Madeleine McCann: Silence And Losing Interest
MADELEINE McCann is missing. And the papers are losing interest.
This is not to say there is no news. Far from it. The Sun tells us on its front page that whenever Madeleine McCann’s face appears on the television, her twin siblings Amelie and Sean blow kisses at the screen.
It’s a tug at the heartstrings. Emotional stuff. Who cannot sympathise with the family’s loss?
But there is no news on the criminal case. The Sun says the McCanns may hire private detectives to search for their missing daughter.
Hidden Clues
There have been 97million hits on the http://www.findmadeleine.com/ website, says the Sun. But what does this number tell us? That we are a caring nation? That the internet is more popular than ever, and not everyone is using it to look for porn?
But not one email says where Madeleine is, a clue to her whereabouts. There is no-one claiming responsibility for the crime.
But there are messages of good will. Messages of love. Message of support. All valuable messages we are told in keeping the McCanns’ spirits up and their faith in the human spirit intact. But they serve little purpose, do no good in the search for Madeleine.
Who can even read so many millions of messages put up on so many websites? Might it be that among them is a clue? But who has the time to find it? Amid the feeding frenzy, clues to crack the crime could be lost amid the public spectacle, the display of grief.
The only other tabloid front page with news of Madeleine is the Mirror. As predicted by Anorak, the Mirror will stick with Madeleine McCann when others have moved on.
The Mirror - which weeks after the troops had been deployed in Iraq, continued to count the days without sightings of Saddam Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction - will not turn away. How long will the paper stick with Madeleine McCann?
Can it get keep our interest in the case?
More Silence
There will a minute’s silence for Madeleine McCann at noon today. Her theft is a national event. There will be a minute’s silence for Madeleine, just as we have a minute’s silence to remember the victims of the Great War.
But why not two minutes? No, make it three. Five. Or ten – Carmelite nuns from northern Portugal are calling for people to stop at 10pm tomorrow and pray for 10 minutes.
The hope is that in this period of quiet reflection the newspapers can consider their campaigns.
Have you seen Madeleine McCann? And does any criminal involved in her theft want a big reward..?
May 21st, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Saw this:
Let’s get this clear: I feel awfully sorry for Gerry and Kate McCann, although I have never met them, as their four-year-old daughter Madeleine is still missing in the Algarve. It must indeed be “every parent’s worst nightmare” to lose a child. Worse still, to not know where she is, and to have the eyes and ears of the world on your every grief-stricken appearance. However, my thoughts on this matter are not straightforward. I see far more here than a missing child.
The British media is currently and unhealthily fixated on this story. It’s the lead news story on most bulletins, and has been since Maddie was snatched from the apartment where her parents had left her while eating tapas. (They were popping back to check on her, and the twins, every half an hour, which reminds me of what my parents used to do when we were very young and they attended a house party in our street - although this was the early 70s, when we used to leave the back door unlocked and the garage open, and it wasn’t in a foreign country.) Even though leads seem thin on the ground (one suspicious local has been arrested, the parents attend a vigil, some millionaires have been shamed by the News Of The World into stumping up a ludicrous reward, as if we are in a cowboy film), the papers are pedalling madly to find fresh material from Portugal to fill their pages. Am I the only person who finds this uncomfortable? I bet I’m not.
We are invited, indeed encouraged, to “feel” for little Maddie and her distraught parents, to “identify” with their plight, to “pray” for her safe return (whether we believe in a deity or not), to question the efficacy of the Portugeuse police forces (useless foreigners!), and to “remember” the last missing child who so dominated our news media for days and days on end. This story may end badly, as the Soham kidnapping did, or as Sarah Payne’s abduction did, but you get the feeling that deep down, the newspapers would rather it dragged on a bit longer. Hope sells papers. Followed by tragedy. Followed by postmortem. But let’s pray for a bit more hope before the possible tragedy, shall we?
It’s not exactly controversial of me to detect a certain unscrupulous ambulance-chasing venality on the part of the papers, especially the tabloids, but what does it say about us as a nation that we allow ourselves to get caught up in it? To be emotionally blackmailed in this way? Are we actually incapable of feeling empathy or sadness or alarm about less “photogenic” tragedies, the sort that unfold all around us every day, and in countries much further away and less familiar than the Algarve? People are killed, abducted, abused and made miserable all the time. So please don’t let’s lose sight of the bigger picture as we wring our hands over a family we have never met.
I actually saw a handmade poster on the gate of a house down our street this morning urging me to call Crimestoppers if I had any information about Maddie’s whereabouts. What’s that about? Whose conscience is that assuaging? I think we are collectively losing our marbles. Look what Princess Diana did to us.
