Madeleine McCann: Britney Spears, Lolita And Birthday Cards
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MAIL: “Woolworths forced to withdraw LOLITA bedroom furniture range for girls”
The Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a wooden bed with pull-out desk and cupboard designed for girls aged around six, retails on the Woolworths website for £349.99
The name has “sexual connotations”. A “mother” sees it and writes: “Am I being particularly sensitive, or does anyone else out there think it’s bad taste for Woolies to have a kiddy bed range named ‘Lolita’?”
Well, you don’t have to buy it…
A spokesman for the company says: “What seems to have happened is the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either. We had to look it up on Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now”
Trusting Wikipedia for information has its own dangers. (And look out for an article on the state of British education.) But no danger is bigger than a bed named, perhaps, in honour of a charcter in a novel by Vladimir Nabokov
Or Lolita Fatjo, pre-production coordinator for Star Trek
Or many other women called Lolita
“On-line parent power has been growing in recent years. In 2006 Tesco stopped selling a pole-dancing kit on its website over accusations it was destroying children’s innocence. And last summer an on-line campaign by Mumsnet resulted in a cinema advert about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann stopped from being screened before the children’s film Shrek the Third”
THE TIMES: “Staff at Woolworths baffled by fuss over the little girl’s bed called Lolita”
“Woolworths has withdrawn bedroom furniture for young girls bearing the sexually charged name Lolita after a campaign waged by a mothers’ online chat room”
An internal company e-mail seen by The Times goes: “As discussed, we’ve got the product below on our website. Can it be hidden as soon as is possible? Then I really need to find out how it came about being on our site and who bought it. Lolita is a word that means sexually active young teenagers, so a young girls’ range of bedroom products is in very poor taste. We’ve had an approach from a website who are clearly a little disturbed by this”
THE SUN: “Gift from Maddie for twins”
No, not furniture
“Twins Sean and Amelie McCann will get a special present from their missing sister Maddie today on their third birthday. Parents Kate and Gerry got the gift for the pair who, at three, are the same age as Maddie when she vanished last May”
Sad. But is it relevant to the case? Is it news?
Grandmother Eileen McCann tells us: “Of course Madeleine being there would be our dream but we’ll do our best to make sure the twins have a lovely day”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Card from Madeleine at McCann twins party”
The twins are getting a gift in the Sun…
“Gerry and Kate McCann will throw a birthday party for their twins tomorrow - complete with a card from their missing four-year-old daughter, Madeleine”
DAILY STAR: “MISSING MADDIE’S SPECIAL PREZZIE”
“Little Sean and Amelie McCann will open a special present from their big sister as they celebrate their third birthday today”
With a card?
Says Eileen McCann: “There will be presents galore, lots of fun and games, lots of food and a big cake. Of course, Madeleine being home would make it complete and we continue to pray for that blessing”
SUR (Spain): “Marbella suffer their first loss of the year against Linares”
A football match: “Wearing T-shirts to raise awareness of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and Mari Luz Cortés, the children playing in the tournament accompanied the players onto the pitch as mascots at the beginning of the game”
RADAR: “Theater of Cruelty, Carnival of Souls”
“British rags hardly pretend to be providing straightforward news. What they are doing is what used to be the job of popular fiction; namely, processing myth out of characters sucked in from real life. Right now the cast list includes such durable regulars as Kate Moss—with or without Pete Doherty—Princes Harry and Wills, Posh and Becks, and Kate and Gerry McCann, whose daughter Madeleine’s kidnapping/disappearance in Portugal made them last year’s headliners”
ALISTAIR CAMPBELL (TIMES): Britney Spears: person or news commodity? She’s a great singer but obviously ill: we in the media have to decide to leave her alone”
Britney Spears and Madeleine McCann..?
