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“Woolworths has withdrawn bedroom furniture for young girls bearing the sexually charged name Lolita after a campaign waged by a mothers’ online chat room”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 2:13 pm
Stevo - I’m losing touch lol
February 1st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
we should put a fund behind the bar!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
215
Rockhopper Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 11:32 am
“Nit picking here but there is no such time as 12:01 am.
If the story broke at 1 minute past midnight it was in fact 00:01 (no need for am/pm with 24 hr clock)”
******
Still running behind reading posts, because of this “other” life of mine.
Rockhopper, perhaps you would care to have a look at last night’s thread, as a sample what happens to time after midnight:
658
Patch Says:
January 31st, 2008 at 11:59 pm
659
Ferdinand Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 12:01 am
February 1st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
455just_me Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 2:10 pm
anyone without a costume can just wear a pink shirt!
Anyone arriving as CM has got no chance at all! Notice he’s “blue shirt man” now.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:11 pm
451 firestar Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
i can’t make up my mind so i’ll come as the daily express
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Interesting you say that. I thought the Star was its sister (or brother) paper.
I firmly thought the Star was anti-McCann but read the word “bungling” in reference to the PJ so now I don’t know anymore.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:10 pm
anyone without a costume can just wear a pink shirt!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pm
448
sc46
How about bringing your entrance ticket 3 weeks after the event?
February 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Rockhopper
That’s true. Age is only a state of mind.
My Dad is 58 and it’s never felt like there was an age gap. This morning he phoned me at half 5 to sing ‘Age of Aquarius’ at me. I told him to ‘bugger off and die’ but I love him for it really.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I’ll bring a sketch pad!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
i can’t make up my mind so i’ll come as the daily express
February 1st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Any indecisive people out there? They could come as Eggman, or Bundleman….or is it Beatleman?
February 1st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
438
Ian Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
So theres the challenge to pro-McCanns every where - show us an original resolution of the final photo.
+++++++++++++++
Ian - you know as well as everyone else that there is no “hard” evidence in the public domain of anything - for or against.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I might bring a picture to the party of somebody that I might (9 months later) recollect was also there
February 1st, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Ian
I think Sledgehammer suffers from premature enucleation. Commonly known in here as a “tosser”.
From the dictionary:
Enucleate: Archaic To explain; elucidate.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
is brandon still in the spam bin, or is she just not back yet?
February 1st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I’ll come as the Uk Govt. Of course I’ll be hiding behind the scenes pretending I’m not there
February 1st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
436
Rockhopper Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
yes but they usually just move somewhere else.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
439 man on a hill
You’d be as hard to find as me (dressed as strange abduction evidence) then!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Stevo
I could then come to the party a day late dressed as a UK journalist.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
427
Stevo
Of course, being provided with a copy in the format of the origianl would go a long way to removing accusations of manipulation.
So if they wanted to, they could kill that rumour stone dead.
Of course it wouldnt do anything to dispel the issue of the time the photo was taken, but ‘they’ could ‘fool’ the general public easily with a headline ‘original phot confirmed as genuine’ could ‘they’ not?
So theres the challenge to pro-McCanns every where - show us an original resolution of the final photo.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
an observer Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 7:55 am
9
coolandcalm Says:
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they have nothing of value to add to the debate.
back later maybe.
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REPLY: Sorry I have to smile at your comment in remembering a favourite saying a General used “don’t let the door hit in you in the arse on your way out.”
February 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
433
firestar Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
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Thanks, I’m summising then that the powers that be could seek out and destroy the nastier sites if they wanted to.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pm
417
Saturn Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
“….If his purpose was to minimize damage to the resort, I guess he failed. And moreover he (or even anyone else) did not even persist. No one ever supported or reiterated his comments….”
+++++++++++++++
Agreed - he could have been misreported in the first place (not unusual in this case) or it could be that his report was so out of tune with everything else it was not followed up/supported, or what he said could simply have been a lie.
Unfortunately what has been “quoted” from numerous sources all along have been “quoted” differently in various other places.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pm
BTW….HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BIRTHDAY GALS, BRANDON & KAREN.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Could the nastier elements of the internet be policed and destroyed (remotely)?
yes, in theory, providing you knew who they all were and where they were, ranging from sending so many server requests or emails that the host servers get bunged up right down to using something like the american predator to find someone and then send a missile to home in on their mobile phone.
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this is an old report from el reg, but it shows you it’s possible.
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Earlier this week two anti-spam services, Monkeys.com and the Compu.Net “block list”, announced their closure due to DDoS attacks, and other attempts by spammers to make their operation as difficult as possible.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Very Happy 20th Karen! and many happy returns!
February 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
428
Stevo
February 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
ooops ‘other things’
February 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
So when will sledgehammer come sneaking back in and claim that ‘toerh things’ pushed the status lifting off the agenda ‘temporarily’?
February 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
421man on a hill Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Stevo
The day before the party I could come as the ‘grim reaper’.
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But would that be on May 1 or 2?