Remember: at the end of the day, all that newspapers want to do is sell more newspapers. News Of The World didn’t rustle up that bounty, by contacting the offices of Phillip Green, Richard Branson and Bill Kenwright, because they care. It’s because they knew it would sell them a few extra copies on Sunday. And I bet they did. It’s a great spin on a story lacking in new detail. This is the newspaper that thinks naming and shaming anyone on the paedophile register will help “our children”, when “our children” are more at risk from abuse within the family than from shady looking strangers in dirty raincoats by the roadside. They don’t care about your children. But it’s not just the tabloids, is it? They dress it up more soberly but all the papers are chasing the same prize. Radio 1’s Newsbeat has been leading with Maddie all weekend, with, again, nothing new to add. How are we ever to put this complicated world into perspective when the media weight individual stories of tragedy so heavily against less “sexy” ones. (I hate to use that word, “sexy”, but are you telling me that the newspaper editors didn’t use it, or think it, when the story first broke? Missing girl, distraught, good-looking young parents, holiday nightmare, possible dirty foreign moustachioed paedophile on the loose?)
I sincerely hope that Maddie is alright. I really do. Who with a heart beating inside their ribcage wouldn’t? I hope she is reunited with her parents, and they never let her out of their sight ever again. Actually, I don’t wish that - we should not cosset our children, or they will grow up unworldly and inexperienced and dependent, which does not make for a better world, especially the precarious one they will inherit, where the sanctioned plight of one little girl is officially more important than all the others. Her parents are blameless in the media circus. That’s not of their making. All they can do is take advice and try to use the media to get their daughter back, but they are not in control.
May 21st, 2007 at 12:37 pm
What good does a minute’s silence do? And what the hell do you think about? Can other people tell if your mind wanders, perhps to a row at work or - and men think about this a lot - sex?
May 21st, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Rather than a minute’s silence what about an hour’s search?
Just imagine the ground we could cover if everyone in Europe gave up one hour in the day to look for her in their surrounding area.
They say she could be anywhere… so we need everyone to be looking for her, not just standing for 1 minute thinking about her….
May 21st, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I am not losing interest. As a mother, I empathize with her parents and pray throughout the day for her safety. The first thing I look for when I return to my laptop is news of Madeleine. I’m with Kate - she WILL be found and SHE WILL BE OK!!!!!! But, please God, let it be SOON!!!!!!
May 21st, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Can the silence be sponsored?
May 21st, 2007 at 1:24 pm
O.M.G why take that little girl, wot did she do wrong. al i can say is hope they find her soon and all of my blessing as gone to her. u see none of the famous people chippin in for the search to find her.xxxxxxxxxx God bless you Madeleinexxxxxxxxxxx and kate i hope they find her soon. she will be in a good state we all hope and pray for her. xxxxxxxxxbless you madeleine.xxxxxxxxx
May 21st, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I think the Sun should make it a mission also to bring Madeleine home - after all not only will it help Madeleine and her family but the many other children lost all over the world - it will show these monsters that they will not win ! - I am a mother and cannot tell you what this has done to my family - the Mccanns are a normal family on holiday - it could happen to you. Love to the McCanns - keep going ans she will come home safely.
May 21st, 2007 at 1:43 pm
A dear young innocent girl snatched from from her appartment whilst sleeping. What can i say? Im not even religious but i continuously pray for this little girl hoping she will be returned to her parents safely. I think Kate and Gerry McCann deserve a medal for being so strong and optimistic.
May 21st, 2007 at 1:44 pm
I’ve certainly not lost interest either. Although I cannot work up any enthusiasm for doing battle with the legions of “blame the parents” types so on the whole now I don’t post on forums, just read them feeling increasingly depressed. I just cannot fathom the compulsion which drives these people to post in the savage manner and quantity that they do not just here but on forums all over the place. I find their attitude wierd and neurotically obsessed with laying on pain. Talk about kicking someone when they are down. As for the picture of the poster in the window of the car hire company in PdeL (the same as reported Murat coincidentally it appears) deliberately attacking Mrs McCann in the most emotionally sadistic manner possible - it beggars belief. What is this unhealthy compulsion with causing emotional pain that seems to possess people? When will they be satisfied? When Kate McCann totally and irreparably implodes psychologically? Perhaps they think she should beg forgiveness from all these cruel strangers that attack her. We are living in a wicked world. It is no wonder we spawn such emotionally dissociated maniacs. I’m sure the kidnapper thought they deserved to lose their child too. Appalling. As for the car hire firm - is their fury with the parents based on loss of trade I wonder?
May 21st, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Gina,
I agree with your every word. I am shocked with this blaming the parents - its the sickos out there that are to blame. We only hope that Madeleine comes back safely!!