressure, but few clients would be more demanding than the English Crown. Former Press Secretary Michael Shea’s demise is shown in episode eight of “The Crown” in the newly released (and highly anticipated) fourth season. For communicators, his short appearance in the show is probably familiar and a bit painful.
Some backstory: Serving as the queen’s press secretary between the years of 1978 to 1987, Shea helped the palace through scandals for years and did an excellent job by today’s standards.
In 1986, a bombshell article in The Sunday Times reported that Queen Elizabeth II was frustrated with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to impose severe sanctions on South Africa’s government over apartheid during a meeting of Commonwealth leaders. Published on July 20, the story’s headline was “Queen Dismayed by ‘Uncaring’ Thatcher.”
The report contained evidence of an ideological rift between the two leaders. “The aides also said the queen feared long-term damage was done to Britain’s social fabric during the year-long miner’s strike in 1983 and 1984, and the monarch felt the government lacked compassion toward the less-privileged,” AP summarized at the time.
Essentially, the queen seemed to break her neutrality doctrine and comment on politics. Shea was identified as the palace mole who leaked the queen’s private opinions to journalists, though he denied doing so his whole life.
However, in “The Crown,” we see that Shea took the fall for the disaster despite objecting to the queen when she was debating on being open about her position. He does his best to fix the aftermath, telling journalists that the queen’s displeasure with Thatcher is just a rumor. In the end, he’s sacrificed and forced to resign to save the queen’s image.
As someone studying public relations, I asked myself, did he ever have a chance? Representing the queen requires the utmost loyalty, and in situations as serious as taking a stand against apartheid, Shea could’ve tried to think of other strategies to give the queen her desired results. Instead, he just denied her idea. He knew the tensions between the Prime Minister and Queen Elizabeth II were almost at the boiling point, and the queen wasn’t backing down.
If any lesson can be learned from Shea’s misfortune, it’s to always think of options for what your client wants to do, because they will often do it anyway without your knowledge and leave you to fix the mess. Viewers can’t help but feel pity for Shea; he saw the damage that was coming, and despite his best efforts to counsel against it, he took the fall for it anyway.
At least Shea had an excellent career writing political thrillers.
