Madeleine McCann: Prayers, Bones And Media
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
Remember, everyone, to play Anorak Bingo you must mention Madeleine McCann, Shannon Matthews and – here’s the tie-breaker – Scarlett Keeling. Eyes down…
DAILY MAIL: Amanda Platell
There cannot be a person in the country who didn’t feel a surge of delight on learning that little Shannon Matthews has been found alive and well.
We can think of one.
All the more so in these days when good news has become such a rare commodity. Yet even as we celebrate, we should spare a thought for Gerry and Kate McCann, for whom Shannon’s discovery, wonderful as it is, will be a fresh reminder of their own terrible loss. The return of one lost girl is a marvel. The return of two . . . now that’s a miracle worth praying for.
Was it the power of prayer that got Shannon Matthews found? If so, who gets the reward?
Tick. Tick.
THE INDEPENDENT: “Deborah Orr: Wonderful news that carries a message for the media”
It isn’t often that the papers have some really wonderful news to report. But it really is wonderful that Shannon Matthews has been found alive.
Amanda Platell agrees.
This amazing news also carries a lesson for the media, about the way it turns horrible crimes into great stories, and what an unpleasant, self-regarding business this can be.
There were suggestions that Shannon’s disappearance was not getting the coverage afforded to another lost child, Madeleine McCann, because the latter was a middle-class child and the former a child from a more modest and chaotic background. There is some truth in this argument, of course.
You can read about it all over the media.
But the underlying assumption is that all the publicity around the McCann case is something desirable and useful, while the more meagre reporting about the Matthew case is undesirable and useless. If children really could be reunited with their parents because of the magical power of speculative column inches, though, then Madeleine, not Shannon, would have been returned to her family by now. The very idea that the hypocritical furore around Madeleine is something to be aspired to, a benchmark of any positive kind, is quite wrong and ought to be challenged.
The McCanns should not be the media’s benchmark for missing children. We’ve heard that before…
True, the “debate” helped to keep Shannon’s abduction in the public domain, just as the “debate” around Made-leine continues to keep her case in the public domain.
A debate. On what? What was being debated?
It might be argued that there would have been no great endeavour to find Shannon had the press not made the supposedly modest fuss it did.
MEdia.
I believe this isn’t the case. The local media has a vast part to play, but the national and international press, apart from reporting facts about the investigation, can offer little but intrusive “colour”. The reality is that the vast majority of the “stories” written about the McCann case have been prurient and sensational pieces of cynical propaganda, serving no practical purpose at all except for the selling of newspapers.
Indeed. Read all about selling papers in the Independent.
Tick. Tick.
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “Divers recover bag of small bones in search for Maddy”
DIVERS searching an Algarve reservoir for Madeleine McCann yesterday found a plastic bag containing small bones. Police experts were last night examining the gruesome find made by a frogman working for a Portuguese lawyer.
Gerry and Kate McCann were informed immediately by a private detective who was observing the search. Madeira-based lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia says he was tipped off by underworld contacts that Madeleine was murdered and her body thrown into the reservoir last May.The search turned up the bones in the murky waters of the Barragem do Arabe reservoir yesterday at 3.30pm.
Mr Correia said last night: “We found two bags one of which contains some small bones. We don’t know if they are human bones or not at this stage. If they are human bones, they look like they come from a child’s fingers.”
Tick. And a half tick for speculation.
THIS IS LONDON: “Bag of small bones found in reservoir where lawyer claims Madeleine McCann’s body was dumped”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We have not been informed of anything by the police to indicate that this find is significant. There is nothing to indicate at this stage that they are human bones and they could easily be from an animal. There is nothing at the moment to indicate that this find has anything to do with Madeleine. We continue to believe she is alive.”
THE SUN: “Shannon: 24 days of tears”
IN the end, the prayers were answered – as yesterday the tears of anguish over missing Shannon Matthews turned to sobs of relief.
