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“Woolworths has withdrawn bedroom furniture for young girls bearing the sexually charged name Lolita after a campaign waged by a mothers’ online chat room”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 11:16 am
180 Coolandcalm
“Thirty days hath September, …..”
February 1st, 2008 at 11:15 am
Brandon
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
February 1st, 2008 at 11:14 am
also, a lot of news reports have an embargo until 12.01 am so that nothing gets released the day before.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:14 am
142
Rockhopper
I think you misread my postings on the first news story.
I have no theory or proposed no theory on the subject. I said it was bizarre that the Foreign Office filed a story with the Daily Telegraph in less than an hour after the PJ were called.
If you are suggesting that the McCanns could have got consular help within this short time frame that’s not what I said or wondered about. I said I thought that the “ruse” was enacted too soon in my opinion. The handbrakes had barely been applied on the PJ’s squad cars and the Foreign Office is filing a story about an abducted child - this is clearly “too soon”.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:10 am
2 days ago, I posted several details and discussed the first ever Madeleine news story posted by the Foreign Office in the Daily Telegraph at 12:01am BST on May 4.
————
12.01 can possibly be a piece written earlier which went live at midnight when the paper edition changed to the next days.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:09 am
157
can’t say no
Just got it!
February 1st, 2008 at 11:08 am
CSN 168….
Err? you’ve lost me…. what ignorance is that?
February 1st, 2008 at 11:08 am
yes i must go too.
have to make sure i’m back in time for the 11.30 announcement, wouldn’t want to miss that.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:08 am
Happy Birthday Brandon, May your year be filled with riotous episodes of belly laughter.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:08 am
2 days ago, I posted several details and discussed the first ever Madeleine news story posted by the Foreign Office in the Daily Telegraph at 12:01am BST on May 4.
Ferdinand jumped in to say that all stories had that time unless it was an important story.
I checked and found no evidence of this at all but Coolandcalm jumped in to support Ferdinand’s statement without checking it herself. Her comment on this was even more bizarre as it would have required a time-machine at the Telegraph.
Anyway, I’ve checked this aspect thoroughly and invited others to see that there is a multitude of posting times for articles in the Telegraph - thereby making the 12:01am time pretty accurate in the absence of anything to prove it wrong.
Here’s a page full of Daily Telegraph Madeleine news stories so posters in here can see for themselves: http://tinyurl.com/3ba9ll (click the links and see the times at the top of each article).
February 1st, 2008 at 11:07 am
166 Firestar
I was talking about their children!
The professionnal mourners made me laugh, as well as Saturn’s post about the children running away from the monsters!
I love Anorak.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:07 am
Till later
February 1st, 2008 at 11:07 am
The team mccscam goes sicker day by day
February 1st, 2008 at 11:05 am
If you look to Mari Luz parents ,and the mccscam , you can see all the diference
February 1st, 2008 at 11:05 am
170
can’t say no Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am
++++++++++++++++++
Exactly.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:05 am
143 Lone Pigeon
I think his big mistake was to attack the press at the LSE meeting.
After having tried to control them for a while, he reaps what he sowed (I am not sur of my English, but you get the idea).
As you say, the MCs will perhaps realise their talketive friend isn’t helping them at all.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am
167
dcb
He said the family would raise the funds by selling off their property
Like the mcscam did ??
February 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am
148
coolandcalm Says:
The story about the twins and monster games etc etc was categorically denied by ‘a spokesman for the McCanns’.
******************
So? Who cares what the McCanns’ spokeman has to say about monster games? Was he there?
What really may have happened was that the twins were running from the monsters. Kate and Gerry were chasing them down, to mete out some more punishment for not sleeping enough, and for daring to get out of bed when they wake up. It would not surprise me if “someone” put sedatives in their birthday cake.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:01 am
163
coolandcalm
It was the answer that REPORTER was asking for !!
Such ignorance ..
February 1st, 2008 at 11:01 am
“…The family of five year old Mari Luz, the young girl who disappeared from Huelva on 13th January as she was returning home from the local sweets kiosk, have announced a reward for any ‘reliable’ information which could lead to her being found. Luis Molina, spokesman for the Cortés family, gave the news in a press conference on Thursday afternoon, and gave the amount as 150,000 €.
He said the family would raise the funds by selling off their property….”
February 1st, 2008 at 11:01 am
161
Marie Nicholas Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:56 am
119 Carmen
In my view they can’t build up their own mourning process with a very distorted view on reality.
—————
don’t see why not, they’ve managed to build their own police force and police press conference team.
i’d have thought a little mourning would be a piece of piss.
you can hire professional mourners in some places.
they’ll probably hire a couple of wailing women from morocco.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am
My friends son - aged 8 - saw the maddie case on the news and since then has had nighmares, and has started to wet the bed. He is petrified that someone will come and take him, she has tried everything to reassure him, and his sleeping is getting better but now he is refusing to go to cricket nets / football practice (both of which he loves) she thinks its because he wants to stay close to her.
Children pick up on the slightest things - playing at find the monster
February 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am
162
firestar
“because his huge ego got bruised?”
He aint seen anything yet!
February 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am
CSN. 157…….
what? the PJ are coming the 31st of this month? wow.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:58 am
Yes, it can mean that, but it probably did not. Why? The problem with that interpretation is that Clarence Mitchell dwelled on the refusal by GB, rather than on the acceptance by his underling.
———————-
because his huge ego got bruised?
February 1st, 2008 at 10:56 am
119 Carmen
I completely agree with you that honesty with children is always best, Carmen. It gives them the sense of reality, it is less frightful than made up stories, and it ensures that you will always be trusted as a parent. Honesty, provided it is done with tact, and provided you listen to the child’s words about it.
In my view they can’t build up their own mourning process with a very distorted view on reality.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:56 am
125 saturn
50 rockhopper
128
firestar Says:
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.’
*************
Yes, it can mean that, but it probably did not. Why? The problem with that interpretation is that Clarence Mitchell dwelled on the refusal by GB, rather than on the acceptance by his underling.
Why would Clarence dwell on a refusal unless he was misleading us about it? If it was a real refusal, Clarence would have emphasized the acceptance, to make himself look good. That was the telltale sign IMO.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:56 am
140 Reporter
Portugal is not a monarchy. It doesn’t have a Crown Office.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:56 am
38 mins and counting!
February 1st, 2008 at 10:56 am
REPORTER
Ya forgot to say the P.J. will went to the U.K. ,the 31 of this month
