Madeleine McCann: Compare And Contrast, An Easter Miracle And David Cameron
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
INDEPENDENT: “Shannon’s miracle: the backlash begins”
Cole Moreton writes:
Comparisons with Madeleine McCann who went missing in Portugal last year were inevitable. Shannon was not the daughter of a couple of good-looking, wealthy, middle-class doctors with friends who knew how to work the media, as Madeleine was…
There are already signs that the togetherness brought on by the search for Shannon could fall apart. But so much was achieved by the people of this much-maligned area. They lacked the glamour, the organisation or the wealth of the campaign to find Madeleine McCann (currently offering a reward of £2.6m sponsored by Sir Richard Branson, among others), and they faced the prejudice of people who looked down on a scruffy council estate on a hill in West Yorkshire, but they kept going anyway, even when it looked hopeless. “People are saying Julie Bushby deserves an honour, and she does,” said Mr Hyett, “but there should be something for the whole community. We didn’t give up.”
Poor but plucky. That’s the real story in the media…
IAIN DALE (Tory blogger): “The ‘People Like Us’ Phenomenon”
Last night on Sky News we briefly discussed why the media gave a much higher profile to the Madeleine McCann case than the Shannon Matthews disappearance. There are, I’m sure lots of factors, but one was the fact that for the media, the McCanns were very much “people like us”, or should I say, people like them. The Matthews family were nothing like the media classes in appearance, lifestyle and outlook. I really think there is something in this. Let’s take the analogy further.
Let’s…
My fellow panelist, Peter Whittle, asserted that the reason David Cameron was given more or less a free ride by the media in his first eighteen months was because he belonged to the “people like us” class. Was this part of the reason the media were so keen to promote him, and do down David Davis after his conference speech? Not consciously, but I do wonder if there was something subconcious about it.
Why was the coverage of the New Orleans floods slightly underdone by the US media? It might it have been different if it had happened in Manhatten, where “people like us” live?
Harriet Harman was given a comparatively easy ride by the media when she sent her kids to a selective school. Could it have been because many media people were facing the same dilemma?
Then: “I could go on, but you see my point.”
That Madeleine McCann can be placed in the cotext of the New Orleans flood, Harriet Harman’s children and a speech by David Cameron? MaddyWatch was made for such things…
SUNDAY HERALD: “How fortunate the police chose not to follow the media’s shoddy example”
Torcuil Crichton on class and crime
EVEN THOUGH it is close to Easter, describing the discovery of missing Shannon Matthews alive, just one mile from her home, as “back from the dead” may not have been media hyperbole…
Until the miracle of Dewsbury happened on live television, there had been too scant media attention paid to Shannon Matthews. Inevitably, we compare coverage to that afforded to Madeleine McCann, who, if column inches ever changed anything, would by now have been reunited with her parents too. Their grim limbo continues even though they went out of the way to maximise publicity, only to create an insatiable media monster that at one stage almost swallowed them up.
Conversely, in the case of Shannon Matthews the media, ourselves included, did not seem to care too much when she was missing.
The McCanns were, although it was almost taboo to point it out, protected by their middle-class status. Had they been part of the white underclass on holiday at a down-at-heel Spanish resort, their treatment by the media would have been far rougher and more intrusive had they been paid any attention at all.
As it was, they went through a pretty torrid time anyway when, in the absence of any real developments, they became the centre of the story.
And in the Sunday Herald, they still are.
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “FAMILY TANGLE WILL BE PROBED SCHOOLGIRL BACK HOME BUT MYSTERY OF HER DISAPPEARANCE DEEPENS THE EXPERT: John Stalker”
Says John Stalker: “Police must seriously examine whether family connivance may be a feature. Large cash rewards are often available for the return of a missing child, such as in the Madeleine McCann inquiry. In Shannon’s case, the money on offer will undoubtedly have tempted some to make fraudulent claims. A shrewd investigator will know that.”
BRADFORD TELEGRAPH AND ARGUS: “Now please go and find my missing Gavin’”
The mother of missing Basildon teenager Gavin Terry has urged West Yorkshire Police to channel their efforts into finding her son - more than two months after he disappeared without a trace.
Philomena Terry spoke out after police discovered nine-year-old schoolgirl Shannon Matthews following one of the biggest manhunts the force has carried out in recent years…
Now Mrs Terry, of Luis Court, Baildon, said she hoped that West Yorkshire Police would re-direct its focus back to the hunt for missing Gavin, 19.“We just want peace of mind to know what has happened to him,” she said.
The final-year student vanished after a night out with friends in Leeds city centre at 1am on Saturday, January 12…
Last week, Mrs Terry joined the heartbroken relatives of other missing children, including the family of Madeleine McCann, at a march in London. The mothers of two teenagers who also vanished organised the event to highlight the scale of the problem and its effect on families.