Prayers. What of the tip off? The police work?
TIMELINE:
Sunday, February 24: CHURCHGOERS pray for Shannon’s safe return. Madeleine McCann’s parents send a message of support.
Tick. Tick.
THE GUARDIAN: “What women want”
Following last year’s Booker win, Anne Enright is finally enjoying wider recognition - despite her work’s reputation for being gloomy and obsessed with sex and death
She became the target of ire in the tabloids when they picked up an article she wrote in the London Review of Books dissecting her reaction to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The piece was full of ambivalence, describing her suspicions of Gerry and Kate McCann but in the end condemning her own voyeurism. She refuses to say whether the fracas upset her, but seems sensibly resigned, agreeing that events proved how she was naive to think her nuances would be understood in the grotesque guessing game that the story had become: “I was misread and I hoped that would become apparent, but there’s no point in me stomping around and fighting with shadows.”
Posted: 15th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (621) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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March 15th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
381
Denzylle
again to spell it out…
See post
324
…Bearing in mind that this site is supposed to be about satire and irony
March 15th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
384
Marie Nicholas
Damn right
The truth may be?
March 15th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
379 Jo
“she gives the impression she is very unaware that Madeleine has gone”.
It could be a mechanism of defence (denial).
But mostly, she isn’t convincing. My feeling is : there is something missing in her answers.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I shall gladly donate my prize of a haggis to SpongeBob, I feel bitterly sorry for him that he couldn’t be arsed to google for the answer
March 15th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
380
Denzylle
I know you are proud of your joke. I’m sure that many would find it genius..given that your shoes fit comfortably
On which delightful subject would you like to engage?
March 15th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
For anyone following (yawn!) (oh, and for SpongeBobbitt, who cuidnae even be fashed tae Google) -
Furry Boot Toun = Ferry Boat Town (Scottish accent - ACCENT! SPONGEBOBBITT!! - your topic!) = Aberdeen, the town from which the ferry boats go (went) out to the oil rigs.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
SpongeBobbitt
It’s been fun joshing with you, but there are interesting MM discussions out there that I want to respond to.
So, in the meantime, remember my shears are sharp and long and that ‘I-is-a-long-memoried-woman’ and that Scotland is but a small country.
Do not belittle other Anorak posters.
Be afraid, SpongeBobbitt, or your bobbitt will be spongey and pruned.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
374
Marie Nicholas
Judging by what she says and how she gives the impression she is very unaware that Madeleine has gone.
She does not speak of Madeleine in afectous motherly terms
“Whoosh…gone…just like that” completely out of it ,not showing any feeling whatsoever
Sad
March 15th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
woof woof
March 15th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
#
375
clouseau Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Gandy
dogs cant lie
————–
Dogs cant talk ya daft bugger!
March 15th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
371
Denzylle
see 370
Start the stretching exercises.
and also, while you’re up.. maybe can I introduce you to my mate Dina. She washes and everything. But she likes the pretty ones.. not sure what you do…perhaps a bit of slap would help? No Docs - a bit passe..
March 15th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Gandy
dogs cant lie
March 15th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
274 Ferdinand
“How do you read the “woosh clunk scene”?
I am only catching up now.
Difficult to answer your question, as, not being English, and not knowing the different accents, my interpretations may not be good at all. I’ll try, though.
