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Madeleine McCann: Clarence Mitchell For Hire, Richard Desmond And The Guardian Repeats
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DAILY TELEGRAPH: “McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell ponders PR move
As Kate and Gerry McCann return from their first family holiday since their daughter Madeleine disappeared 14 months ago, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell is in talks to join a PR agency where he plans to help other parents who have lost children to deal with the media.
Such is the news of the McCann case that the internet traffic-hungry Telegraph is looking at Clarence Mitchell’s career options. An interviwer might ask him what good has come of all the PR and media handling, and point out that not every missing child is the the blonde, photgenic progency of middle-class doctors and thus not deemed to be as newsworthy.
Says Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman:
“I’m happy to help anyone in the eye of a media storm, but I need to put myself on a firm financial footing. I should stress, however, that there’s absolutely no question of me abandoning Kate and Gerry McCann.”
Working for the McCanns is a job, and it pays. But when will it end?
THE GUARDIAN: “Fakery fallout hits TV sector”
Deception rows caused several top television figures to slide down the top 100. It’s the MediaGuardian 100, an arbitrary league table of TV shows and staff.
The newspaper sector accounts for three of the top 10 fallers - two editors and a proprietor. Richard Desmond is the second biggest faller, down 20 places to 55, after his newspapers had to make unprecedented front-page apologies and pay £550,000 in damages to the family of Madeleine McCann.
And the Guardian loves to write about Desmond:
55. Richard Desmond
In March, Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers titles ran unprecedented apologies and paid £550,000 in damages over stories they had run about the family of Madeleine McCann….
It was another blow to the credibility of the papers, credibility that has suffered ever since Desmond bought them in 2000…
Under-resourced and undermined by the McCann apology, Desmond’s newspaper group also saw the first 24-hour national newspaper strike for 18 years in a dispute about pay and outsourcing.
Desmond is Fleet Street’s least-loved proprietor, but as the Observer’s Peter Preston memorably put it: “No one likes him, though (in common with Millwall FC) he doesn’t seem to care.”
No.78 is Peter Wright, editor of the Mail on Sunday.
If Wright is occasionally a controversial figure, then he gained extra credibility this year when he joined the Press Complaints Commission after the Daily Express editor, Peter Hill, stepped down in the wake of Express Newspapers’ £550,000 damages payout to the family of Madeleine McCann.
James Murdoch takes the top spot from his father as other City players suffer a tough year
Richard Desmond, the owner of Express Newspapers, has also had a mixed year, paying out £550,000 in damages to Gerry and Kate McCann for a string of inaccurate articles about their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance, and taking the unprecedented step of publishing front-page apologies in all four Express and Star national titles.
Is the Guardian obsessed with Richard Desmond?
Posted: 14th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann Comments (620) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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July 15th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
146
Maicen Says:
July 15th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
‘Oh brilliant I am so glad for him.Do not believe and never did, he had a damn thing to do with any of it.Their scapegoat. Karma will get them for their daughter one day.’
i did not think he was involved either and am also extremely pleased for him
July 15th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
615
Noseycow Says:
July 15th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Cheryl
It is a popular belief amongst nursing staff that people are ‘collected’.
……………………………………………………….
That was what a Nurse friend of mine said, she worked in an Old People’s Home and said that when this particular old dear died she waited with her until she “had been taken” , I thought she meant taken to the Morgue or something and she said no, she waited for someone to take her so it does happen
July 15th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Cheryl
Don’t get me started on the Death penalty
I can’t see how taking someones life can ever be justified, doesn’t it make the state as bad as the criminals??
I can see, however, that victims families may want the death penalty, and in some of their circumstances I may think the same, but I hope it is never bought back over here.
I found myself up at 3am one morning watching the news waiting for Saddam Hussein to be killed, and still couldn’t reconcile myself with this type of justice. There is something so hoirribly macarbe about it imo.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
615
Noseycow Says:
July 15th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Cheryl
_________
I know they are waiting for ‘whoever to show up’ … you know what I always found interesting, there was a site called courttv.com, which no longer exists, CNN more or less took over (but not as good, IMO). Anyhow, they had this one section which printed the final remarks by convicts right before being executed, i.e. apologizing to the family for one(s) who life they took, even some with funny remarks but the most telling were those who would say for instance one said ‘Momma, I’m coming now ,’ others too, Nosey, whose final words were calling out for those in their family who had died. Some refused the chance to say final words. One that really got to me was one man said along the lines ‘I didn’t commit the crime you are killing me for but I forgive you for taking my life.’
