Amidst a global media frenzy, Prince William and Kate Middleton welcomed a baby boy into the world on Monday. The lead up to the royal birth generated a carnival of nonstop media coverage for several weeks. Photographers from across the globe braved a record heatwave to camp outside St. Mary's Hospital awaiting news. International TV crews from around the world broadcasted frequent, frenzied speculations on everything from the baby's gender to how the expectant mother could expedite her labor.
The independent, global news hour Democracy Now! speaks with British journalist Laurie Penny, a critic of the royal baby hoopla whose latest article, "The Babies We Don't Care About Today," was published in the New Statesman. "We can estimate that at least 700 babies were born into poverty on the day that the 'Royal Baby' was born," Penny says. "And at the moment, the British government is taking measures to make life harder for those children, particularly the children of single parents and teenage, single mothers."
"I want to live in a country where all babies matter and where all families matter," she says.