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
March 16th, 2008 at 2:50 am
The shit is about to hit the http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/16/ukcrimefan.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:49 am
580 annie123
You think so too, re the kids in one room, well, perhaps this is what happened. I too would take a night at least to get used to a different bed especially if I didn’t take my special pillow. I can remember going on holiday with family and the kids were very young, and they all bunked down in one room for the first couple of nights, and they of course didn’t go to sleep straight away, too excited, and someone kept popping in until all were sleeping, and even then an ear was left open for any noise. Ms Tanner’s child was sick, heck, that would ring alarm bells wouldn’t it! Drs would be aware of a sick child and offer something to help. All this never happened did it!Lots of questions unanswered here.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:47 am
590
I think I succeeded in castrating SpongeBobbit this evening.
I definitely won the battle.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Ian: Thanks for saving my sanity! How could nobody be sure who arrived at the dinner-table first on the night that a child goes missing but be bang on about the times? Why did GM get confused at least 4 times by his own memories of the last time he checked his kids.
Why do the Clan always change their stories when we cue them on Anorak? The minute we spot a crack they rush in to plaster over it! Uncannily canny! Och Aye! Yer’ right! Whoosh clunk!
March 16th, 2008 at 2:46 am
570 Coco
Not much good than if you can trace the call,but not who made it. I read a while ago
that the PJ picked up a caller saying “the coast is clear”, read into it what you will.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:46 am
val, there are no PJ arriving, if Ian had looked a little more he would have seen that the same bullshit site, said thet left to go back to Portugal on Friday, total bollox. Ans what makes you think I know anything about Wizards, Shaman, Seers Mystics or the meaning of life.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:45 am
587 Denzylle
We seem to share views regarding the half wits!
March 16th, 2008 at 2:45 am
586
OMG!
Gaelic!
Must be time for bed.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:44 am
585
coco
I have not heard anything except read a bit about the detectives alleged to have arrived in Brmingham (England).
Might be fantasy (after all, we have been arguing with a Wizard - ex-sledgehammer- here so anything is possible!)
March 16th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Val
Just because Denzylle doesn”t know too much about Wizards, doesn”t make him a
“halfwit”, I”m sure he knows lots of things that you don”t, you can”t be the fount of all
knowledge, your Brain would burst.!!!!!!
———————————————————————————————————–
Val, if you’re talking about me, I’m female - hence my long conversation with the other half wit, SpongeBobbitt, this evening.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:41 am
annie123 are you thick as well as a fantasist, I treated your nonsensical rambling with the contempt it deserved, as I shall the rest of your fanciful wiccan poppycock, begone harridan!!
[gaelic phrase removed -dr]
‘Say little and say it well’ (english translation of gaelic phrase - dr)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G4O5AMSevc
March 16th, 2008 at 2:41 am
Ian:
Thanks. I was in Italy yeaterday evening and heard some Spanish guys discussing the Clan and that they were going to come under pressure very soon but my Spanish is worse than my German and I didn’t understand their excitement.
I have trawled the usuak news channels but cannot find anything about the Clan - except the Reservoir which I have rich reservations about.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:38 am
564 Gandolf
You know what they say “A Specialist is a person who knows more and more about
less and less”
Just because Denzylle doesn”t know too much about Wizards, doesn”t make him a
“halfwit”, I”m sure he knows lots of things that you don”t, you can”t be the fount of all
knowledge, your Brain would burst.!!!!!!
What”s this about the Detectives arriving?
March 16th, 2008 at 2:37 am
581 coco
Thats my opinion too. It is fascinating that Tanner has openly stated that she was unaware - I think there is ‘clear blue water’ between Tanner and the McCanns.
Gerry has stated that Tanner saw the abductor at 9:10, yet he has also stated that he saw Madeleine at 9:10, even if not clock watching, why did he use these two times ?
Tanner actually stated 9:15. Why would he deliberately sink her statement?
It may be that this is the key - as I have alswyas (boringly I know!) stated that the time line is key - the window of opportunity is key - and it will be their undoing.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:37 am
KM is 40 yrs old NOT 39 yrs as some of the press like to report lol. She turned 40 on 5/6 March.
