Madeleine McCann: What Shannon Matthews Is Worth, Asda And PR
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews
THE SUN: “£20k reward in Shannon hunt”
THE Sun yesterday offered a £20,000 reward to find missing “little princess” Shannon Matthews.
Good on the paper. But does a reward help? Has it helped Madeleine Mccann? And why £20,000 when Madeleine McCann garnered so much more? Is a reward index linked to the missing child’s age? Or is it because Shannon’s parents are not middle-class - not doctors - and smaller amounts mean more to them?
We also printed posters urging our vast army of readers to help in the hunt for the nine-year-old schoolgirl. And last night her anguished mum Karen, 32, said: “I’m so grateful for all you are doing. It’s a fantastic gesture and means so much to us. We just hope it brings her back.”
Then, hugging Shannon’s stepdad Craig Meehan, 22, she added: “Our message to people is never give up . . . because we won’t until we find her.”
THE TIMES: “Poor little Shannon Matthews. Too poor for us to care that she is lost?”
“Her family may seem feckless. Neighbours can’t afford to run a PR campaign. How the public spotlight faded on missing girl.”
Shannon..?
Sarah Payne, smiling in her school uniform; Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, in their Manchester United shirts; Madeleine McCann, staring inquisitively with her distinctive bleeding iris . . .The names and faces of these girls who have disappeared are etched into the public’s collective memory.
Camera crews camped out in their home towns for weeks or months. Donations totalled thousands — even millions — of pounds. Members of the public, many of them strangers, came in their hundreds to offer help and prayers for their safe return.
Yet the trauma and mystery surrounding the disappearance of one nine-year-old girl almost two weeks ago appeared to drift from public consciousness within days…
She’s not Madeleine McCann. No doctors. No logo. No Maddy Catty. No watching the parents. The media treatment is no fault of the McCanns. But are we bored of missing children stories. Have the press caught Maddy fatigue?
Contrast the media-savvy McCann campaign with the brave efforts of Petra Jamieson, 30, a friend of Shannon’s mother, who managed to persuade her local branch of Asda to donate 24 white T-shirts on which the girl’s photograph had been printed.
What happened to Shannon Matthews? Who can we blame? The parents?
A deprived background, a dysfunctional family and a down-on-its-luck Yorkshire mill town: none of this is Shannon Matthews’s fault, yet it seems that she is paying the price.
No holiday scene. No excuse for hacks to go to hotter climes. Yorkshire in winter. Grey. Grim.
GLASGOW DAILY RECORD: “Mother’s Day Wish”
THE distraught mum of missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews last night cried: “All I want for Mother’s Day is my princess back.”
DAILY MIRROR: “ALL I WANT FOR MOTHER’S DAY IS MY PRINCESS BACK”
Shannon Matthews’ desperate mother last night movingly declared: “All I want for Mother’s Day is my princess back.”As police continued searching thousands of homes for the missing nine-year-old schoolgirl, mum Karen, 32, said: “It is a special family day and we would all spend it together.
“Shannon would usually buy me a present or make me something at school.”
Stepfather Craig Meehan, 22, added: “It is going to be a heartbreaking Mother’s Day.”
LIVERPOOL ECHO: “Where’s media cry for poor Shannon?”
HOW disturbing that 10 days after Shannon Matthews disappeared, we still know so little about her. Her favourite band? The school she attends? The name of her best friend? All details that should be on our lips but aren’t.
But we do know her favourite song.
Somehow the vanishing of this little girl with her pony tail and fringe has failed to capture the media’s imagination; a story regularly consigned to the inside pages.
Why? Why do some cases attract saturation coverage and others don’t? I suspect it’s down to image, which stands for everything, and the skill now needed to work the notoriously fickle media.
Madeleine McCann’s parents have been criticised for employing a professional PR and for playing the media game, providing photo opportunities and press calls. But it’s paid dividends. The world now knows their daughter’s name and what she looks like.
