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“Woolworths has withdrawn bedroom furniture for young girls bearing the sexually charged name Lolita after a campaign waged by a mothers’ online chat room”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
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February 1st, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Noseyow,
I will put my hard hat back on!
February 1st, 2008 at 12:17 pm
270
Aardvarko Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hedgeslammer will not get an easy ride when/if he comes back here.
This is thoroughly deserved. It is one thing to post an opinion, which others may not agree with, but just to blatantly lie is going too far, even if it was just for a laugh.
On the plus side, we will now have a ready reference to prove to him that he talks bollox. That’s been one of the problems with him in the past - he never actually said anything so it was difficult to illustrate that he was a waste of space.
————————————-
Looks like a case of tiny weener syndrome, how innefectual and unwanted must a person feel to pull a stunt like that to gain attention?
February 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
watch out - incoming coffee
February 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Good point Carmen! (272)
February 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
270
Aardvarko Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
+++++++++++++++++
Sometimes it’s difficult to see the difference between lying and taking the piss.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
That’s me - well balanced…
also had a couple spinning round…
February 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hedgeslammer will not get an easy ride when/if he comes back here.
This is thoroughly deserved. It is one thing to post an opinion, which others may not agree with, but just to blatantly lie is going too far, even if it was just for a laugh.
On the plus side, we will now have a ready reference to prove to him that he talks bollox. That’s been one of the problems with him in the past - he never actually said anything so it was difficult to illustrate that he was a waste of space.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
214 Reporter
I don’t see how the final decision if the MCs are to stand trial is made by the home secretary. The crime, if any, took place in Portugal.
Does the Home Secretary have the power to stop a country justice from holding a trial involving British people if the crime happened on their land? How is this possible?
February 1st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
delboy - enjoy
February 1st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
263,NOSEY COW, no not really, just like watching him make a pratt of himself, big news tomorrow etc,as though he knows what is happening…bit of a slow day in my office today,so thought I would spend time here, have a laugh at his expense,got to go now though my boss (wife) is wanting to go shopping,……………..might as well be the end of the world….hate shopping! until later bye for now….
February 1st, 2008 at 12:06 pm
261 Shoperoo
I’m inclined to agree with you.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:05 pm
a donut in each hand??
February 1st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
shoperoo Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Sledgehammer certinly got all your attention though- bet he’s having the last laugh-maybe he was conducting a social experiment re his percieved power over this forum
where is he anyhow?
Or he forgot to take his medication………..ADHD PILL..
February 1st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
delboy - you surely not really waiting for sledgy
last week someone posted that the world was going to end on tuesday morning - i stayed up all night.. and nothing.. huh
(Ok so i was working at the time - but i did ask for the night off - as the end of the world is a once in a life time occurence IMO)
February 1st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
how could I concentrate.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Sledgehammer certinly got all your attention though- bet he’s having the last laugh-maybe he was conducting a social experiment re his percieved power over this forum
where is he anyhow?
February 1st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
258
Chloe Spain Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 11:59 am
++++++++++++++
I dunno !
February 1st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Someone mention donuts! by eck mi old fruit, got to go now,boss is nagging,belly rumbling,and yet still no sign of sledgie,maybe he loaned himself out, for the snow!
February 1st, 2008 at 11:59 am
256 dcb
But, if that were the case, would it have been published so soon?
February 1st, 2008 at 11:59 am
Stevo - Woolfall’s laptop should be crucial evidence re the pictures.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:58 am
Seems like someone hit “send” on the email button without thinking it through properly and a chain of events occurred which is now set in stone.
Very interesting - I believe you can prepare an email in advance and get your email program to send it on a specific date - it maybe sends at the very start of the day 00.01 !
February 1st, 2008 at 11:56 am
were donuts provided??
February 1st, 2008 at 11:56 am
lol - did you manage to concentrate in your ‘obviousley very important’ meeting??
February 1st, 2008 at 11:54 am
231
Stevo Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 11:42 am
++++++++++++++++++
Unfortunately not Stevo - “…He is an expert in crisis PR at the communications group Bell Pottinger and flew to Portugal as part of the Mark Warner holiday company’s emergency response team on Saturday, May 5. Madeleine vanished on the evening of May 3…”
February 1st, 2008 at 11:54 am
250
Rockhopper Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am
Might it be that it’s a longer confession than he expected and is still typing furiously
Well he does type with one finger!
February 1st, 2008 at 11:53 am
ok bnut not spitting it out
February 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am
Might it be that it’s a longer confession than he expected and is still typing furiously
February 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am
SteveT Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 11:50 am
Have you heard anything yet Sledgehammer?
has he chuff, its a ploy to get us to buy a wristband,the b*s*ard
February 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am
243 Delboy
Nor would I.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am
233 Good point Saturn, I had thought of this too. It’s similar to the suggestion that a large potion of their mortgage was paid out of the fund.
In both cases, there are just too many people involved in the admin of the alleged irregularity. They wouldn’t ALL have kept quiet. If someone at the Telegraph wanted to make a packet, they would just need to take this to the NOTW or some other dodgy journos.
The press may have been on the McCanns’ side, but soemthing major like this would be a story too good to miss.
I have no explanation for the 12:01 time, but suggest it was probably more cock-up than conspiracy (unfortunately)