Spinning out the single-thread story
March 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am
The day of the threads???????
March 16th, 2008 at 10:18 am
FFShave we all got a thread each, you just can’t get the staff.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Don’t worry Gandolf, we have the staff, one on each thread……
March 16th, 2008 at 10:22 am
I wanted to post here, but then I saw you …
March 16th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Hi Carmen. You must be busy today
I’m thinking of doing a multi-window reading.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Ok - I know. There are three stories being linked in the media. If I put them all on one piece it will run on for ever…
March 16th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Yes, right.
I have four windows open now. Think I need some coffee to be able to coordinate the refreshing of them
March 16th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Morning all
So many threads! Time to gather my few neurones they whoosh ckunk….gone, just like that!
March 16th, 2008 at 10:42 am
this is too much
can’t keep up
time for a cuppa and time to see if there are any hippies in the lower field
and try a few slipjigs and reels for tomorrow
March 16th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Châtelaine, don’t wash the curtains although your windows are open, look what happend to the McCanns, allegedly
March 16th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Who do we blame?
Beatrix Campbell
March 14, 2008 6:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/bea … blame.html
The story of Shannon Matthews’ disappearance - and dramatic reappearance, apparently alive and well, today - has confirmed the degree to which class is still the cultural register in our purportedly classless society.
The comparison between Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews is saturated by class. It isn’t just a matter of resources, and which children attract our attention. The comparison registers class as a courier of moral tales. Both stories dramatise the distribution of virtue and blame that fixes the working class and the middle class in moral hierarchies.
Shannon Matthews’ neighbourhood, community and family are poor, lacking in resources, and yet they have spontaneously displayed remarkable resourcefulness - children organised a vigil, adults went out searching for the missing child, community intelligence led the police to her. And once she was found, a party was promised.
Karen Matthews has acted appropriately throughout: she was waiting for Shannon at home; she contacted the police as soon as she had exhausted all the obvious locations. And yet, our eye is drawn to her poverty, numbers of partners, cans of lager going into her household. Everything about Ms Matthews’ life has been up for scrutiny.
There has been talk of domestic violence. I can think of several high-profile “human interest” tragedies in which the domestic violence endured by a middle-class woman has been successfully screened from public knowledge.
Karen Matthews has been subjected to a Today programme interrogation that appeared to position the mother as the perpetrator: Sarah Montague asked her seven times about her lifestyle. Her patronising preoccupation was how many men there have been in her life, not her judgment about them. Has any other, apparently blameless mother been so sweetly assailed?
The McCanns attracted a torrent of money and celebrity solidarity. The McCann campaign was focused on them as young, professional, personable victims. Her silence, his flat verbosity, contributed only to a sympathetic sense that they were traumatised. Their reputation as good parents was redeemed by their apparently sleepless quest to find their child. They needed to be redeemed, of course, because they had left their children sleeping alone in their holiday apartment. They said their daughter had been abducted. Every parents’ nightmare - and the campaign invited every parent’s sympathy. “There but for the grace of God,” people said.
It was the McCann campaign, not the police, that guided the world’s thinking about the child’s fate: that their daughter had been taken from them. She was not dead, they kept saying; their religious faith bathed them in piety and in merit. The campaign’s determined hypothesis got people, from airports to football grounds, posting their child’s image to keep her in the collective consciousness as a child who was alive somewhere.
Their parenting was simultaneously aired and withdrawn from scrutiny in this crest of sympathy. Yes, they were drinkers. But wine, not cider or lager. Yes, they were arguably neglectful; they’d left their children alone, but hey, who hasn’t. Yes, they’d taken their children away for a week and didn’t seem to spend much time with them. That didn’t make them bad people; it just made them tired parents. The father apparently preferred golfing to child care. Well, men!
Their resources - money, looks, religion, organisation, focus (all a function of class) - were all mobilised to protect them and to obscure the question of culpability. It was the McCann’s photo-opportunity with the Pope that eventually exposed the campaign to criticism as inappropriate, not to say unseemly. And yet, even when they ultimately emerged as suspects, they still attracted personal, hyper-identification in the press and a sense of outrage that a foreign reporter had dared ask them about their own culpability and that social workers - the stormtroopers of the Daily Mail’s gallery of hate figures - dared assess their competence as carers.
No one thought Karen Matthews had abducted or killed her daughter - and yet she has been judged. Some commentators think they can say anything they like about this woman and even to her. She has spoken with reticent dignity, yet her class makes her available for blame. The McCanns are official suspects. And yet - unlike Karen Matthews - they are presumed innocent.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:59 am
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/Cody118_bucket/run_gerry_run_01.jpg
The PJ are coming..run Gerry run!
