Madeleine McCann: Gerry On The Telly And It Could Be U
“MADELEINE: It’s not too late says mum.”
The front page of the Express contains a “Dramatic Plea”.
But it’s not dramatic so much as it is desperate. “It’s not too late, please give her back,” says Kate McCann.
As ever the Express tells readers that Mrs McCann is a GP. Gerry McCann, we learn is a “consultant cardiologist”.
Says she: “Every day is hard. Every day is very difficult… The important thing is getting Madeleine back and we hope that what we are doing increases the chance of that.”
What’s The Story?
Indeed, that is the important thing. It is the only thing. But the press want more.
Says Gerry McCann: “We have a mix of very positive days, when we have done big things and achieved things or big events with the campaign, but we are aware these things are secondary.”
He’s right. Of course he is. But the press have been pointing fingers at the police, gawping at “creepy” men, listening to anyone with a paedophile story, looking for bodies and signs. They have not been on the trail of Madeleine. They follow the McCanns around, first Spain, then Germany, then the UK, the Vatican and Morocco. They are watching the parents. The parents are the story. And we are invited to look on like voyeurs.
We can wear braclets. Find Madeleine is this year’s Make Poverty History campaign.
Infotainment
The Sun says Gerry McCann is to appear at the Edinburgh TV Festival. No, not because he’s given us hours of great telly. Although he is taking the slot once occupied by Simon Cowell and Michael Barrymore. Gerry will be “quizzed” by Newsnight presenter Kirsty Walk on the media campaign to find Madeleine McCann.
Peter Barron, organiser of the event, rated the Find Madeleine campaign a “new and moving phenomenon”. What was that about good telly?
But it’s scaring the children. The Star says an appeal to find Madeleine is being screened before cinema showings of U-rated Shrek The Third.
Children with faces full of popcorn and crisps hear that Madeleine was “snatched” from her bed. “Madeleine’s parents are devastated, but they haven’t given up hope.”
A mum says it’s “unfair” to show this to children. “It makes them fear that they too could be abducted.”
It spreads the fear. It creates anxiety. And it shows no sign whatsoever of finding Madeleine nor the person or persons who might have taken her…
Posted: 4th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (669) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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July 6th, 2007 at 10:47 am
In a way, yes it is the money - but not in the way you mean. I am angry at the amount of money these people have been able to beg off the public which is, in my eyes, not being used for any valid or useful purpose, other than to extend their session in the limelight. I haven’t noticed, for instance, any of the supposed £800,000 (and growing) being offered as a reward for information. Let’s face it people would rat on their own mothers for that sort of cash.
No, this money is spent on pointless adverts, silly bracelets, yellow ribbons and her mothers highlights.
Thse people have gone beyond sympathy now - Madelaine deserves our sympathy, both for her plight at present and the media circus her calculating parents will throw her into if, God willing, she is ever found alive.
But hey, I’m sure there is still some mileage in a dead child - should be good for Trisha or Jeremy Kyle.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Marian, by calculator?:)
she is soo good at pressing buttons, sadly all the wrong ones…
July 6th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Frances Wickes / Anorak/ whatever
Its clear you don’t get out much. Look up “tapas bar” if you can. A tapas bar is by no means a restaurant. Least of all the one the McCann’s used. By no stretch of the imagination could it be described as a restaurant. Its a Bar.
Have you ever been beyond your keyboard?
How do you manage the sums to get on here?
July 6th, 2007 at 9:02 am
Spot on Molly. This has just turned into a publicity junket for her parents.
I hadn’t read the blog, but if even half of what you have said is true then my already low opinion of these people has taken a nosedive. Lots of unsubstanciated stories just to keep themselves, rather than Madelaine, in the headlines. I see the “stolen” photos were returned - just in time to plug the publicity gap they were suffering.
What next? Celebrity Big Brother? A concert for Madelaine?
Come on Mr & Mrs McCann, you haven’t even scratched the media surface yet - suggest you get on to Max Clifford, he has no qualms about who he represents.
July 6th, 2007 at 8:04 am
What is it that upsets me so much about the McCanns? That’s actually a very good question Frances.
It is, as you have noted, quite a lot of things - but having thought about your question carefully before answering I can trace them all back to one particular thing, from which all the others stem…
And that one thing is their selfishnesh… The amount of time that they spent on their holiday without their children (both days and evenings) indicates that they are the kind of parents who believe that having children should not impede their lifestyle at all. They holidayed like people without children.
