Madeleine McCann: The Full Picture
“MADELEINE: The last picture.”
So says the Mail’s front page. And readers may take this as a literal. But this is not the final shot the paper will publish of Madeleine McCann. This is the last picture taken before Madeleine McCann disappeared.
Her parents have released this picture of their daughter smiling as she dips her toes in the holiday swimming pool.
And the papers are appreciative of the new development.
With no new suspects and no new leads, the Sun posts the picture on its front page.
This is “little Madeleine McCann”. She “smiles for the camera”. A new picture but no news, so the Sun explain what the picture shows.
It tells us that next to father Gerry dressed “in an orange top” is Madeleine’s sister Amelie. Next to Amelie is Madeleine. “She has a smile to melt any heart.” She is wearing a “pink” top. She is wearing a “sunhat”.
More news of this “last picture” in the Mirror, which promises to have the “FULL STORY”.
But there is no full story. There is just another picture. And though it tells a tale of a happy child, the holiday snap reveals little else other than the colour of Madeleine’s clothes, and the Sun has that line of enquiry covered.
So have you seen Madeleine? And have you seen those other children who are “MISSING LIKE MADDIE”?
Maddie is, of course, what the Sun has renamed Madeleine McCann. And today the paper has shots of other missing children.
Twenty-eight faces look out from the page. All are minors. All are missing. The Sun tells us that in the 22 days since the four-year-old went missing an estimated 1,100 other children under 16 have “vanished from homes in Britain”.
This is “International Missing Children’s Day”. And the Sun wants us to look at the faces of the missing teenagers and see if we know them?
So we look. And we read the potted stories beneath each picture. We study their measurements. And we realise that most are aged 16 and if they don’t want to be found then they won’t be.
And, in any case, in real life people change. It’s only their “last pictures” that remain the same…
May 25th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Madeline .. you dont deserve to have your life wasted by a nasty horrible monster(s) . Your a beauiful girl and are being loved by everybody ! You dont deserve this .. neither your parents and family ! The person/people who have got you deserve to be in hell .. and why did they take you ? they are nasty people !!! Take care .. and always loved ! God bless
May 25th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Madeline .. you dont deserve this god bless darlin … loved and missed by everybody
May 25th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Madeleine … its so sad that you are gone from your family. Your family and everyone in the world is sad to see this happen to a beautiful young girl that you are . I wish that the horrible people who took you have the sense to bring you back because your family and friends miss and love you . Hope you are ok . God Bless and everyone is thinking of you.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Will the private Jet be painted yellow and have a the words “Team McCann emblazoned upon the fuselage? (not so far fetched) What about a whole fleet of Maddy 747’s to fly the globe leaving vapour trails of her face?..Cmon RB. What about a brand new channel called McTV, evertything from interviews with Aunty Phil through to T-Shirts and signed prints of the coping family, twins and all.
They stroll the streets, they visit shrines, Gerry kissing babies and Kate praying with the followers. They don’t want to be celebs, they say. Gerry writes his blog, Kate jogs and walks the beach and the fund keeps going up up and away but they don’t want to be celebs, noooo way, this is all for there little girl, yknow the one who went missing….yknow?
So today they have a soft focus interview live at five….I’m guessing with the Lady Dye type hysteria that’s starting to grow there wont be a dry eye in the house, well maybe two.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:53 am
This piece by Mick Hume is the most accurate and perceptive analysis of the “Our Darling Maddie” syndrome that I have read.
I know it will be appreciated by the independent thinkers on this website ….. Ross, Dogstar060763, Anti-Idiot, Jane, to name a few.
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3402
May 25th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Spot on Terry!
