Madeleine McCann: A Tabloid Play For Today
SPECULATION blurred with fact on the front pages. A conversation on Madeleine McCann.
Express: “MADELEINE BLOOD CLUE”
Mirror: “IS IT HER BLOOD?”
A crowd forms.
Express: “Girl injured as she was snatched from flat”
Sun: “BLOOD IN MADDIE FLAT”
(Gasps!)
Express: “Kidnapper tried to wipe away the vital evidence”
An old crone approaches.
Mail: “BLOOD ON THE WALL IN MADDY BEDROOM”
Express: “Traces of Madeleine McCann’s blood have been found in the holiday apartment where she was last seen”
Good on the Express for slicing through so much speculation with fact, albeit fact that is uncorroborated by anything approaching proof.
The Mirror, which has now dispensed with the yellow ribbon attached to its masthead, says the traces of blood are being analysed. It is not yet known if they are from Madeleine McCann.
Britain v Portugal
And then there is the British angle. Blood is found after three months of looking for Madeleine McCann. It is found not by Portuguese police but by the British.
“British police have found traces of blood,” begins the Mail’s take on developments in Portugal. “The traces – found by British sniffer dogs – could be of the missing four-year-old or her kidnapper,” says the Sun. The Sun’s headline reads: “BRIT SNIFFER DOG FIND.”
There’s an element of patriotism in the Madeleine McCann story and with it a slight on the Portuguese police who failed to spot the blood. “10 ASTONISHING POLICE BLUNDERS,” says the Mirror.
If this blood responds with a person on the UK’s sex offenders’ register, the Sun will go into a nationalistic spasm. It will call for the register to be in place in all European countries, and for paedo-paranoia to be spread.
The British will have forged the way ahead on matters of child abduction.
Whose Blood Is It Anyway?
But we must not speculate. That is the job of the papers. Here’s the Sun to tell us of three “theories”. Portuguese police officers tuning in would do well to make notes:
1. The blood could be “Maddie’s, indicating she was injured before or during her abduction”
2. It could be the “kidnapper’s, especially if the child put up a struggle”
3. “Or it could belong to others who have stayed in the apartment – there were hundreds before the McCanns and several tourists have slept there since”
Point ‘3’ seems of interest. Might it be that the Portuguese police did not overlook this glaring evidence picked up by British dogs because the blood is not all that old, that it was not there at the time of Madeleine McCann’s vanishing?
And we would like to add to the Sun’s list and wonder if the blood belongs to any other member of the McCann family, a police officer or a mosquito smashed against the wall?
The yellow curtain falls…
Posted: 7th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (66) | TrackBack | Permalink