Right, off to bed, spent too much time here responding to the Annoraks idiot Gandolf (every messageboard has one lol)
March 16th, 2008 at 2:33 am
KM would have checked her friends apartments on INSTINCT and conditioned behaviour after a week at the resort. Any human being would respond in this way.
Especially somebody naive and stupid enough to leave a 3 yr os old child in charge of 18 mths old twins. KM would have hoped against hope that MM was in another apartment close by.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:32 am
572
lyn Says:
I have a 3 yr old, younger than Maddie but older than the twins.
At home, I put her to bed, she does not come out of her bedroom unless there is a problem ie, she has soiled her nappy, there is a spider in her room or she is thirsty. She is my third child and I have learnt a lot from my first 2. I am also registered disabled with 3rd but not with first 2 so parenting a bit different with 3rd.
If I took my 3 yr old on holiday, she would take a couple of nights to settle in a strange bed, the same goes for me, I wouldn’t be able to sleep so good in a strange bed. Putting the kids all in one apartment after a few night of sleeping in one bed would not make sense. BUT nothing seems to make sense in this case.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:31 am
577
coco
Not that I know of, what was Italy buzzing about sorry?
March 16th, 2008 at 2:30 am
574
Gandolf A fan of ‘The Champions’?
March 16th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Hi Ian:
Italy quite buzzing earlier before my flight. Is there a European news-site I can go to in order to find out more?
March 16th, 2008 at 2:28 am
I’m still waiting for a better reason for Kate McCann rising to immediate hysteria than it being due to seeing a window and shutter open (Garth’s theory) and not bothering to check with Jane Tanner that she had not got Madeleine with her before heading back to the Tapas Bar (leaving the other two alone again!) or before shouting across to the Tapas Bar that Madeleine had been taken.
I have asked sevral people, male and female, all parents, if they would have acted as Kate is purported to have done. So far, no one has been able to suggest why she wouldnt have checked first with Tanner.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:27 am
I haven’t seen this suggested -
- what if one of the other children accidentally killed MM?
It would give some or all of the Tapas Nine a very good reason to stick together.
I believe all the other children were younger than MM, but it’s possible that one or more might have sat on her face / chest until she smothered, for instance.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:25 am
Denzylle, like time I am ageless, my father was a great admirer of Miss Bastedo, and I approved whole heartedly with his sentiments, she may be a little old for me, but she is still a fine figure of a woman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oNZyMVTVCE
March 16th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Posters on the 3A’s (which is still there!) are saying that the PJ have arrived, I wonder if this is true this time!
March 16th, 2008 at 2:21 am
The thread keep on coming back - nothing is as it seems…maybe the kids were not left alone in respective apartments. Could be all the kids were together somewhere else and got into mischief. Seems pretty silly in the first place to leave kids in different apartments.
One of the Tapas could have gone to check and found chaos, and a child dying! Maybe no medical help could save Maddy. Hence the priest brought into it. If only he could speak.
(IMO).
March 16th, 2008 at 2:20 am
555
Gandolf Says:
Lets face it, your full of shit. I have only responded to you once before and you would not or could not reply to my last post to you, never mind.
You have no concept of what you are attempting to protray because you are not ‘educated’ in the arts.
Druidism has been portrayed as following the dark side, Wicca follows the ‘light’ side. I have a foot in both camps so to speak. I have been taught the dark side yet wish to follow the light side. I am no slave to any side, I have a choice.
Unlike you Gandolf, I have learnt the true arts of both sides, you have learnt nothing from any side. Play with fire and expect to be burnt. Follow the light and be enlightened.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Val:
It is established by the PJ that the co-ordinates of each telephone would be used in Court albeit that this would not prove who was in control of the phone at the time of each individual message.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Gandy, you must be as old as I am if you still use Alexandra Bastedo as your pin up. Presumably, the 1960s or 70s model, as opposed by Ms Bastedo aged 62.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Denzylle, I am above the desires of carnality, unless she looks like Alexandra Bastedo, now that is/was a babe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNvOPN1LoQ4
March 16th, 2008 at 2:13 am
561 annie 123
Agreed, if these interviews ever take place it will be fascinating to discover what the
PJ knows as fact. I know they intercepted mobile phone calls between the group
but this would be inadmissable as evidence in court if it should come to that.