First thing I would say about KM’s elocution in general, is it doesn’t match her looks, and it is disappointing. Whether you like her type of beauty, and face expression, or not, she has a good figure, with a muscular body, a long, straight neck, and long limbs, both feminine and strong. She looks self-possessed, self-controled. When she speaks, she sounds like a little girl, or rather an adolescent, she lacks poise, the pitch of her voice is not well placed, her tone is not convincing. Besides, but maybe it is me who doesn’t understand very well, she doesn’t come across as very articulate. She looks as if she wanted to be somewhere else. I imagine her giving a lecture, the tone and the contents will not reach her audience. Her sentences are sort of disconnected and rambling. She sounds and she looks nervous. She doesn’t convey a lot of meaning to what she says. The answers she gives are slightly beside the point, as if she avoided a straight answer. She also gives the impression of not personnalising the conversation. She gives answers, as if she was submitted to an interrogation, she doesn’t establish a two-way connection, but she makes up for it with a number of “you know”, as if calling for the understanding and agreement of who listens (this maybe due to the fact that what I saw of her were bits of interviews, so I just notice it in passing, but draw no conclusions out of it). She doesn’t give the impression of being fully there. I have also noticed that often, she uses a tone which doesn’t match the contents of her speech : she laughs instead of crying. I will not elaborate about it now, but I find it unsettling.
There may be several explanations :
- She is in a bad state, having being heavily traumatised, and her speach reflects the shock she had.
- She is not at ease, she is self-conscious, doesn’t express herself well. She hasn’t found a peaceful, satisfaying way of communicating. It reflects something about her nature.
- Her speech also reflects the fact that she isn’t a fully grown-up character. There is still something of a child in her.
- She is not at ease saying what she says, she finds it difficult to say it because she is not saying the truth.
As for the “woosh clunk” interview, I can’t help watching her with a critical eye, and I’d rather not analyse it. I don’t know how she can talk about it in such away. But she belongs to the TV generation, maybe she finds it normal to talk for the camera.
I don’t want to draw a conclusion. And once again, I am not reliable, English not being my maternal tongue.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
SpongeBobbitt
370
Hah! I don’t care if you think I’m only three feet tall. (How long was the schlong?)
FBT?
March 15th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Scarlett, no if dogs find something that can be used in court we would expect that to happen. They didn’t find Shannon despite there well publicised use, and if they ever did find anything in Portugal, it was not anything to impress the FSS.
Dogs work with handlers neither are infallible, although six month clueless is in love with them,it still doesn’t make them infallible, it just make clueless rather strange.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
SpongeBobbitt
368
There’s more than one (Furry) Cup to sip from.
I’m still waiting for an answer - and the accent disnae seemed tae hae helped.
I’m polishing my gardening shears…
March 15th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
360
Denzylle
‘And then, SpongeBobbitt, Google Bobbitt, and find out what I’m gonnae dae tae ye when I get up tae Scotland wi’ ma gardening shears.’
- ah, shit, you would be just the right height
March 15th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I don’t know- what happened to the Pope when he went to the Mount of Olives- did he did he confess he was virgin and get tossed over a salad?
March 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
340
Denzylle
Didn’t you know that term? Did you have to look up urban dictionary? Bless.. You have to tell her later.. It will be so funny to find a new way to describe it…
March 15th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Gandolf, so better selectively to believe in dogs?
March 15th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
364
âde
hahaha
March 15th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
csn
here’s the great conversion
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7157998.stm
March 15th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
csn
here’s miranda doing pope impressions
http://www.aref-adib.com/archives/Pope_Blair.jpg
March 15th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Gandy to the stand
laughter from the gallery
March 15th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
#
358
pat Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Julie- that was below the belt
#
357
can’t say no Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Julie
- only the women understood 
hehehe
—————————–
Yeah, I know, but he missed it
March 15th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
CSN
356
Let’s just say there is more than one way to sip from the Furry Cup, as SpongeBobbitt puts it.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Spongebob
350
Denzylle Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Julie, I thought he had it, but no…
SpongeBobbitt, just Google it.
Duh!
————————–
Julie Says
ROFPML
——————————————————————————————
And then, SpongeBobbitt, Google Bobbitt, and find out what I’m gonnae dae tae ye when I get up tae Scotland wi’ ma gardening shears.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Ihave a question for the more pius amongst you, “What happened to the Pope when he went to Mount Olive?”
March 15th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Julie- that was below the belt
March 15th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Julie
hehehe