“In some sections of the media, Madeleine McCann and her family are there. As I said in the Cudlipp Lecture on Tuesday, her disappearance was an interesting and important story, the stuff of every parent’s nightmare. But it quickly became a commodity in which most of the media got close to hysteria, and some have remained there. Let us not pretend the coverage was driven by concern for the child - there are many missing children - or compassion for the parents - certainly not once the mood shifted - or regard for the truth. It has been the worst example of recent times, on a par with Diana, of some newspapers thinking that the word “Madeleine” sells, and finding literally any old nonsense to keep her name in that selling position on the front”
THE GUARDIAN: “Mechanics of the McCann campaign - Professional media management may have generated coverage of Maddy’s disappearance, but it hasn’t helped with public sympathy for the family”
“Try as they might neither Clarence Mitchell nor Justine McGuinness could quite shake off the sense that the way they’ve managed this case might have contributed to some negative public sentiment towards the family. In place initially as what Mitchell described as “a buffer” between the shocked and distraught parents and the world’s media, hungry for news about Madeleine, it’s clear that what developed was a professional media management operation. With city PR firm Bell Pottinger on hand - primarily, we can assume, to defend the interests of their clients Mark Warner Holidays - as well as Justine and, latterly, Clarence with all their experience of Westminster spin, the McCanns could not have wanted for more professional advice. But as time went on media management itself - and once you’ve started feeding stories to the press to get control of the agenda, you really can’t stop - began generating negative reaction from other parties”
Madeleine McCann: Making news and sensation from grief
Posted: 1st, February 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,022) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
February 1st, 2008 at 10:55 am
lol dcb - should he post that tomorrow then or yesterday???
February 1st, 2008 at 10:55 am
I have contacted the Crown office and they tried to sell me some paint.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:55 am
they’re also scottish i think
February 1st, 2008 at 10:54 am
146
Rockhopper Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:52 am
Sledgie, your clock’s fast
++++++++++++++++++++
He’s on Mccann Camera Time
February 1st, 2008 at 10:54 am
just scroll on by peps !!
February 1st, 2008 at 10:54 am
Brandon Flours
HAPPY B. DAY
February 1st, 2008 at 10:53 am
the crown office does civil stuff, what do they know?
February 1st, 2008 at 10:53 am
138 logic - mmmmmm cake
February 1st, 2008 at 10:53 am
The story about the twins and monster games etc etc was categorically denied by ‘a spokesman for the McCanns’. Was it CM the other night? I think so but can’t really remember!
A friend of mine has IVF triplets now aged around 11. Nightmare!
The Walton sextuplets are the same age as one of mine…… they always used to register with me when mine was being a handful. ‘Never mind’, I’d say, ‘there could be 6 of her’.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:52 am
Of course it is. It’s the most blatant attempt at ‘an announcement so sledgie looks good on the board’ if ever I’ve seen one. RUBBISH
February 1st, 2008 at 10:52 am
140
REPORTER Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Crown office saying no evidence to justify any further action.
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Sledgie, your clock’s fast
February 1st, 2008 at 10:51 am
142
Rockhopper Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:50 am
128
firestar Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am
—————
yes, they’re very obstructive, but in a real emergency i’m sure they’d help out.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:50 am
140
REPORTER
Is that you Sledgehammer?
February 1st, 2008 at 10:50 am
130
Marie Nicholas Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:43 am
Clarrie won’t be very happy about the Guardian
Not half as much as Gerry won’t5 be happy with the comical one.
if we can gain anything from all this its a lesson in how to read through the news. The whole thing has turned against them and I think they have hugely misunderstood the public. They are making fools of themselves now and should just go away. Noone cares anymore. They’ve overdone it and blown it. Well more fool them and I think the comical one has taken it a step too far and has literally busted his future cos who the hell would want him now? If they don’t realise this by now then they really are going to come down to earth with a bump.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:50 am
128
firestar Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am
124
when you’ve had meetings with the top govt officials, offering you a low level meeting can also mean
‘yes of course we want to help, but please go fuck off because we aren’t going to any more.’
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Think you might be right with that one!
Also, the thing about contacting the consular came about because Stevo was (I think) suggesting that the Mccanns were privalidged in being able to contact the consular and get assistance ‘out of hours’. This was in support of some theory he was putting forward. I was merely pointing out how easy it would be for any of us to get consular assistance given similar circumstances.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:49 am
#
140
REPORTER Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Crown office saying no evidence to justify any further action.