As a GP Kate McCann would have been obliged to take action against any patient of hers who left her children unattended in this way - she KNEW it was not acceptable, yet somehow this couple felt that the rules didn’t apply to them and did it anyway - there is something fundamentally offensive about that.
Yet these parents are being held up as some kind of shining example to us all, and instead of denying that and using the fantastic media opportunities that they have had to hammer home the message that no-one should ever leave babies like this, they have still not admitted that their behaviour was wrong. Yes, they have said that they feel guilt -but then clarified that by saying that the guilt level was just the same as if Madeleine had disappeared while they were in the next room. Even at a time when any parent would have been beside themselves with panic and distress for their child, the McCanns were thinking of themselves and their image.
Against advice they implemented a publicity campaign like no other we have ever seen and in doing so shifted the responsibility for looking for their daughter onto anyone and everyone else. When Holly and Jessica went missing their parents were out with the searchers day and night, until the police insisted that they go home to rest - The McCanns chose to ctiticise the police and spend a lot of time in churches and courting the media… for the public this sad story should be all about Madeleine, but instead it has become all about Kate and Gerry, and they seem to have engineered it that way.
Gerry’s blog (until Justine took over anyway) was an exercise in self obsessiveness - many, many days he didn’t mention Madeleine at all… he told us of their daily routine (leaving the twins in the creche), of his media interviews, what he wore to meet the Pope, what they ate for lunch, his business meetings, collecting and dropping off people at the airport, how he saved someones life on a plane (has that ever been verified?), how he had his wallet stolen, and on and on and on. He tells us of his and Kate’s intention to work with child welfare organisations (just how ironic is THAT from a couple who regularly broke one of the most fundamental rules of childcare and still don’t admit that doing so was wrong?). Where was the concern for Madeleine, the descriptions of her personality, those little stories of funny things that she did, Gerry and Kate’s anguish at losing her - all the things that as a parent looking for a lost child would surely be at the forefront of ones mind? Don’t get me wrong - it’s not about prurience, but no-one forced him to write a blog - he chose to do so and then filled it with curious items that usually had little or nothing to do with the ostensible reason for writing it… it smacks of image building and again it offends me.
The lying about forced windows and doors, about checking times, the insistence that Madeleine must have been snatched from the apartment (even though the PJ are still calling this a disappearance) - yes they could all have one (and only one) explanation that does not implicate Gerry and Kate in a criminal sense. That explanation is quite simply that they wish to portray themselves in a better light - and quite frankly I find that beyond comprehension when their daughter’s life is at stake.
Of course none of this means that I don’t wholeheartedly hope and pray that Madeleine will turn up alive and unharmed - that is what all of us hope for surely? But it does mean that I refuse to fete the parents or endorse their self seeking behaviours. They are NOT an example of good parenting in any respect and I will argue that point until such time as someone demonstrates tangible evidence to the contrary (unlike the McCanns I am perfectly willing to admit when I am wrong).
July 6th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Frances Wicks / anorak?? whichever pseudonym you use at present:
Do you really think there WON’T be a movie? The Pro-McCann front think that we should all mind our own business and stop asking questions. When the McCann’s started their extortion of public monies, it became public busines.
They should be arrested for child neglect at least, that would be a start.
Who knows what that poor child may be suffering because of their heartless, cruel abandonment of their children while they went on the piss?
July 6th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Wasn’t Sarah Payne found in a field, and weren’t Holly and Jessica found in a ditch,and several other victims found dumped in either woodland or the countryside.
I didn’t say she was walking the streets, you introduced that idea,Denise
No, I don’t think we live in a perfect world, or was that to someone else?
I didn’t bring up the subject, so it must be to someone else?
July 6th, 2007 at 12:18 am
I think any parent knows exactly what they’d do if their child vanished - most parents have a few moments when they think they’ve lost a child - it’s pretty much part and parcel of parenthood. I remember the feeling vividly - it’s the most horrendous feeling on earth. You’re gripped with a feeling of cold, rising horror - you start pouring with sweat, your heart starts racing and you feel totally desperate to find your child. The two or three time it happened to me - once when a toddler group was winding up and my child wasn’t exactly where I thought he was, another time when he was hiding in a cupboard and I thought he’d gone out the front door and disappeared, and another time on a beach in France when I lost sight of him. The feeling was the same each time and I know exactly what I’d have done if it had gone on any longer, screamed louder, rushed around more, and then quickly called the police. It was what was already on my mind to do as it was happening - that’s how I know what I would have done.
