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Royal baby watchers waiting outside St. Mary's Hospital in London yesterday likely thought the town crier announcing the birth of Prince William and Kate's son had an official seal of approval.

The truth is, he came "unannounced."

"I'm a royalist. I love the royal family," Tony Appleton said by telephone from Romford, where he acknowledged he had no official royal role.

Bell in one hand, scroll in the other, Appleton marked Monday's royal birth by belting out an old-timey proclamation, which began "Oyez, Oyez" and announced the arrival of "the firstborn of their royal highness, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge."

Appleton is, in fact, a crier, but in Romford, a commuter town just east of London, and in Bury St. Edmunds, a market town in southeastern England -- not Buckingham Palace.

In an interview, he said Wednesday that he simply showed up in costume after getting a tipoff from a British journalist that the Duchess of Cambridge, better known as Prince William's wife Kate, had given birth.

That didn't stop him from playing a bizarre cameo role on leading U.S. newscasts in the media frenzy surrounding the baby's birth, nor did it prevent confused American journalists from identifying him as a bona fide mouthpiece for Buckingham Palace. News anchors with Fox News, CNN and MSNBC all mistakenly reported Appleton was making the official announcement of the birth.

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Not surprising. News networks are so desperate to fill air time than fact checking and rudimentary journalistic standards take a back seat.

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That picture was hilarious to me, an emblem of how absolutely ridiculous this stupid obsession with the royal family had become. 

This just serves to reinforce my beliefs on the matter. :p 

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I love fries. Doesn't mean I'll dress up as a clown and start running around town whenever McDonalds opens a new hut.

He's a public performer - it's what he does. It's a bit of light-hearted fun.

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That picture was hilarious to me, an emblem of how absolutely ridiculous this stupid obsession with the royal family had become. 

This just serves to reinforce my beliefs on the matter. :p

 

Umm... Town Criers have little connection with royalty... They're a holdover from medieval days where it was their duty to pronounce important news to the townfolk.  These days, they're only really used during certain traditional holidays and such.

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He's a public performer - it's what he does. It's a bit of light-hearted fun.

I thought it was marvelous. We need more of this kind of stuff.

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He's been doing this for 50 years for all Royal occassions and many other "important" gatherings.

 

He lives in London and is well known for his "Town Crying" and is well liked by all Londoners.

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A nice slice of old-fashioned British tradition - good on the chap for heading over the hospital and getting his face on the TV. ;)

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That picture was hilarious to me, an emblem of how absolutely ridiculous this stupid obsession with the royal family had become. 

This just serves to reinforce my beliefs on the matter. :p

 

I've heard more people whining and complaining about the Royal Family recently than actual coverage of them; It's ridiculous. 

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i think you Americans are more interested in the royal family then all of the British former colonies... here in Canada most people don't even know/care about the name of the young ones who just had a baby... We know the names Elizabeth and Dianna and that's about where it stops...

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I thought it was marvelous. We need more of this kind of stuff.

Totally. It's a silly tradition but it nearly always brings a smile to people's faces and you can never get enough of that.

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They should've had him announce the baby's name for KTVU news in keeping with the Korean pilots' names... 

 

"The firstborn of their royal highness, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Hugh Jashoal".  :)

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