Shannon’s mum can be no less distraught than Kate, but whether she has the support or the finance to get a media campaign on the road is doubtful.
But at the end of the day there is a little girl out alone in a harsh, cold world. And we should all be working together to get her home.
What part does the media play in finding a missing child? Don’t we have the police to search for Shannon and crack the case?
THE OBSERVER (Blog): “Speaker gets new spin doctor”
A Whitehall spin doctor who was a spokeswoman for Madeleine McCann’s parents has been hired to help the Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, deal with the media, it was announced today.
Not Campbell?
Sheree Dodd is an experienced communications expert who worked for John Prescott at the time it was revealed he was having an affair with his diary secretary.
Just another job…
Madeleine McCann- The PR Storm
Posted: 1st, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (798) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
March 1st, 2008 at 5:07 pm
379
jo
I might be in Dublin near the end of March, would be good if you were there at that time.
PPPY was upset earlier ( and rightly so ) by some poster having a go at single mothers, making out they were bad parents.
Gandy’s been keeping us entertained with his you tube links.
I’m off out now, take care and I’ll hopefully catch you later.
March 1st, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Wow Val, what a beautiful song … never heard it before!
March 1st, 2008 at 5:03 pm
376
Maria
It was reported in the early days.
They live quite far apart and saw each other eachother every couple of months or so.
March 1st, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Val, take it away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdk7Q2Usryw
March 1st, 2008 at 4:58 pm
372
Gandolf
jajajajajaja…you too much
March 1st, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Ciara
I switch off before I saw your question about dublin.
Thank you
I am going from mid march….onwards depending if there is work for me or not
Can you keep me up with whats going on here piz?I must admit I dont have the energy to read all the posts
March 1st, 2008 at 4:57 pm
372 Gandolf
LOL
March 1st, 2008 at 4:55 pm
359 Gandolf
Great, Tina is “simply the best”, Rod”s no slouch either. I read a couple of
months ago that Tina was going to perform again, not a Tour more selected
concerts. she doesn!t need the money, it must be the adrenaline of performing!!!!
Funny how so many, Sting, Led Zeppelin, Genesis et al are making “comebacks”, p”rhaps they are skint now. Have you got Kate Melua, “Closest thing to Crazy”,
please.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:52 pm
lilith 213
I didn’t realise the grandparents hardly ever saw Madeleine?? It’s not the impression I got from seeing Sue Healy on TV and reading her comments in the papers.
Was it reported somewhere? I must have missed that.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:51 pm
372
Gandolf
.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
People like I don’t believe them just cannot stand the fact that the state needs to step in sometimes and protect single women and their children from poverty, lack of appropriate housing and social exclusion.
Yes, I don’t believe them most children stay with their mother after a divorce and with good reason.
Be glad we live in a society in which members help each other when it’s needed.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:48 pm
358 i-dont-believe-them
344 Dee - Single motherhood is generally bad for children even when the mother works. It is probably even worse when the mother works as the children are being looked after by strangers and others family members who don’t care as much as the mother.
Before I go, as I was bought up to be kind, well mannered and above all considerate, so on that note I hope you see more of your child, and that you manage to meet someone who may restore the faith and dispel the bitterness you appear to be feeling. Thanks for a great afternoon. Its been fun x
March 1st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
A Captain in the foreign legion was transfered to a desert outpost. On his orientation tour he noticed a very old, seedy looking camel tied out back of the enlisted mens barracks. He asked the Sargent leading the tour, “What’s the camel for?”. The Sargent replied “Well sir it’s a long way from anywhere, and the men have natural sexual urges, so when they do, uh, we have the camel.” The captain said “Well if it’s good for moral, then I guess it’s all right with me.” After he had been at the fort for about 6 months the captain could not stand it any more so he told his Sargent, “BRING IN THE CAMEL!!!” The sarge shrugged his shoulders and led the camel into the captains quarters. The captain got a foot stool & proceeded to have vigorous sex with the camel. As he stepped, satisfied, down from the stool, and was buttoning his pants he asked the Sargent, “Is that how the enlisted men do it?” The Sargent replied, “Well sir, they usually just use it to ride into town.”
