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 9:02 am
Greetings Val,
Thanks for trying but my server is incredibly anal about prescribed bandwidth.
Maybe I need 2 gigs a month.
We all have our different theories about what happened and I think when it starts to come out we might claim it all as our own. I thought maybe we should each post a short script about what we feel happened.
I used to have so many ideas and yet at this time of the dawning of reality I have to admit I flounder.
If it was Madeleine’s blood found in the apartment and that she is dead then it would be like this:
The night they went to Chaplins, because of the distance they over sedated just to ensure that no-one would wake up.
Upon returning they found the child in distress. A tracheotomy was performed and failed. I think another doctor probably aided in this procedure.
After that there was a massive cleaning up operation and removal of the body on the 3rd May - hence the early newspaper reports etc.
Russell O Brien was not with his sick daughter on the 3rd, he was babysitting them all. They had now learnt the lesson about leaving kids alone.
If it is not definitive that Madeleine is dead then this must be the biggest hoax in a long while. It would account for Kate’s shining beauty in what should have been the most arduous times for a human being. Madeleine would be somewhere safe awaiting the “miracle”. The weakness for this theory is that surely she should have reappeared by now.
Stevo’s thread on 3A’s about the playground photograph and the different Madeleine’s is brilliant and there was not one troll attack on it.
So I am no closer to truth but still very much enjoy watching as others dig and delve for surely it must emerge.
March 1st, 2008 at 9:02 am
Shit, I’m in Mods and I haven’t even had a toke.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:59 am
41 Dawn
“Hi Ade - no not the carrots daughter lol
I’m a Dawn of the darker variety.”
ooohh eeerr bit early in the morning for that type of thing, i fear
March 1st, 2008 at 8:59 am
41 shut it, I’m in a good mood I even like you today, how about a truce until at least whenever.
ps. I am not who you think I am, you know how to find out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAJfDFqIldw
March 1st, 2008 at 8:58 am
29 Ade
Good Morning, feeling better now?
Your”e info from the Telegraph is very encouraging. I mentioned last night
after Reporter claimed there were no letters etc that the only info we had was from 24 Horas, not the most believable apparently, and a freelance journalist.
The Telegraph claims “a police source” which makes it more credibleIMO and
it”s very encouraging.
By the way, I asked Stevo to post again the Sapo video, which he kindly did.
when I clicked onto it, I don”t know what I”m supposed to see, it”s in a
Foreign language, Portugese I think, and there were no pictures of Madeleine,
did you see it?
March 1st, 2008 at 8:54 am
Julie, I came off a Fireblade at 135 at Knockhill, shit happens. Something like….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdMYN6cme7w
March 1st, 2008 at 8:53 am
Hi Irish/g/s - Im fantastic thank you. My friend gave birth last night so off to buy some baby bits today. Im so going to get broody lol
March 1st, 2008 at 8:51 am
Just_me…good morning
how are you today..x
………
Ade..
Hope you’re well and happy!
Have drainage problems with my pool.
Send Ted over.
Lovely hot day, he can tan his ‘white bits’
xx
March 1st, 2008 at 8:50 am
Val - yes you did - ive sent them all to friends and family too
March 1st, 2008 at 8:49 am
33 Just_Me
I know, such precision when they are all deaf. Did I send you the one about
the guy “climbing” out of a plate glass shop front window, youv”e got to see it, it”s incredible.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:49 am
Hi Ade - no not the carrots daughter lol
I’m a Dawn of the darker variety.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:48 am
Those who say ‘how about sticking to Madeleine’ might consider practicing what they preach.
Poor little child seems forgotton in the defence of her negligent failures of parents.
Failures in medicine (heaps of cadavers in the local surgery when Kates on shift - Gerry a Consultant yet short of a penny two) and failures as parents. How about we all focus on the impact that has had on the children? Are the twins safe? Where is social services?
March 1st, 2008 at 8:47 am
Ferdinand, lets get one thing straight, we can wonder about various aspects, but one thing I don’t wonder about is conspiracy theories, because IMO they are total 103% bollox. You got a suspicious mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBmAPYkPeYU&feature=related
March 1st, 2008 at 8:45 am
Gandy, I HAVE to ask … how did you bust the leg?
BTW Love the music vids, bit prior to my time, but they’re great fun
March 1st, 2008 at 8:44 am
the y key is next to the t key
March 1st, 2008 at 8:44 am
official statemeny
wot?
shurely shome mishtake
the torygraph says the home office has received request for legal assistance
so that’s all right then
see post 29
great fun
March 1st, 2008 at 8:42 am
A source in the Portuguese police force told the Mirror: “We’re now just talking about finding a convenient date.”
A spokesman for the McCanns said: “They’ve nothing to hide.”
The Home Office said: “We have received a legal assistance request from the Portuguese.”
