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“Woolworths has withdrawn bedroom furniture for young girls bearing the sexually charged name Lolita after a campaign waged by a mothers’ online chat room”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
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February 1st, 2008 at 6:31 pm
728 Stevo
I find the drugs theory makes everything fit in. Even minor points like “they’ve taken her” and Gerry’s use of the word “disaster”.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:31 pm
The Daily Mirror doesn’t block webarchive:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://dailymirror.co.uk
Not only are stories disappearing from websites, the archives aren’t releasing them now.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:29 pm
And the Daily Mail no longer allows robots to save websites:
We’re sorry, access to http://dailymail.co.uk has been blocked by the site owner via robots.txt.
Read more about robots.txt
Try another request or click here to search for all pages on dailymail.co.uk/
See the FAQs for more info and help, or contact us.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Ok…here’s more mystery surrounding Mr Woolfall’s trip to PDL:
1. Paulo Reis reported about Mr Woolfall and John Hill on 13 Jan 2008 in his blog - Gazeta Digital.
2. In the comments section of his blog in response to that article, someone posted a link to the story in the Times Online where it said Alex Woolfall flew to PDL on May 5.
3. The link doesn’t work. This is only a couple of weeks ago.
4. I looked in the Internet WebArchive for the page.
5. Disturbingly, this article can not be found and….
This is the message from the robot of Web Archive:
We’re sorry, access to http://timesonline.co.uk/* has been blocked by the site owner via robots.txt.
Try another request or click here to search for all pages on timesonline.co.uk/
See the FAQs for more info and help, or contact us.
This is an important new development IMO.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:27 pm
726
Harry Hind Sight
LOL!
Yes of course Harry! Still on benefits mate? LOL!
February 1st, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Anyway farewell - tennis tonight - working over the weekend, big trial starting Monday - huge brief fee to justify.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Stevo - it is the imputation, rather than the express workd that is the killer in Court 13 at the Royal Courts of Justice - the libel court for those not familar with the geography of the RCJ
February 1st, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Better to be safe, yet wrong, than in the dock having made wild allegations about respected and powerful interests. Old Harry Hind Sight knows how to avoid trouble
February 1st, 2008 at 6:21 pm
705 Harry Hind Sight
I merely pointed out connections - Lord Bell–Pinochet–Mr Caplan–the McCanns. Add Mr Woolfall in there who says he released photos of Madeleine to the press…you have a very interesting mix of people. This isn’t libelous pointing this out - it’s all information in the public domain.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:18 pm
717 May
You’re welcome and I appreciate your words of support. Thank you.
Harry Hind Sight
I don’t know what happened. It’s a mystery why those few hours and days after May 3 are muddled up. Woolfall allegedly went to PDL on Saturday May 5 but GM alludes to him being there before that time. These are clear conflicting stories - not theories.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:18 pm
719
Harry Hind Sight Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 6:15 pm
“…..they were retained and deployed in the immediate aftermath of an abduction that had attracted considerable media attention…..”
+++++++++++++++++++
Wrong.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:15 pm
675 Harry Hind Sight Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Stevo,
what would the point of a top secret drug trial be?
____________________________________
Sorry Harry…missed your question from before…
The answer is easy: money, and lots of it.
Look at those poor sods that almost died 2 years ago with that reaction to drugs that made the papers. They were only getting a couple of grand but a long term live trial is different. Mr McCann is supposedly an expert on drugs in sport isn’t he? This is a bit outside his sphere of expertise as a heart consultant isn’t it?
February 1st, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Stevo - certainly not me: I am singing from the same hymn sheet as BP i.e they are MW’s PR advisors and that, in that capacity, they were retained and deployed in the immediate aftermath of an abduction that had attracted considerable media attention.
I make it clear that I am not saying that they were part of a contingency plan in the event that a secret drug trial went wrong.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Ian… 702 blah blah blah, any escuse for a silly dig! You’re so childish sometimes which is a shame because it negates some of your good arguments.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:14 pm
606
Stevo Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Here’s a new email to the Madeleine Fund plus original to Bates Wells underneath:
SNIP
**********
Stevo, your letters and amazing research help to keep alive the hope that the truth about Madeleine’s disappearance, and the reasons for a conspiracy of silence over this and the accumulation of the Fund, may actually surface one day.
When I wrote to my MP this week, in connection with the Government delaying sending back the Rogatory letters to Portugal, I also raised with him once more the many unanswered questions, including why the people operating the Fund are not presently and transparently accountable for the huge sums of money raised by the public, supposedly to Find Madeleine.
I believe it is only by all of us being a huge irritant to the powers that be that some light may eventually be thrown on this conspiritorial cover up. I’m sure all of us are grateful to those of you who are able to uncover so much related information. Thank you.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:12 pm
715
Harry Hind Sight Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 6:11 pm
+++++++++++++++++++
Teflon is good
February 1st, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Blimey - I can almost see BP reaching from the libel stick preparatory to administering a savage beating to all those who dare to blacken their name: the horror.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:11 pm
705
Harry Hind Sight
Nobody has said they covered up a crime have they?
February 1st, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Gone………………………
February 1st, 2008 at 6:09 pm
711…dcb
Amid a lot of rumor…can rest a lot of truth.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Matt - rumour is rife in the old mills.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Time to eat.
Good sleuthing !!!!!
February 1st, 2008 at 6:07 pm
708…dcb
But speculation is interesting.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:06 pm
706
Matt. Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 6:04 pm
+++++++++++++++++
Exactly
February 1st, 2008 at 6:05 pm
705…Harry Hind Sight
Objection Overruled.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:04 pm
704…dcb
We don’t know nuttin….so how can we say it is or isn’t ?
February 1st, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Steady on chaps - Bell Pottinger are not people you (or Anorak) would wish to libel: any suggestion that BP have been involved in knowingly covering up a crime would be false and libellious - I am therfore putting an end to this arid line of enquiry what what hey hey
February 1st, 2008 at 6:03 pm
To be honest Matt I don’t think it’s looking good.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:02 pm
701…dcb
No doubt.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:01 pm
684 coolandcalm
Its lack or moral courage from countries like the UK.
Of course with the decaying moral fibre apparent in the behaviour of even our doctors and consultants and people like your good self supporting that decay in standards, its not suprising.