Comments on: How The Media Treats Australian Backpacker Britt Lapthorne

By: Libby

Libby — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:03:48 +0000

A comment from an Aussie.
The reason we wanted coverage in England was that there might be someone, somewhere who may have seen Britt at the Fuego Club. Many backpackers eventaually wind up in London. It is a right of passage for most young Australian travellers. Unfortunately, this morning we heard the news that Britt is indeed dead and now we must move on to the next phase. As a friend of Britt’s and her family all I can say is that I knew her to be a caring, happy, beautiful person.

See: Britt’s Legacy

By: chenier

chenier — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:24:30 +0000

sam

I come back to the point that Tony Blair’s Government was probably the nadir of PR; all surface, no substance, and the disappearance of Madeleine was manna from Heaven when the media were running on a massive scandal about Tony’s bosom buddie using the honours granted to him by Tony to support his perjury to a High Court Judge.

And all of a sudden there were photogenic, middle class parents with a pretty child who had gone missing; guaranteed tabloid interest, guaranteed tv sofa time, guaranteed opportunity for Tony’s hack -and Clarrie was Tony’s hack-to distract from the Lord Browne scandal.

A perfect opportunity for Teflon Tony to be spun as the good guy helping these poor, tragic, middle class and photogenic parents, with the pretty missing daughter, as opposed to the guy who handed out a knighthood and a life peerage to one of his best friends who was so honest that he was prepared to perjure himself.

In a government that was capable of spinning the country into a war, are you surprised that they would be prepared to spin a tale to take the heat off a scandal?

If you look back to ‘This would be a good day to bury bad news’ on the day the twin towers fell, it does give some insight to the way they think.

I have no doubt that all sorts of backhanded things were done, which should not have been done; I still doubt that there was a reason beyond the corruption of a government which ruled by deceit and subterfuge…

By: sam

sam — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:57:39 +0000

chenier, yes, i remember that too, and it’s like normal or good/practised police proceedure is ignored, when i should not be. the normal way of ‘looking at things’ is to look at the family first, then aquaintences and friends of the family and then the wider field. that is what the pj did and the mccanns to my mind tried to hinder that normal and very right way of policework.
as to the media i think it’s important not to forget that it was manipulated. yes, mostly it’s gossip and sleezy but in mm’s case it was most definately directed, there were interferences from government and there were pr mangers. what normal missing person has that, no-one really unless strings are pulled and strings were pulled, the old boy school network kicked in i think, a phone call here and there sort of thing., and me and you, if we want to know what happened it’s not possible without filling in well worded request form which could still get denied if it’s deemed a risk. something is very foul in the mm case.

By: sam

sam — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:45:49 +0000

june, me too, i’ve let the potatoes burn!
well anoraks point is to take the mick out of it all isn’t it ?

By: June

June — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:37:33 +0000

Sam

Sorry was otherwise occupied with domestic issues.
The glut of emotional hogwash over MM and her parents was just sickening in the extreme, but its the callous indifference towards others in the same situation that gets me riled.
There has to be a balance of reporting, in a missing person case, whatever their age they can be just as helpless as a tiny child.
I know we see headlines of say an aircrash and 150 killed,then the UK media find out two Brits were on board and we are swamped with details we do not need to know.

We do have a form of celeb- worship these days, but it isn’t news, its gossip.

All the past fortnight we have heard about Jade Goody and her cancer, yes its sad a young woman fighting for her life, but this morning I read of Wendy Richard who has a far more severe battle on her hands, and has had for several years.

but I’m digressing , its the Media who are not presenting events in the manner they could to keep us informed

By: chenier

chenier — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:23:52 +0000

On the whole, ‘who was this person last seen with’ is a very good question to ask if someone goes missing.

I recall the tragedy in the US recently where the police ignored the fact a young girl was last seen in the company of her uncle, who had spent time in jail for rape and kidnapping, in favour of issuing an Amber Alert. Her body was found a week or so later, and her uncle awaits charges.

So it’s logical for the police to work backwards from a last sighting; the shame lies in the fact that the media seems uninterested in doing anything to try and provide the coverage which the media here has assured us so often can make all the difference to finding someone….

They can’t have it both ways…

By: sam

sam — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:09:30 +0000

chenier, well i think he could’ve been told that or just invented it. why was he picked up for questioning in the first place i wonder.

By: chenier

chenier — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:42:51 +0000

sam, it’s is also ‘Hearsay’ sleeze; he claims that ‘that he had been told’.

Who by?

Why say it if it’s just an anonymous comment by an anonymous individual who doesn’t even have the guts to identify himself?

Tabloid-land, where no-one ever takes responsibility for anything, and where journalists are prepared to treat the sort of stuff which might have been exchanged over garden fences when people were hanging the washing out as ‘news’, seems increasingly to be regarded as ‘normal’.

By: sam

sam — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:32:53 +0000

but i am tired of the sleeze, and it is sleeze when such is said;

‘Jutarnji List, the hostel owners’ son Ivica Perkovic said he knew Britt only superficially but said he was aware of the many places in Bosnia she had travelled in the weeks before and that he had been told she was “open, maybe too open and promiscuous’

it reminds of when my daughter dumped a pain in the neck and he turned around spreading all types of stuff similar to that simply cos he didn’t get where he wanted to, that’s what that comment made by jutarnji list reads like to me.

By: sam

sam — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:13:20 +0000

june, madeleines disapearence was practically forced fed, they had a press spokesman, or people remember, initially even government sponsord, as in the taxpayer paid for it and then the fund paid for it, or wealthy sponsors did, the story of madeleines abduction was promoted professionally by poeple in the position to do so.

By: June

June — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:04:18 +0000

There was coverage in Australia about Britt but none is Europe either. But the Aussies covered the MM case, even though she isn’t an Aussie.
But a lot of British children go missing and the media show remarkable restraint.
For all we know Britts family could be UK ex pats?

By: sam

sam — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:32:34 +0000

odd isn’t it june, that britt’s disapearence hasn’t been reported in the papers here. but then, don’t forget madeleiene was british, or is, and her parents british doctors and it kind of makes sense that her disapearence took off in the british papers but a missing australien didn’t. was there no coverage in australia ?

By: June

June — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:14:37 +0000

Its the complete indifference shown by the media, sam, both here and in Europe. Hundreds of our own youth go’ Gap’ year backpacking, they could be in all manner of trouble and danger,and is the indifference of the media the best we can do?

Coverage reached saturation point and beyond with Madeleine McCann, and the pedestal made for her parents.
Its one extreme or another, ogling to the point of nausea, or just not bothered, neither attitude is right

By: Cheshire Set

Cheshire Set — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:07:44 +0000

Has she been linked to the MM case yet?

By: sam

sam — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:01:11 +0000

it doesn’t sound good though her disapearence like that does it unfortunately.