As for the sideline bit, I meant Murat and his friends as well as being involved in real estate and web design could also be secretly involved in something very sinister. Sideline was probably the wrong word but that’s what I meant.
If having thought Madeleine had been snatched the first thing the parents did was to leave the toddlers alone and rush out again, I’m sorry but I just can’t get my head around this. Wouldn’t you have an overriding instinct to prevent the same thing happening to your other two children? With all the people around couldn’t you just get somebody to watch them for a short while in case the child snatcher had designs on them too?
And I’m sorry but I STILL don’t understand why neither of them have said, on their website or anywhere: ‘we were wrong, we should never have left them on their own like that, we were totally misguided’. I think people would look on them far more kindly if they admitted it was a crazy, totally ill-advised thing to do. And now it seems they refused walkie talkies??? I can just about understand leaving the doors open for fear of fire and I can just about understand refusing a baby-sitter who would sit in the room (frankly I would have been a bit iffy about leaving my son in that situation when he was small) but then to refuse walkie talkies? What could be wrong with walkie-talkies? At least having made the (very rash) decision to leave them on their own, walkie-talkies would have given the McCanns some contact with the room so they could have heard if one of the children had woken up, or if an intruder had got in - and then none of this would have happened.
I mean, can anybody come up with a credible theory as to why they would have turned down a walkie talkie???
I remember being invited next door by the neighbours when my child was little. They said: bring your baby alarm, he’ll be fine. I declined because I would have felt weird knowing he was alone in the house even though there was only a wall dividing us and I could have heard him with the baby alarm. But those parents went out, 50 metres away, with no baby alarm when one was offered??? This is totally bizarre if it’s true.
I think it’s a bit strange to absolve the McCanns of responsibility when we all know full well that if they’d been working class, or a single parent, the whole world would have been blaming them vociferously right from the start, caling them ‘feckless’ - you name it.
In spite of all the weird anomalies, however, I still don’t think they overdosed them accidentally with sedatives - I do think she was taken due to rashness on the part of the parents. Obviously condemnation is the last thing they need at this present time, and one’s only wish is for Madeleine to be delivered back to them safe, sound and unhurt. But does this mean it’s wrong to speculate on the weird anomalies? I’ve been following this closely since it happened, rushing to the news every day desperately hoping she’d been found, chilled to the bone on the day of the report of her being buried near Praia de Liz, unable to allow a negative thought about the McCanns because it just seemed wrong. But it’s nearly 2 months on now and I now think it’s reasonable to chew over the evidence and wonder about certain things.
I don’t actually think they did it but nor do I think it’s morally wrong to speculate about the anomalies. And for heavens sake why can’t we exchange opinions and express feelings here without being subjected to a barrage of insults?
July 5th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
I would think Madeleine would be well hidden whoever has got her, and not walking the streets, so whoever says the parents are not doing enough and should be out looking need their heads read!!
they have two other children to look after, and thats why they would still have to survive themselves day after day, they couldn’t think about suicide or loosing it and have to remain positive, for the sake of their other two children, what if it took years to find her, the twins don’t deserve to have no life so they need to carry on .
Have you not read how behind the scenes the mccanns are so destraught, and hold it together for the media,
I think Kate has looked a wreck since day 1.
my heart goes out to them, no one is perfect, unless someone puts their hand up and says they are then they should just shut up and stop grizzling about them.
Do you think we live in a perfect world!!! NO WAY
July 5th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Like the jury, I am still out on both the McCanns and their possible involvement in their daughter’s disappearance,and Murat’s possible abduction of her.
This could be a very interesting topic to discuss, but sadly the abusive nature of some of the posters is very off putting.
I do not know the McCanns, but some on here seem to appear to give the impression that they do.
But I do know if I had chosen to leave my children alone, and something like this disappearance happened,I should be mortified with guilt and possibly suicidal, but I should also be out there looking for them at every waken moment
July 5th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
if physics are so good then why don’t they find her??
