Clueless In Portugal: Madeleine McCann
MADELEINE McCann is missing.
Someone knows where Madeleine McCann is. But they are not telling. They will not end the agony. They will not end the nightmares for Madeleine and her parents.
Perhaps the Express can help? Perhaps not. “PARENTS’ AGONY: POLICE CALL OFF HUNT FOR MADDY,” says the headline.
But the story is not quite so. The hunt is not over. And over in the Mail, beside a picture of smiling Madeleine, another headline: “Madeleine: Are the Portuguese police about to give up the hunt?”
The Express says they already have. It’s on the papers front page.
“The searches are coming to an end,” detectives say in a statement. “The places being checked – the results are zero.”
The British papers wanted facts. These are the facts delivered in blank verse.
But it is not over. The hunt continues elsewhere. And the people are looking out for smiling Madeleine, who will be four tomorrow.
Nuno Lourenco is in Sagres, 16 miles from Praia da Luz. He sees a man taking pictures of blonde children.
Lourenco takes a picture of the photographer. But reports are that he that he obscured the image with his thumb.
Claus Montex sees the same man. “When the man was challenged he ran off, but he came back a bit later went back to the beach and carried on taking photographs.”
And there is a woman. “MADDIE SEEN WITH BLONDE,” says the Sun’s front-page headline. A blonde girl has been spotted with three adults.
The adults are believed to be British. One is a blonde woman. The other two are men. Caught on CCTV the three are seen at a Galp petrol station on the motorway heading out of Praia da Luz.
Is this Madeleine McCann? Are these the devils? What does the Mirror think? “DID A BRIT WOMAN TAKE HER?” asks the front-page headline.
The paper boasts of having two journalists in Praia da Luz. Same as the Mail. Same as the Sun. Same as the Express.
That’s eight tabloid journalists, all well-versed in door-stepping techniques and getting people to talk. But none has an insight. All they have are the same quotes from the same people. And questions.
No new leads. No reward offered. No new angle. No new clue. Just stories of Madeleine’s parents’ suffering. Comments on Madeleine’s parents. Pictures of smiling Madeleine. Pictures of Madeleine’s parents. Slights at the Portuguese.
All addding up to what Mick Hume in the Times call “a British public spectacle, an emtional national experience”.
And nothing…
Posted: 11th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids Comments (70) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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September 26th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
i think that she is not dead they have foud her in moroca !!!!!!!!!!!!! find her
in the picture it real
September 11th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Well, I cannot wait until know all the truth. And maybe it will came out very soon.
The parents are responsible of leaving 3 children alone while they were out drinking 14 bottles of wine with treirs doctors friends.
If they are involved in the crime more than that, their other 2 children should taken out from their custody as soons as they should are found guilty.
If not they have collected enough money to pay to the best investigators around the world better than the best lawyer.
Pity for that Girl!!!!!
Anda Pity for the hundreds of palestianian children who are killed everyday and nobody care. Nodoby create a fund raising money for them, to prevent this happening everyday.
September 4th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
[...] May MADELEINE McCann continues to attract media coverage. The theft of Madeleine McCann has always been a single thread story. Remove the [...]
June 17th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
I think Maddie is now dead thanks to her parents
June 17th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
I think that Maddy is now dead..thanks to her parents
June 6th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
please bring madeleine home safe because all praying that she alright its putting her family right down there so stressed they can’t sleep at knowing thats she gone please please bing her home safe little maddy
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
June 6th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
who ever sick horriible person that has got madeleine mccann just return her safe no 1 needs to no who u are just tel us were she is and it will all be ok
May 27th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Every Child matters. Madeleine matters, as do all Children that are missing. We pray for her safe return to her Parents where she belongs, as do all missing Children everywhere.
Let us all pray for their safe return.
May 26th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Ignore the crazie’s trying to hijack the concern and prayers we have for Maddie and make it into their bitter selfish twisted issue’s.
Ignore them. (it’ll drive em up the wall)
May 25th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
I think that now the British Police are in Portugal things are going to move a lot quicker, the next thing sould be the Police dogs being taken there, well I hope so anyway. I was reading on K9 website an offer to take the dogs there was put forward a while ago to the Local authorities in Portugal, however it was refused!
May 24th, 2007 at 11:44 am
I can’t even begin to imagine how the parents are feeling right now, but i do feel that we all need to be focusing on MADDIE!! Her parents are in the news quite a lot, i understnad this, it is very important for them to keep her in the spot light. We need to know more from the police!! I watch the news every day and get messages sent to my phone, but no news. No news is good news, but not in this case. We need to know more about what is being done to save her!!
