Madeleine McCann: On Lawyers, Media And Local Newspapers
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
LIVERPOOL DAILY POST: “Local experts forecast liklihood [sic] of Madleine McCanns’ damages case”
DEFAMATION specialists in the region have commented on the outcome of a case brought by the parents of Madeleine McCann which resulted in four national newspapers issuing front-page apologies for their coverage of the toddler’s disappearance.
Liverpool has taken the McCanns to its big heart. Not for nothing is Liverpool the European city of Culture. Kate McCann was born in Liverpool and her mother Susan Healy lives in the area.
The local Liverpool paper has invited a panel of local lawyers to share their thoughts with locals about the local story of a young girl from Leicestershire who went missing in Portugal.
We are no longer watching the parents in the media. We are watching the media in the media. Anorak is watching the media watching the media. Thank you for watching.
THE GUARDIAN: “This reckless reporting cannot continue”
Usually, mothers are the most harshly judged. Kate McCann is a professional in a stable marriage, but that still left room for questioning. MacKeown and Matthews were more straightforward targets, having had nine and seven children respectively by several different men each. The press, having trashed Meehan, suggested that, if harm had come to Shannon, her mother was to blame for her choice of partner. When the child was found, the Mail headlined “A very dysfunctional family … Some homecoming for Shannon”, over a cleverly composed picture of Meehan, Matthews and Leon Rose, Shannon’s natural father, all unsmiling, all looking like the last people you’d want to go home to.
Anorak Bingo. Tick. Tick. Tick.
But this is bang on:
Newspapers, losing readers and advertisers to the web, are desperate. When the latest tittle-tattle can be online in minutes, they dare not hesitate. When bloggers scream at the tops of their voices, they dare not adopt a more considered tone. When everyone else on the planet is discussing the latest scandal, they dare not ignore it. Yet if the press loses authority and reliability - and even downmarket papers once treated news with a degree of rigour - it is doomed. If readers can’t be sure that distinguished papers are separating facts from gossip, there isn’t much point buying them or going to their websites. There are other sources with better gossip, and you don’t have to feel guilty about paying for it.
Newspapers Are About The Writer And The Web Is About The Editor
Roy Greenslade writes:
The Independent’s press commentator, Stephen Glover, also touches on the “unique” Daily Express coverage of the McCanns. It “has been obsessed to the point of insanity”, he writes.
“Other newspapers do not repeatedly insist that house prices are going up when they are going down, or that Diana, Princess of Wales was murdered. The once great Daily Express has created a crazy alternative universe all of its own that has nothing to do with the rest of Fleet Street.”
It is a relief to know that I am not a lone voice on this matter. I just wish they had joined me in calling for a boycott, as reported in the Liverpool Daily Post. It’s the only way of bringing a rogue proprietor (Richard Desmond) and his rogue papers to heel.
Madeleine McCann: The media event
March 29th, 2008 at 7:19 am
. 319 Stevo
March 26th, 2008 at 4.49pm
Stevo, I found the website http://www.ncmec.org/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&Pagekd=1285 only provided space for a 2 para response. I have therefore amplified my concerns in a letter to The Director, NCMEC as follows:
“I feel outraged that an organisation like NCMEC is assosicating themselves with Kate and Gerry McCann, who are ‘arguidos’ in respet of the ‘disappearance’ of their daughter, Madeleine.
Madeleine was still 3 years old when her parents left her and her 2 year old twin siblings at night, unattended, in an unlocked apartment in a foreign country, while they wined and dined with friends, out of ear shot, each night. It is known that these supposedly ‘caring parents’ even visited another restaurant half a mile away, still leaving their children unattended. A neighbour had to report the distress of one of the children because her crying persisted for so long.
When the McCann’s guilt in leaving three young children on their own is an obvious contributory factor in Madeleine’s disappearance, and when such neglect put these three children at risk in other respects too, I just marvel that your organisation would wish to be so thoroughly discredited by assosication with the McCanns.
It can’t have escaped your attention that, on 7th April 2008, the Portuguese justice system is about to embark on questioning those dining with the McCanns, and the PJ has been systematically accumulating evidence as to what really happened on that fateful night.
It is also known that, for obscure reasons, the McCanns hve received unprecedented help from many powerful sources. The British public, and the public in Portugal and elsewhere, are not as gullible as these influential people woule like to believe, and we are determined to see that Madeleine receives justice.
If your organisation wants to be taken seriously, it would be as well to investigate thoroughly the circumstances surrounding those with whom you choose to associate as being supportive to your cause. “
March 26th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
421
Gandolf Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Madeleines aura shines bright she lives, she was in the taxi, the Portuguese know.
__________
REPLY: Gandolf, that has always been a possibility in my mind also. But then that is going by cases over here where children were abducted and found years later alive. In fact I believe I read in the news over there yesterday about a young boy has been found and may well be the young child who was taken in India 3 or so years ago.
March 26th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
False Flag
415
Cheryl says:
“not every one has ‘dirt’ they have to hide.”
Cheryl, I was only quoting this phrase from denzylle’s post as a shorthand
—————————————————————————————————
NOT my phrase at all. I have not talked about ‘dirt’ AT ALL.
Please do not ascribe misquotes to me.
Looking back, it appears to be WTF’s phrase.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Old ground I know but there have been various comments as to the fact that the McCs refused to answer certain questions, 40 or so as I recall, and I am at a loss to know what sort of questions one would possibly not want to answer, or refute, in a case like this. For instance, if they were asked “..did you kill Madeleine ? ” if that were me, you or the dustman, you’d categorically deny it, true or not, not just “refuse to answer” !! Do we actually have any idea of the sort of questions they have not wanted to answer ? or were they never made public ? and why would they not wnat to give every scrap of help and information, however trivial, in order to further the search ?
March 26th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Oh sorry, I think I forgot to thank you for answering Hotwater [I like hotwater much more then coldwater and I like Gandy too].
How do you know the Garda is involved in the investigation? Or is that part of your theory?
March 26th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Brandon- good luck with the new jobs
Any luck with the manny?
Remember someones suggestion the other day Butlers in the Buff
Every home should have one
http://www.butlersinthebuff.co.uk/gallery.php?action=full&picture=010_2007_10_20_03.jpg&lang=UK
March 26th, 2008 at 11:19 am
new thread
March 26th, 2008 at 11:17 am
452
coolandcalm
Thanks for the link, I’ve saved it now.
454
She Was In A Horror Film
“the papers are blaming bloggers”
huh? So the McCanns should have sued us in stead of the Daily Express????
[Hi Karen]
M and A
Don’t even think it Totje!!! please
March 26th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Hi Karen
Dave -
March 26th, 2008 at 11:16 am
460 -