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
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March 2nd, 2008 at 1:52 am
stevet
I didnt get why they would be under survelience before the 3rd?
did you?
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:51 am
now cummon - it was because you didnt have a bathroom!! Very few houses did - until the 70’s when “normal” folk could get bank loans for home improvements………………
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:51 am
768
brandon flours
Lets hope so. Stevo had some good points last (Friday) night. One was that Clarrie had come out and confirmed timings that contradicted the taxi drivers story, possibly falling into the PJ’s trap/
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:49 am
dcb
Stop pulling my leg!!
I remember being embarrassed because we kept our flannels by the kitchen sink and not in the bathroom.
( not until some stuck up bitch pointed it out )
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:47 am
761
brandon flours
I can be remember as a very young toddler getting bathed in the kitchen sink! Luckily no one had dishwashers then.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:47 am
Did you have a “free standing kitchen cabinet - green and cream? fetching a bloody fortune on ebay - ours went on the bonfire
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:47 am
stevet
I think he holds the key
I read it ages ago and forgot, then revising everything this week, he is the star witness
!!!!!!!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 am
Brandon
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 am
Why Brandon - because it was nearest to the kettle for hot water -
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:45 am
761
brandon flours
+++++++++++
Bloody hell Brandon - you had a kitchen too?
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:45 am
759
brandon flours
You know what those hot blooded latin types are like!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:45 am
Steve - yes I did read that - but it seems that the pj had the taxi driver’s report months ago. If it was crucial evidence, then the pj would obviously keep it qt
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:44 am
760
SteveT
++++++
Hell of a job to light some of them!!!!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:44 am
Why did we all wash in the kitchen then?
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:43 am
757
dcb
I hope you didnt burn them all!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:43 am
Stevet
Whats your make on the pj officer who befriended kate for a bit then was at her interview and couldnt look her in the eye.
Kate was so furious she swore!!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:42 am
Monkey was brilliant because it was so bad!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:42 am
755
SteveT
+++++++
We had a choice - burn the newspapers for heating, or wipe your ass on them cut up in little squares - Paraffin - pure luxury.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:41 am
no it was a small cubic B&W
On friday nights around 6-7 it had all the oldies harold lloyd, laurel and hardy, tarzan, charlie chan, and ‘monkey’ that weird thing my dad turned off.
Why did we all was in the kitchen then?
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:40 am
How the other half live! Paraffin!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:39 am
751
brandon flours
++++++++++++
Don’t try to deny it Brandon - your family had a PURSE !!!!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
746
annie1
Did you see that someone posted that the taxi drivers brother was in the PJ?
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
My faith in taxi drivers hit rock bottom last night when I was charged £9 for a 2 mile trip.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
dcb
we are talking 77 ish, we werent rich we were pursey!
we lived on what the purse contained
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
Brandon - so you had a telly run by parafin too!!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 am
745
brandon flours
Cant remember that!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 am
stevet
weird
one little phrase and a whole memory is released, I was only 4 !
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 am
“tangerine” god you were rich Brandon - I just got half a peanut.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:35 am
I personally, believe that cab driver and I think that the pj are a bit miffed that he mentioned it - so they are playing it down, and I also think that this maybe a crucial bit of evidence that the pj will be relying on - they were a bit too quick to dismiss it and immediately say that there was no cctv outside of the hotel. I think - and it is just in my opinion with nothing to substantiate it - I think that the pj probably have footage from the cctv camera and that taxi bloke was spot on. Taxi drivers, by the very nature of their business, need to have good memory.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:34 am
no
charlie chan the great detective!!!!!!!!
I remember watching that on a friday after tarzan and having a bath and a tangerine after the parraffin man had been!