I think more is being done behind the scenes but the media are not told or told other things to keep the sniffer dogs away,
If you were working on the case wouldn’t you want to not say too much or the person who has her would scarper with her,
July 5th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Well Murat seems to be in the frame again - apparently the police are still interested in him because they have some ‘third party’ evidence about him, whatever that means exactly. He lied about his conversations with Malinka, the McCanns lied about the shutters…
My hunch is that Murat or his girlfriend’s husband took Madeleine, either from the apartment or during a sleepwalking bout she was having. They could have links with paedophiles/traffickers - could be a sideline they have - and they quickly passed her on, from where she was taken to Morocco, Malta - she’s living on a boat with these totally sick people. The sightings in Morocco and Malta WERE her. The third party thing is a connection Murat has with the Italian guy who’s just been arrested. The Portuguese police are currently trying to work out what the connection is, as well as waiting for the fresh tests on Murat’s DNA. The conversations between Murat and Malinka were about Madeleine which is why they tried to cover them up.
The McCanns lied about the window because they were utterly mortified that everyone would know they’d left the children on their own with the patio doors open. They knew Madeleine couldn’t have wandered off because she was sedated (because of the sleepwalking), but they didn’t want people judging them for that. They took a risk and were now terrified they’d be blamed for neglect, as well as sedation, so they lied to cover all that up. Forced shutter = simple breaking/entering/snatch rather than walk in through open door, snatch sedated child. In other words they lied to cover up their feelings of guilt and responsibility (just too painful to blame themselves or have anyone else blame them), whereas Murat lied to cover up something far worse.
But having said all that, why did Kate cry out ‘ they’ve taken her’? Why not ’someone’s taken her’ - or ‘Madeleine isn’t there’?
If that had happened to me I know I’d have gone into a complete blind panic, thought he’d wandered off and immediately rushed out into the street and spent 5-10 minutes screaming his name, rushing around and asking people if they’d seen him. I’d then get someone to phone the police while I continued to rush around shrieking and screaming his name, hoping he’d hear my voice. Wouldn’t any panic-stricken parent do the same?
But if you’d sedated the child wouldn’t you kind of guess immediately that the child couldn’t have wandered off, but that someone had taken him? I really don’t know as I’ve never sedated a child, but if you’re absolutely certain nothing can ever disturb your child once they’re asleep, because of the sedation, then wouldn’t you immediately assume this?
But then why would you say ‘they’, as in ‘they’ve taken her’? Unless someone had already threatened to take your child? But if someone had threatened to take your child, you wouldn’t leave them in an unlocked room night after night and dine 50 metres away out of sight!!!
So it’s all still imponderable - but I still have a hunch Murat had something to do with it.
July 5th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
WOW, how did I end up as “Anonymous?
“Well said Emilumpher. I’m with you!
Keep the story alive and educate the children. TY”
This was me Jan (USA)
July 5th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Well said Emilumpher. I’m with you!
Keep the story alive and educate the children. TY
July 5th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Hoping Jenn might come back with more on the sedation/choking link without getting blasted out of the water.
July 5th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I think it is appalling the way people are reacting to the Madeleine advert and indeed the way in which her parents have attempted to keep the story in the media. I today went to see the film in a cinema which was still showing the advert and fail to understand the hysteria. Is it merely stemming from parents trying to ‘protect’ their children with niavity. My daughter is 3 and is perfectly aware who Madeleine is. I explained to her Madeleine is a beautiful little girl, she was on holiday with her mummy and daddy and somebody took her from them. My daughter doesn’t have nightmares about being ’snatched’ but will grow up aware that this isn’t the safe country we grew up in, she needs to have her wits about her whilst she is having fun. Criminals and potential criminals walk among us and I will not have my daughter in a vulnerable situation because I didn’t want her to know the reality of which she lives. We don’t have to be brutally honest with our children but there are ways of introducing reality as well as positivity. For those honest enough with their children the advert is a positive reaction, ‘look honey this is to help find Madeleine’. Life is full of light and dark to hide from the dark is to leave our children fully exposed to it.
July 5th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
The chimps seem to have quitened down so I’ll just pop my head above the parapet, look out for Sherry the sniper, and ask who do you see playing the McCann’s in the movie?
I think this is the platform to get Nicole and Tom together again.
Gerry’s PR machine is big enough and when the movie’s over and everyone’s “moved on” they’ll get more IVF done and say this is what “Maddie would have wanted”
They should be removed from world TV screens.
July 5th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
agreed ,especially as they have 2 daughters…..and she left the remaining two alone again.
