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“Woolworths has withdrawn bedroom furniture for young girls bearing the sexually charged name Lolita after a campaign waged by a mothers’ online chat room”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 10:15 pm
847
Christine Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 10:06 pm
782 - Denzylle
If you’re still around - hence the comment from GM:
“We have our own family now” ? Which begs the question, was Madeleine not part of the family?
++++++++++++++
Hi Christine,
That just sums up what I thought when I first clapped eyes on the family portrait. Remember the nice black & white shot released when Mads first went missing?
February 1st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
val - interesting that they learned that there were no baby listening services, so asked for appartments close together (did i read it wrong)
I assume to make the homemade listening service easier - so why was the only time that a tapas 9/10 checked on another members kids the matt o check at 9.30.
Imagine arrive just before 9 - first one leaves 8.55, next one 9.05, etc etc etc. something not right imo.
Why did they not check on each others kids while they were there??
February 1st, 2008 at 10:08 pm
802
Ian Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Stevo, the findmadeleine web site photo gallery is shit, Gerrys blog is accessed via a tab - Gerry Blog’ and thats where you end up when you go on the Tab news and support…
In short, they need some help!
————
the freekatemccann.com site is the same, look like they’ve been made in the shed.
odd when there’s all that fund money about.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:06 pm
when i said earlier that there was a possibility of genetically modifying an ivf baby, (perhaps to prevent a condition of say, epilepsy), then it’s not out of the question that you could also modify a baby to actually GET, rather than prevent, some sort of disease.
highly unlikely of course, but if some, either rogue chemist or maybe unscrupulous drug company were to slip in a bit of genetic code that could say, start epileptic fits from the 15th birthday, for instance, and that this genetic ‘time bomb’ was ONLY curable by some sort of gene therepy drug,( manufactured by guess which pharmaceutical company), then the drug company would be onto a bit of a winner i think.
if the trial subject was triggered either early for some reason, by some event or chemical,or naturally by design, at a time when that subject was unsupervised and hurt or killed themselves in a public place, then i would think an autopsy would be the last thing you would want.
of course, if this was done by design, you’d probably need a team of doctors specialising in various subjects on hand to either record what happened, whether or not the cure worked and so on.
now theres a conspiracy theory that could work.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:06 pm
782 - Denzylle
If you’re still around - hence the comment from GM:
“We have our own family now” ? Which begs the question, was Madeleine not part of the family?
February 1st, 2008 at 10:05 pm
dcb says
venue - The Netsclosing Inn
time start - could vary (possibly postponed indefinately)
dress code - fancy
date - 1st or 2nd or 3rd of May
music - anyone?
Quiz - optional
Child minding service - optional
Confessional freely available courtesy of an assortment of very friendly clergy….possibility of an ‘arrangement’ to lend ‘keys for privacy purposes’ to interested parties
February 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
842 Marie Nicholas
Yes Marie. I know what it’s like round there. As you say the parents should have gone with him.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:03 pm
840 val
Even stranger…yesterday I posted an article that said the kids were at the creche/kids club BEFORE the pool pic and Kate just “pottered” for the rest of the afternoon.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:02 pm
835 Stevo
It is a sad tale. But don’t you think one of the parents could have gone with the boy to the next house? Roads are dangerous at night. It is a mountainous place, with narrow winding roads, and sometimes no room for pedestrians.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:02 pm
838 Poppy
Have to keep our eyes and ears open for that one then eh?
839 Lyn
Yes…theAuthor on Mirror Forums originally posted about that pic being dodgy and I took that up and investigated it myself. I thought he did good work but it was too complex an explanation when there were other signs of possible tampering.
That tiny black line behind Amelie has always puzzled me. It looks like a remnant of something left in by mistake.
Gerry and Amelie seem totally disconnected to Madeleine in appearance and demeanour IMO.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:58 pm
823 Noseycow
Just been reading through the David Smith Article that Slyfox posted to you re: GM”s
Grant.
Worth mentioning, “Gerry had knocked up at the 4.30pm Tennis Drills, but decided not to
exace4rbate an injury to Achilles Tendon so had dropped out and waited around Courts until 5pm when children came back from kids club.” “Adults played with them and Gerry back in
apartment by 7pm”"
What about the report that at 6.630pm Gerry asked one of the Tapas 7 to call at the
Apartment to see if Kate wanted to join him?
Also, according to Smith the Tapas Bar was an “even paced walk in just under a minute”
He is very obviously pro McCann but makes you wonder who to believe doesn”t it,
February 1st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
835 Stevo
Good one. Didn’t someone have an idea about the shadows and the time of day and the way Maddy was actually sitting the way she was!!
February 1st, 2008 at 9:52 pm
hello my lovelies.
Sorry to mither you but do we have a poster called Tiberius 7 on here? I have just been on the 3 Arguidos site having a chat about Claire SW on the SKY blog. For those of you who don’t know ClaireSW - she is an ardent PRO McC who is allowed by the SKY mods to give out vitriol at any given minute. When you try to retaliate, posts are edited or locked out. There are many good posters on SKY, but this woman is a total loon - not because of her views, but the way she is allowed to get them across. Methinks she is a plant.
They are well aware of her on 3 ARguidos and someone suggested that she and Tiberius (Tibby) are one and the same.
Any Clues?
February 1st, 2008 at 9:50 pm
man on hill - objection - please lets have some perspective on this. Those drugs can also save lives
, you are right millions of people do depend on drugs to enable them to continue living a fit and active lives, and millions more find relief from pain both physical and mental. 
Those drugs do have to be tested before being released, and yes not all the side effects are known, but life is a risk and rather take the pill and live it than reject it and die
imo of course
February 1st, 2008 at 9:49 pm
834 man on a hill
I hear you. Drug companies are not even regulated here in the US like in Europe - it’s far worse here. They can charge what they like because drugs aren’t capped in price like they are over there. I wonder if the drug in question was an anti-epileptic?