March 16th, 2008 at 11:05 am
11
lilith Says:
____
Don’t worry,
My old grandfather used to tell me ‘if you haven’t done anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about. The truth always comes out, even if it takes a long time’ .
March 16th, 2008 at 11:12 am
13
Dee Says:
March 16th, 2008 at 11:05 am
“[...] Don’t worry, My old grandfather used to tell me ‘if you haven’t done anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about. The truth always comes out, even if it takes a long time’ .”
*****
Hiring a vast team of specialised & expensive lawyers indicates that not everyone agrees with your grandfather. I do. The truth will always come out, though it sometimes may take a long, long time…
March 16th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Oh God I give up, I’m going to church!!!
March 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am
looks like the bones in the arade reservoir are from a small animal
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_15596.shtml
March 16th, 2008 at 11:29 am
13
dee
It will come out eventually.
What Gerry is doing now is a desperate attempt to prevent that.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Lilith, sorry if i’ve missed something, but what IS Gerry up to? Do you mean trying to sue the Newspaper?
March 16th, 2008 at 11:34 am
16
âde
How does the people in devon take it in?
Feel sad for Fiona & Scarlett
I kind of emphasize -yes I know this is an other neglect - because the new age people are generally gentle idealistic and never really imagine even something wrong could happen to them.I havent read the news but is Fiona still in india?she didnt legg it did she?
The bones are from a small animal
I mean it was obvious from the first moments
I could see the forensic analyst, a VET by the way , smiling, detached and giving the feeling he had done this all his life : work with animals
March 16th, 2008 at 11:43 am
#
16
âde Says:
March 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am
looks like the bones in the arade reservoir are from a small animal
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_15596.shtml
#
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Blimey! So the McCanns were right not to make a hasty trip to the dam? That poor ol lawyer………thought he was onto a goldmine. Unfortunately it turned out to be the underworlds pet cat aptly named Madeleiene.
Maybe the lesson to belearnt here is that even lawyers can be a bit zany! As if we didnt really know!
March 16th, 2008 at 11:44 am
No one thought Karen Matthews had abducted or killed her daughter - and yet she has been judged. Some commentators think they can say anything they like about this woman and even to her. She has spoken with reticent dignity, yet her class makes her available for blame. The McCanns are official suspects. And yet - unlike Karen Matthews - they are presumed innocent.
*************
Karren NOT arguido and under scrutiny
Mccanns SUSPECT and presumed innocent
I believe this has created and create a deeper feeling of insecurity in the british society
Depending you social “cast” you may be saved
This is the essence of what is happening but this time it is exposed big time in/by the media and slam in the public”s face
Nothing new may be but it strikes harder than ever
March 16th, 2008 at 11:48 am
20
Garth Says:
March 16th, 2008
Of course they knew there was no need to rush over there to the damn, because they knew all along that’s not where they hid her.
Morning Garth!
March 16th, 2008 at 11:51 am
22.
22
Dee Says:
March 16th, 2008 at 11:48 am
20
Garth Says:
March 16th, 2008
Of course they knew there was no need to rush over there to the damn, because they knew all along that’s not where they hid her.
Morning Garth!
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Mornin Dee
Have you calmed down a tad know? Any questions
March 16th, 2008 at 11:52 am
‘now’ even eh?
You dont think I done that on purpose?
March 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am
22
Dee
Quizz: why would they hide her anyway?
March 16th, 2008 at 11:56 am
#
25
jo Says:
March 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am
22
Dee
Quizz: why would they hide her anyway?
———————-
I love quizes.
Ans. Because they dont want anyone to find her? Am I right?
March 16th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I’ll take that as a no then………….so pass or give in………wos the answer?
March 16th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
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27
jo Says:
March 16th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Garth
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Link dont work but dont tell me……….erm………Tia Maria?
March 16th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I’m calm, fine and dandy as always Garth.
Jo- They may have hid her, because they truly believed they would be able to pull this off (imo) Can you imagine the horror of coming back and finding your daughter dead in an appartment that you had left them alone in, both respected in their community, Gerry just getting funding for his research….
The money started coming in, but i don’t think for a minute they expected as much, with it (imo) comes guilt, that’s why they fritter it away on ridiculous Private Investigative companies, not specialising in missing persons of any age, they still insist they are happy with the service they are getting from them?????
This is all just my opinion, but to me it makes much more sense than a child abductor
when there isn’t a shred of evidence to show abduction.
March 16th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
26
Garth Says:
March 16th, 2008 at 11:56 am
****
Of course, you’re right, Garth. As a matter of principle, you only hide something, if you don’t want it to be found.