–
The thing that annoys me at any rate is, none of these sources are ever checkable, one minute we have Ribeiro saying cops will be banged up for leaking, then we have the mirror telling us they are leaking like a sieve, the home office part looks to have been lifted from the 3A,as it appears word for word, help!
relaw0900
March 1st, 2008 at 8:40 am
30 Gandalf Says:
“Lets hope some official statement is made very soon, as to what is happening with Madeleines case, and if there isn’t I really will start to wonder why.”
Only then will you start to wonder?
March 1st, 2008 at 8:39 am
hi dawn
are you jasper carrot’s daughter?
ya know, dawn the receptionist in the ricky gervais ‘the office”
great fun
March 1st, 2008 at 8:39 am
Val - Loved the chinese dancers, how brilliant was that?
March 1st, 2008 at 8:36 am
22 Gandolf
So you are “normal”, first time I”ve seen you post anything sensible.
Agree with you about some of the posts, the theories are “ludicrous” to say the least.
I think the Press have been “gagged” on Madeleine, not to jeopardise the
ongoing , hopefully, re-interviews.
Wonder what would happen if the McCanns were charged. Obviously Portugal
is out because their Lawyers would argue too much bias for a fair trial, the
same could be said for the U.K. IMO
March 1st, 2008 at 8:34 am
Good Morning Everyone
Warm welcome to you Dawn
March 1st, 2008 at 8:34 am
Julie, my old Dad always said, “this aint no rehearsal son” and that is the way I like to live, Rockandroll your way to the final party.
A busted leg is curtailing the rockin bit at the moment, but not the rollin.
Lets hope some official statement is made very soon, as to what is happening with Madeleines case, and if there isn’t I really will start to wonder why.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHEiZy53r6k&feature=related
March 1st, 2008 at 8:30 am
well folks the scunthorpe pony express has missed out on this one, it appears
poor old REPORTER.
the dailly telegraph (that reckless rag) is reporting the re-interview story…
Madeleine McCann parents face new interview
By Tom Chivers
Last Updated: 2:18am GMT 01/03/2008
Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann are planning to fly to Britain once more to interview her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, and their friends…
A spokesman for the McCanns said: “They’ve nothing to hide.”
The Home Office said: “We have received a legal assistance request from the Portuguese.”
http://tinyurl.com/3ex697
ahem - is it possible that anorak missed this as well?
i can’t see this one above
March 1st, 2008 at 8:30 am
Hi there Val,
Yes you do remember correctly!
No I didn’t see the TV programme but I did google these two girls when you lot were talking about them earlier in the week. They are two very fortunate young ladies to have been found in this manner, and so quickly. Chances are the sicko that had them would not have kept them alive for much longer. I think that the odds on an abducted child being found by pure luck are pretty phenomenal. I’m afraid my hope that Shannon will be found alive is fading pretty fast, she’s been gone for too long now. I’m praying I’m going to be proved wrong!
March 1st, 2008 at 8:26 am
23 Hannasus
Iv”e e-mailed you quite a lot of jokes and videos but they keep being returned
by the Mail Administrator…………..using up your GB allowance again
Hope you and your family are well.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:22 am
19 Julie
Good morning Julie et al
This is the first time I”ve posted this early!!!!!!!
You live in S.A. if I remember correctly and wouldn”t have seen a T.V. programme this week about two 10 yr old girls literally abducted in 1999 on their
way to School. The Guy was a known pedophile and kept them in his flat for
three days, but miraculously they lived to tell the tale because the Police knocked
on his door with regard to another complaint against him.
We talk about kids growing up too soon today,but what kind of World are we
creating for them?
Poor little Shannon probably did”nt have much of a life, for her Mother to bring
into the World 7 children from 5 different Fathers, is completely irresponsible.
The longer Shannon is missing the more unlikely her safe return, but her
disappearance does highlight the difference between the reaction to her and
Madeleine and the old maxim, “It”s not what you know, it”s who you know”.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:20 am
Julie,
There are not posh types on 3A’s - it is incredibly informative.
I don’t feel I belong there as I am more a lurker but there are some very worthwhile threads there.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:13 am
Gandy, ultra-brilliant video
Sounds like you’re having some fun lately !
Well, if there’s posh types on 3A, I won’t mosey on over there, as I’ll be turfed out on my butt for just opening my mouth there
March 1st, 2008 at 8:07 am
Julie, I must add VJ26 turbocharger to the list, £560 for a bolt on, what a rip off.
Not a lot happening, had a look about on 3A, lots of posh types and I think the whole board was designed by Stevie Wonder, that apart not a lot happening.
See reporter has been putting the cat among the pigeons again, and I am totally losing the plot about who is who, who said what, did Murat have it away with KM, what colour is a number plate and is the world flat.
I switch off, when the board starts discussing taxman is coming, company formations and government nuclear conspiracies, how about sticking to Madeleine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lni71T91dU