827 Marie Nicholas
That’s a sad but poignant tale isn’t it? Sounds like a miscarriage of justice at first hand.
830 Bishop Brennan
Not sure why he’s connected. Some maybe do it for the publicity.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:46 pm
831 Ian
I have a new view on another way the last photo could have been forged.
Let’s say that M met her demise on May 1 or 2 and “people” were called.
Those people may have said “ok…we need to stage a photo to make it look like it was taken on May 3.”
So, it may be just Gerry and Amelie sat there - hence Gerry’s unhappy face and then this half of the photo was stitched to the other half - containing Madeleine who had been snapped days before?
February 1st, 2008 at 9:41 pm
829 Stevo
It wouldn’t take long to convince me just how evil pharmaceutical companies can be. Doctors are THE drug dealers in the UK, with everything they deal giving you unpleasant side-effects at the expense of the environment. The masses consume vast quantities of drugs that they have no understanding of and then criticize the ‘poor addicts’ when they do a drug that’s not on the approved list. I could go on.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:38 pm
832 - Ian. Yup, could well be. Got everything money can buy, so use it to buy influence, quasi-celebrity status, and a front-row seat in the game that is Madeleine… What a tw*t.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:34 pm
830
Bishop Brennan
Opportunity for self publicising - like the barrow boy?
February 1st, 2008 at 9:33 pm
827
Marie Nicholas
Its the instance on stranger abduction that makes this suspicious.
They just refuse to consider any options such as the one you shared.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Quick question. Brian Kennedy. Guy who is paying Clarence’s salary and for some of the lawyers. I know he’s a scottish millionaire, but what is his link to the McCanns? Why is he shelling out that kind of money for people he doesn’t know?
February 1st, 2008 at 9:31 pm
815 Sledgehammer
You’re a blue nose ?
February 1st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
828 man on a hill
I know. Before today I hadn’t concentrated on looking at what the real connections in high places were. Saturn’s posts got me on to it because I never shared his/her views about the nuclear. It could be nuclear but it wasn’t the line of enquiry I was going down. I find it strange that the UK’s largest PR company send their “risk management” expert to help the McCanns after only a day or two. It makes no sense at all. Talk about a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Before Woolfall went out there this was just another missing child. Certainly not a situation to send the cream of the crop out to help. It makes no sense at all.
But if you think that what happened was probably meshed in with Mr Woolfall’s area of expertise then things start to make sense. A lot of sense.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Stevo + Slyfox
Sorry, i had to go away for a bit. I understand what your both saying and i have to admit I’m a little interested now. It certainly would be a powerful reason for a cover up.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:20 pm
In Nice, about 7 years ago, a little boy aged 7 disappeared. He walked in his pyjamas at night from his house to his grand-parents’, maybe a hundred yards away, in a very nice, very quiet area. He was to spend the night there, as his parents, both vets, were going out. He vanished between the two houses, never to be seen again. Some people said he was in Israël, some saw him in other places. It wasn’t him. There was a very long investigation. The mother who had asked for divorce, managed to get the father charged. She met him in a cafe and said : -”You killed him, you incinerated his corpse didn’t you?” (they had incinerators in the sugery). She had said that a hundred times to him. A hundred times he had answered : “No”. And that time he said -”Sure I did. And I threw his ashes into the sea” (or something similar). She was carrying a tape recorder concealed in her pocket.
He was considered guilty at the trial, because he had “confessed”, in spite of claiming later he never killed the boy. He was depressed by then, and didn’t try to defend himself. His lawyer didn’t even seem to believe he was innocent. . The man refused to plead guilty. He is still in jail.
Last year, a chap in jail boasted to another guy that because of him “un bourge” (”bourgeois”) had been condemned though innocent. This mate explained that he and some friends were visiting the area by night in their car, looking for a house to burgle. The car had no lights on. The little boy didn’t see them, they didn’t see him. They knocked him down. They quickly picked his body , and went to bury him further. But when asked more questions that chap denied. The father is still in jail. The mother, who was a bit strange, now belongs to a sect I am told. (I am not sure).
It is still considered a complete enigma, years after.
In this case again, it happened when the child was on his own, at night.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:12 pm
824
slyfox
I don’t mean a formal trial! I mean something under the counter in return for a massive financial reward.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:05 pm
RICHARD BRANSON ABSEIL
The nation’s favourite entrepreneur and business man Richard
Branson has courageously agreed to take part in a sponsored
abseil to raise funds for the Cancer Centre Appeal. Richard will
be accompanied in his feat by daughter Holly, a medical student
at UCH.
This article appeared in a UCL Hospitals Charity Magazine. Not only was that in there but also the board of directors…including Piers Pottinger!
Mr Branson seems closely linked to Bell Pottinger and there are quite a few medical connections coming up.
http://www.uclh.nhs.uk/NR/rdonlyres/ADE531DF-B678-4B8C-8803-FB8AA88F192C/0/UCLHfundnewswinter2007final.pdf
February 1st, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Actually, reality check here. Trials need to be onsite with related medical facilities in case of probs. Nothing like that in Ocean PDL.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
found this:
Gerry has gone back to work half-days, and has finally told the British Heart Foundation he plans to go ahead with the research fellowship they awarded him, a week before he was accused of being involved in his daughter’s death. He had told me, weeks ago, about the six-figure grant
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3040094.ece
February 1st, 2008 at 8:56 pm
805
Stevo Says:
Fippin ‘eck stevo, TeGenero is the one I was talking about.
No wonder the PJ describe this case as complex.
whose dupin’ who…..