Digested week: media frenzy over king’s cancer does no one any favours | John Crace

We talk of the dignity of the crown but this is anything but. We need a grown-up relationship with the royal family

Midway through the afternoon, all news organisations were informed by Buckingham Palace that a major royal story would be dropping at 6pm. The advance warning was to give everyone time to prepare. On the dot of six came the news that the king had cancer. It had been detected during his prostate treatment but was unrelated. The king was in good spirits and would start treatment very shortly. In the meantime he would cancel his public appearances but would attend to matters of state. That, you would have thought, just about covered it. Everything that needed to be said had been said. We could give the king some space to recover at home with his family.