March 1st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
370 Just me
March 1st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
pppy - lol
March 1st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
368 just me
my house needs one of those. What with all the dog poo, broken bottles and hyperdermic needles on the front garden
March 1st, 2008 at 4:39 pm
just watching extremem makeover and the reveal is at Rothley Court Les
March 1st, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Bye all.
My children are drugged and in the shed at the end of the garden, the dog is chained to my rotary drier which is hanging with washing that has been there a week. I have squeezed my zits, got my shortest skirt and lowest cut top on, contrasting bra, pancake make-up on. I am off to pull a guy so I can get knocked up and claim more benefits.
sorry if I have offended anyone, I just think crass comments about upper class, child haters, and SM is pathetic and needless and this guy is a solopsistic, classist asshole.
:bye:
March 1st, 2008 at 4:37 pm
#
347
i-dont-believe-them Says:
March 1st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
darlings, i used the word ‘common’ as meaning ‘often seen’. being a single mother is not necessarily ‘common’, meaning lower class or trash. but single motherhood is not good for children, as a rule.
—————————————————————-
There is no rule stating that! I know plenty happy, healthy, confident children brought up by their mother only. Equally I’ve witnessed the result of children suffering and miserable telling me mummy and daddy were arguing again and ‘ I was crying! ‘
These children often blame themselves and think they are the source of it all. They often feel under pressure to try and help the situation. Two parents doesn’t mean double the love and attention. It doesn’t work like that.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Re 350, 361
Thanks June!
March 1st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
MODS AND ADMIN
358
i-dont-believe-them Says:
March 1st, 2008 at 4:31 pm
344 Dee - Single motherhood is generally bad for children even when the mother works. It is probably even worse when the mother works as the children are being looked after by strangers and others family members who don’t care as much as the mother.
Evidence to support this statement please.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:33 pm
PPPY
Laurant Perrier Rose, Valium, dorritos
Bloody hell, girl
You really know how to enjoy yourself!
All the best!
March 1st, 2008 at 4:33 pm
358
Please can you provide the evidence to your post 358
Its is widely know without stats or links, comments like that canget you chucked off anorak.
Waiting now.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:32 pm
350 JuneJohnson
Hey now a spybot CAN trawl my email address! That’s not so nice!! Perhaps out of kindness you could remove that reference to my address??
Mods and ADmin
POST 350 The IP and email are NOT showing
March 1st, 2008 at 4:32 pm
347 IDBT
Sadly when relationships break down there is often acrimony and some mothers
do use the children as a way of punishing the Father, and dictate when the child/
children see their Dad. With regard to maintenance, sometimes this is withheld
by the Dad and has to be fought for. I don”t know your circumstances, but you
have obviously rubbed the “single mums” up the wrong way, so maybe you all ought to call a truce, life”s too short for all this nonsense.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Amused Bystander, hang about, I am only the DJ, agw with the black hood is the dude to prelude, hang free ma man the world is full of shit and great music and leggy woman, aint life a blast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkdoj5gMam8
March 1st, 2008 at 4:31 pm
344 Dee - Single motherhood is generally bad for children even when the mother works. It is probably even worse when the mother works as the children are being looked after by strangers and others family members who don’t care as much as the mother.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:30 pm
sorry June, thought you hadnt noticed :opps:
March 1st, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Or try this one.
http://www.circlesoflight.com/parents/parents-single.html
March 1st, 2008 at 4:30 pm
351 just_me
I think AB gave his e-mail address himself in one of his posts a few weeks ago.
Mods and Admin
He certainly did, and we spent quite a while finding it to delete it….