++++++++++++++++
Do you have a link please?
February 1st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Crown office saying no evidence to justify any further action.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:47 am
129
actually they’re 18 now, but when they were little it was very entertaining.
this may sound weird, but they never really did much to be disciplined for.
i was as proud as anything that the nursery used to call them the ‘excuse me ‘ twins, as they taught themselves that excuse me were magic words that got them their own way a lot.
sometimes i’d send one of them upstairs or something, but not often.
i think a lot of it is they have each other to stop boredom, and to help either get them in \ keep them out of mischief.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:47 am
Brandon
Very happy birthday. Can we all have a slice of birthday cake?
February 1st, 2008 at 10:46 am
Is it someone’s birthday perchance?
February 1st, 2008 at 10:45 am
103
firestar Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:17 am
95
xklamation Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:08 am
67
lilith Says:
much more on Ray Wyre in the link bellow
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/01/ray-wyre-spinning-for-mccanns.html.
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Very disturbed to read about this Wyre guy especially in the context of the twins and the jolly ‘monster chasing’ games. Could be useful tho’ if anyone wished to ‘implant’ memories!!!!.
Why are so many people who speak up for the Mc.s of such an un-savoury bent?sis in
Ray Wyre on Sunday Telegraph
27th May 2007
February 1st, 2008 at 10:45 am
123 Nosey Cow
Very well expressed!
February 1st, 2008 at 10:44 am
HAPPY BIRTHDAY?
Thanks to Kate and Gerry, Madeleine won’t have any more birthdays. Some people might think she was lucky to have three. But methinks maybe she was unlucky to be born in the first place.
I feel sorry for the twins. When they blow out the candles, it is a reminder that their sister’s life was extinguished thanks to their cold, uncaring parents.
What is the twins’ chance of having a “happy” birthday, or indeed experiencing any happiness at all, with such monsters for parents? A snowball’s chance in hell.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:43 am
Happy birthday Brandon, have a large one on me,(drink that is),
so we all sit with bated breath waiting for sledge to give us some big news,brill cant wait,sat here with me pot “O”tea legs up, ok sledge ready when yopu are,come on give us it!
February 1st, 2008 at 10:43 am
i totally agree with you Nosey
February 1st, 2008 at 10:43 am
123
firestar Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:34 am
120
wasn’t me, but years ago a hippy i know ended up penniless in morocco and tried to get the money to go home from them.
as i remember, she ended up getting deported by the moroccans instead for possession of cannabis or whatever it was, and then the british consulate billed her for 50 quid to get her passport back when she got home.
————————————————————
A quick look at the website will show that repatriation due to lack of funds is not what they’re there for, they also say that your passport will be suspended until you pay the fees/costs accrued. Sorry, but a hippie who has run out of money for their return journey (just enough left to buy some pot) is not really in the same league as a case of possible child abduction.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:43 am
I am thinking again about the article form the Guardian. It litterally says that the spin doctors have failed in their job.
The little bit about “it’s clear that what developed was a professional media management operation” says a lot, especially with the “feeding stories to the press to get control of the agenda”.
And the spin doctors, “try as they might”, couldn’t “shake off the feeling” that they the results they achieved were contrary to their goals.
When you think of how much they were paid for that, nothing to boast about.
Clarrie won’t be very happy about the Guardian.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am
124
when you’ve had meetings with the top govt officials, offering you a low level meeting can also mean
‘yes of course we want to help, but please go fuck off because we aren’t going to any more.’
February 1st, 2008 at 10:39 am
111
Carmen Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:21 am
Lone Pigeon are you in phone contact with Brandon Flours?
nope but I just emailed her too. Hopeully she’ll be back soon. She does the school run in the morning I think?
February 1st, 2008 at 10:38 am
122
noseycow Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:34 am
“….The twins as well as madeleine are vitims in this situation IMO..”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Because of the unprecedented high publicity caused by their parents it is so sad that for the rest of their lives the twins will always be “the twins of Madeleine Mccann”