July 15th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Cheryl
It is a popular belief amongst nursing staff that people are ‘collected’.
Consious patients who are close to the end often look up and to their left or right, constantly as if they are trying to catch something out of the corner of their eye.
Some of them smile, some talk or mumble, but I have yet to see one who’s afraid.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
455
Ann Says:
July 15th, 2008 at 9:25 am
_________
Just confirmed what I believe to be true, heard and saw, Ann. When my Mum was dying of cancer 10 years ago that last week she would tell me “I need to go soon, Cheryl, your Dad is waiting for me” (he had died exactly 1 year before) and kept telling me that the ’shadow’ outside the window at home (and there was an unusual one all that week) was him waiting. I sat beside her all week and we’d talk and all of a sudden she called out “John” and she was gone. My Aunt 25 years before also died of cancer and kept at home, as she requested also, and at the very end with all of us with her she reached out her arms and said “Daddy, here I am.”
I was reading some literature about signs to look for when one is near the end and one of them was that the person dying will start talking in their sleep to those who are dead. It is true they do! And I honestly believe those that loved you do come back and wait for you and help you pass over.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Whilst it is true that Clarence Mitchell is walking around saying to everybody “Gizzajob I can do that”, I have found out that the employment agency recently set up in Leeds and called Clarence Mitchell Ltd, is not connected to the almost former spokesman for the McCanns.
However, Sky News is reporting that Robert Murat has settled a claim for damages for libel against newspapers £250 - £500,000 is the claimed payout.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Abraham
NHS employees face the same issues as any other patients, the decision whether to fund their treatment comes from their PCT, so there is no inherent bias towards them. However they do have more knowledge of the health care system and may know what ‘cards to play’.
For example when I was recently refered to a consultant, I was offered a choice of four places (all run by the same hospital team), this was not acceptable and I went back and asked for the hospital which suited me. I got it - and it should have been offered in the first place, but my particular PCT, gets treatment cheaper at the one they’d offered me in the first place, so its in their interests to make it difficult for patients to go elsewhere.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
settled libel claim in region of 500,000
July 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
There’s a new thread!
Fortunately Yampster interrupted my bio …
July 15th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
SKY BREAKING NEWS NOW _ MURAT
July 15th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Ciao, Karen !!
July 15th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
The assistant has just arrived.
Must look busy and then I’m off. 
Bye everyone. x
July 15th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Totsiens wtf
July 15th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Ciao, wtf !!
July 15th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
bye wtf !
July 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
bye wtf
x
July 15th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
bye all, off to earn a crust, have a good one
July 15th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
598
Karen Says:
July 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Julie
I don’t believe they checked as often as they said. It would make dinner so unenjoyable that there would be no point in going out - also - how could they miss the kidnapper???
___________________
What kidnapper?
July 15th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
596…Julie
The spin did not only just start when Clarence arrived.
I think it commenced from when Dr K did her alleged “check”.
And that was part and parcel of the misinformation.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
597
wtf Says:
July 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
lone
How do they scan an egg without cracking the shell
You’d be amazed at the technology they use nowadays wtf!!
July 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Julie
I don’t believe they checked as often as they said. It would make dinner so unenjoyable that there would be no point in going out - also - how could they miss the kidnapper???
July 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
lone
How do they scan an egg without cracking the shell?
July 15th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Jo/Melanie/Nosey
My last comment ended up in the spam filter, no doubt due to the (one)link, but anyway what I’m getting at is whether NHS employees always face the same postcode lottery problems, Nosey any comments would be appreciated!
July 15th, 2008 at 11:59 am
“”“I honestly believe that she was dead within three hours. She never left that area at all. Do I think it was an intruder? No,” Suranyi says quietly.”””
_________________________
Very strange how she worded it! ……… dead within three hours. - She never left that area at all?
Poison? Total fabrication of “check ups” - perhaps NONE?
July 15th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Matt
Oh, I just mean I think she’s dead.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Noseycow
All parents hang their children - it’s not just in PDL…
July 15th, 2008 at 11:56 am
590…Karen
And the “no intruder” ??
July 15th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Melanie/Jo/Nosey
Indeed it is not a new story.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article525845.ece
What I’m getting at, and Nosey I was hoping you could help, is whether NHS employees always have the same problems.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:55 am
585
Lone Pigeon Says:
July 15th, 2008 at 11:53 am
come on i’m not that old!! 36 years young!
______________________
You’re the oldest pigeon I know.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Julie
Either within 3 hours of being kidnapped (or maybe sometime before she was reported missing).