About a year or so ago went into the Ladies at the local supermarket , and found a little girl in there in floods of tears, dashed out and got an assistant, who came with me at high speed, and she took over and took her to ‘reception area’, and started the clock, they have 30mins before they call the police. They put a call out for the mother to come forward, and she took 18 minutes to arrive. She was pretty impatient with the child, and said to all of us that she’d only been away from her for a minute or two. Well, given the child’s distress in to loo, that was one hell of a long minute, plus the 20 or so as it took a few moments to calm her to find out her mothers name. None of us were thanked either, sad really,poor kid
July 5th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
anon, thats OK I’m a guy, and dont let the name fool ya, but you get very diverse replys to a different kind of name,
I have said from the beginning that Mr M has not quite come across as a griving dad, and I’m no saint but hey if my kids went missing I would move heaven and earth.
back to that night, I would think that a first reaction to finding a child is missing from her bed would be to run out calling her name, did Mrs M do this, I think not, she just came back and said “they’ve taken her”.
it aint gelling right
July 5th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
queenb sorry to disappoint, am female!!
see ‘gerry’ is back in Glasgow, in the John Smeaton thread
not sure , but I get the feeling she’s somewhere in Portugal, just wondering if a passing car picked her up that night,and she’s been safe ever since? be nice wouldn’t it?
Don’t really know though, just hope she is found soon and whoever has perpetrated all this is dealt with.
My brother used to sleepwalk, it got so bad that our parents took it in turns to stay up. One night he wandered out into a field (Dad was up and followed to see) and he walked for 15 minutes until Dad stopped him and led him back. He didn’t wake and goodness knows what could have happened. He seemed to be ‘drawn’ by the full moon, and it stopped at puberty
July 5th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
STUPID typo I mean Psychics
July 5th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I thought as much, not your style, thought you were my prince! well what is your take on the physics working on this case, they seem to think she is still in the area too, I really hope from the bottom of my heart she is returned alive, notice I say returned coz I dont think she was ever missing, and I hope that who ever is responsible for this is well and truley punished.
Now where is that damn waiter?
July 5th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
queenb , the latest offering at 11.40 a.m was not me.
July 5th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Yes, come on folks … apparently poor Gerry and Kate have such a weak marriage that they needed to spend every morning, every afternoon AND every evening together without the children in order to strengthen it … and their friends attended dinner with them every night in a counselling capacity.
Having children is SUCH an inconvenience for some people it would seem … the darn things need so much looking after.
July 5th, 2007 at 11:40 am
QUEEN B……what kind of a queen are you? You should be able to do your own 69! Take some testosterone and keep your bleeting to yourself!
July 5th, 2007 at 11:26 am
ARH, but he came back again didnt he? if she was in the UK the cops would have found her by now, they are UK cops after all, and 68 what you bleeting about, you need a 69
July 5th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Robert Murat has supposedly taken her to the UK instead of his own child. See very early postings in Anorak from the pro McCann camp supporters
July 5th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Listen to the lot of you….. Do you honestly believe Kate & Gerry wouldn’t be envious of you in your position? Taking your precious little ones to see Shrek and having to endure an ad for a missing little girl???
Kids club whilst on holidays……$11 per hour
Having some “adult time” to keep the marriage strong…….$64 at the Tapas Bar
Hindsight after leaving your kids sound asleep (which we have all done!!!!) and some sick bastard (no, not the parents who left them) takes your child………Priceless, for everything else, there’s MasterCard
So please, if you genuinely believe you are without sin, cast the first stone, or please go back into your glass house and lock the bloody doors….(some sicko’s can pick locks too)
July 5th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Ok just heard on sky news that the PJ believe Maddy is still in Portugal, well hello, dont they read any of these messages, we have been saying that for 2 months now, hey anon, what you think to this, Robert Murat, watch out
July 5th, 2007 at 10:28 am
See what I mean?
Well personally Jane (assuming that I had had a frontal lobotomy and thought it was a good idea to leave 3 under 4’s alone) … I would have followed the advice of the Portuguese police and kept publicity to a minimum to avoid a possible abductor killing her in panic… then I would have re-mortgaged or sold my house to raise money for private investigators and let the police and my own PI’s do the job that they were being paid for, quietly and behind the scenes.
Too late now of course - what’s done is done and I seriously doubt that she is still alive… but of course if she is, and she has been taken to see Shrek 3 then we can all rest secure in the knowledge that the other children in the audience will recognise her from the advert, can’t we sweetie?