I pray for you little Maddie, my heart is with you!! Stay strong, you’ll be home soon.
Keep praying for her!!
May 24th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Hope, hope and hope!
May 24th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Feeling the pain of people we don’t know is known as ‘empathy’, something a few of you people above don’t seem to have. Don’t kid yourself that people who care so much about ONE child don’t care about the plight of millions of others - you don’t get to such a level of empathy for one case without feeling a high degree of empathy generally. That’s just common-sense. A lack of empathy for the suffering of others is a characteristic we commonly associate with psychopaths. Just saying.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:30 am
[...] McCanns spent half and hour in private prayer at the chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows.” And finally the police have a lead…Share This Opinions? : Add your view now! | In: Tabloids | By: Anorak | Most [...]
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:29 am
[...] May MADELEINE McCann continues to attract media coverage. The theft of Madeleine McCann has always been a single thread story. Remove the [...]
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:05 am
Unfortunately, children (and adults) do disappear without trace. A 19 month old baby girl alled Rahma taken from her bedroom at home in Sydney, sleeping between 2 siblings just like Maddie, disappeared without trace 2 years ago. Steven Stayner disappeared while doing his paper round when he was 7, and lived with his abductor for 7 years before escaping with a second 5 year old that had been brought in, eventually to replace him. Many more, no forensics, no struggle. Maddies parents are spending part of their day grieving and part working on their campaign, it’s better for the other children if they do not bear the whole of that grief, and the parents can give them some normality in stages. I agree, I would not want to be separated from my children at a time like that, but as I am not in that situation I cannot judge. Timmy White’s parents said they slept very well during the 16 days of their child’s abduction. Incredibly, he was even seen and recognised with his abductor but those people who saw him ‘did not want to get involved’. I pray for a safe return for all missing children.
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:16 pm
catheybee Says:
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:47 pm
“What right do you have to be so nasty?”
Just being a realist and not being taken in by what is rapidly turning into the ‘Maddie Reality Show’… There are no forensic clues, no evidence of a struggle, no sightings, nothing, nada, zip… the last person to see Maddie alive was her Mother/Father, how do we know they did not find her dead after she had an accident while left alone in that flat? Lots of people are getting a bad vibe about the utterly cold and unemotional face Mrs McCann is showing, going jogging within days of her daughters dissapearence, putting her remaining two kids into daycare despite just having had one ‘abducted’… sounds very odd behaviour for a grief striken mother who would naturally not want to let them out of her sight, packing them off yet again to daycare in the afternoon so her and her husband can ‘have some time alone’… not the way my wife or me would have behaved if our daughter had been abducted.
[IMG]http://i9.tinypic.com/53h7×9v.jpg[/IMG]
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=53h7×9v
Tell me honestly, does this picture of her taken today show a face wracked with grief? No red swollen eyes, no black rings from lack of sleep…?
And now have Max Clifford the PR guru being brought onbaord by one of the ’suspects’!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=456803&in_page_id=1770
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Jim B, that’s a bit harsh isnt it? If you dont give a toss about Maddy then I suggest you go and join some other forum. She’s probably forefront in the news etc because there is a CAMPAIGN for her to be there. If no one else has organised a fighting fund for missing children then that’s hardly her fault is it? At least her parents have offered to use money to help others in this situation. If it brings about more public awareness of other missing children then surely that can only be a good thing.
What right do you have to be so nasty?
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:04 am
i think that the person that done this is a sick person she is a innocent 4 year old girl she does not deserve it and she has a life ahead of her and that sick person needs to bring her home and we all hope for her safe return plz come bkxxxx
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:03 am
When you’ve all finished emoting over this kid remember this point… 99% abducted children are murdered with 12 hours of being grabbed. The chances of Madeleine McCann being found alive after more than two weeks are somewhere between zero and non existant. As Dr McCoy would say…’She’s dead Jim’… bad things happen in life, get over it.
May 21st, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Quote: “I have been constantly thinking about her and praying she comes home safely, wondering what terrible person could do this to a child and have no remorse. Sadly, people like you make it plainly obvious that this world is riddled with useless, selfish people who have no right to share God’s land with our innocent, beautiful children.”
Well here’s a concept for you Flic. Leave your “innocent, beautiful children” in your house every night with the doors and windows unlocked and go down the pub. Guess what? If they get stolen it will be YOUR fault and then you can wallow in real misery rather than wrapping yourself up in imagined grief for some strangers kid.
And me ’selfish’? Well yes I am and regard weak and teary eyed innadequates like you as little more than sheep who spend there lives bleating about real and mostly imagined dangers in their shallow and humdrum lives… And that’s the reality isn’t it Flic? By latching on to the McCann ‘Reality Show’ along with millions of other “Maddie Junkies’ you are trying to bring a little bit of excitement in to your safe and utterly boring life.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Flic -
That’s a bit of a presumption (and an pro-English one at that!)
There are loads of people who live in this country, which is the UNited Kingdom fo Great Britain and Northern Ireland by the way! who are not English!
Ever heard of the Scottish, the Welsh and the Northern Irish…not to mention those who have moved here from numerous countries?!
This case has gone on and on….but NOBODY has been able to answer the question that I have asked repetedly on here and elsewhere.
WHY is this case recieving so much attention compared to the countless cases such as this that happen every year all over the world.
May 21st, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Quite the contray Flic, I do have children who have grown up and have children of their own, and I NEVER left them in a flat and went to the bar with my friends when they were 3 and 18 moths respectively. FACT! The McCanns made a habit of doing this every night. FACT! The staff at teh resort expressed concern and offered them the services of a child minder… but Mrs McCann rather snottily told them ’she didn’t trust her children with strangers’… well she is with a stranger now isn’t she?
FACT! If this was some ordinary mother rather than a photogeneic mother with a photogenic child from a rather well to do background you would all be baying for her blood for leaving 3 toddlers on their own while the parents went to the bar.
FACT! The McCanns are coming across as people who are all too readilly lapping up the adulation and are blaming everyone but themselves for leaving their children on their own.
FACT! The McCanns put their own pleasure before their responsibilities to their children, and I for one hope she spends the rest of her sorry neglectful life torn up with guilt for what she did.
FACT! The McCanns broke the law by leaving those toddlers on their own and we only have the mothers word for what happend that night.
FACT! You are wallowing in vicarious self pity about a child you know nothing about… what about the other 450 children reported missing this year alone? Did you bleat and pray for them? Nope… not a word.
May 21st, 2007 at 12:40 pm
“oh you sad sad english people, all praying like saints to your church for madeleine’s return.”
“where were you all when we needed to vote blair out…”
Hypocrites? Really Bogan-Hound? I find your post highly contradictary and hypocritical. you said ‘you sad, sad english people’ which suggests you dont’ see yourself as english, but then go on to say ‘where were you all when WE needed to vote Blair out’.. which suggests you are living in this country but dont’ see yourself as English. How great that you feel it’s ok to live here and take everything this country has to offer, no doubt benefits, healthcare and the like, but don’t feel the need to actually count yourself as English.
May 21st, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Jim, Whilst we may not know this child, as mothers particularly who have carried a child for nine months, given birth and felt the immense joy and love that it brings, we know how dreadful Madeleine’s parents are feeling, and we equate that with how we would feel if it were our child missing; imagining the horror that she may be facing. This is a tiny innocent child who knows nothing about the world and life yet, and if you think that a stupid TV programme will stop people’s interest in getting that baby back to her parents you are sadly mistaken. I only hope you will never have children because you obviously have no empathy with them, Madeleine, or her plight.
I have been constantly thinking about her and praying she comes home safely, wondering what terrible person could do this to a child and have no remorse. Sadly, people like you make it plainly obvious that this world is riddled with useless, selfish people who have no right to share God’s land with our innocent, beautiful children.
May 21st, 2007 at 12:18 am
Some of you here need to grow up… FACT! YOU DON”T KNOW THIS KID… you are just wallowing in some bogus and imagined shared grief like this is some sort of Big Brother Show… As soon as Big Brother comes on Channel 4 in a fw weeks you will all have forgotten and will be glued yo your new ‘virtual life’.
May 20th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Bitter ‘name calling’ just bogs down any real, critical and thoughful discussion.
May 20th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
this comment following opinion fron bogan-hound
May 20th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
you obviously dont have children and I hope you never do.
May 20th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Bogan-hound
I hope you know that not everyone in this country voted for Bliar (sic) andn that the war was very unpopular in the UK.
I can see where your point is coming from though….there are Iraqi children dying all the time due to the actions of the UK and US governemtns, yet ONE British child goes missing and the whole world stops.
May 19th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
oh you sad sad english people, all praying like saints to your church for madeleine’s return.
you are the killers that voted blair in and backed his mindless crusades… his murdering… bombing the arms and legs off children in iraq, using cluster bombs and napalm - killing kids by the 1000’s - you make me sick you hypocrites.
where were you all when we needed to vote blair out… you were sending your own kids to hell to kill iraqi children.
hypocrites the lot of you.