May 25th, 2007 at 11:05 am
I think madeline mcann is dead because if she was alive she would have come back for her birthday at least and she has been missing for ages and i hope to god that she isnt dead because who ever took her is sick in the head and they are bastards because maddy is only little and what bugs me is that the fact madeline had got two other children in the room with her and whoever took her why didn’t they take madelines brother and madelines sister?
yours faithfully
p.s:I would give my life for her if she was my child and i wouldn’t be running around bloody portugal i would be looking for her?
julia
xxxxx
May 25th, 2007 at 11:14 am
This is a good article (the spiked article I mean) but I think he has failed to comment on why the case has been picked up by the media. He has commented on why this case has stayed where it is at the moment, but has not mentioned the factors that have resulted in this case being chamopioned by the media en masse.
The hunt for ‘our maddie’ has become tiresome, but the REAL story here is the media coverage.
May 25th, 2007 at 11:20 am
I wish she was back with her family, that would create a media frenzy and get Chuck’s ex out of the express for a couple of weeks.
May 25th, 2007 at 11:22 am
This is a well written article, but I agree with Ross to an extent that it would have benefitted from an explanation of why the media pick up on particular stories but reject others.
My view remains that they assess each story on how well they think they can ‘market’ it paying particular attention to how many good quality images they think they willget, and the photogenic qualities of the subject of the story. Very cynical if you ask me.
In cases like this it means they are making a value judgement on a missing person based solely on their appearance. I had hoped that this sort of prejudice had left Britain years ago.
May 25th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Fair points from Ross and The Usual Suspect.
One thing we can be grateful for - Blair is “retiring”. As he obviously feels there is no mileage to be gained in his becoming personally involved in the Madeleine affair, we have been spared the spectacle of him making over-wrought speeches and appearing on chat show phone-ins “to help people through this difficult time, and to unite the nation in its grief”, i.e. a repeat of his performance immediately post-Diana.
May 25th, 2007 at 11:45 am
I hope you return to your family safe and sound i really feel for anyone who has lost their child. Thinking of you always Madeleine.
Ashleigh xxx
May 25th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Come on Terry less of the sarcasm, these people need all our support at this horrendous time, not critiscism of how they are campaigning to keep Maddie front page news. You seem to be so critical and harsh at the whole campaign, I find it hard to beleive that you can be so jovial about the whole thing. I amongst millions of other people worldwide hope and pray that Maddie is soon home with her family, and whatever the campaign does to highlight the plight of this family, somewhere someone will see or hear something that enables Maddie’s safe return home.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Spot on Terry and thanks Edwina for pointing out that article. Agree with Ross and Usual Suspect - as usual!
May 25th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I’m confused by the direct messages to Madeline…… am I missing something??
Mick Hume is spot on in his analysis of ‘mourning sickness’.
It would take a very hard person not to feel immense sorrow for the McCann family but we are not entitled to hijack their grief.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Edwina, you are right about the fact we should all be grateful Blair is retiring (yay!), but never mind - Gordon Brown stepped into the breach and immediately shed some crocodile tears for national TV over ‘our Maddie’. Truly cringeworthy stuff, as was the sight of ribbon-bedecked MPs crowding Parliamentary benches (where are those ribbons now the TV cameras are trained elsewhere, one wonders..?).
The Mick Hume article is interesting reading, but fails to state the obvious subtext - our national preoccupation with the ‘paedo-pandemic’ the tabloids and media in general are so in love with. I’m fully expecting ITV to commission a new gameshow, any moment now, along the lines of ‘Neighbour Looks Creepy? - Grass-Up a Paedo’ or ‘You’ve Been Framed - The Kiddie Fiddler Special’…
Anyone remember the hugely funny Chris Morris Brass Eye special a few years back - the one all the tabloids got themselves into right lather over? I think it’s fairly safe to say that was possibly the very last time any programme on TV dealt with the whole sorry business in a totally sane manner. Arf.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Bernadine, maybe the direct messages to Madeline are there to be picked up by any mediums browsing this site - or whatever means mediums use to gather information - according to some, the employment of a medium will solve this riddle overnight
May 25th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
And I thought it was going to be solved by one of the Anorak contributors asking “Has anyone thought to check out Mr Murat’s bank account?”
May 25th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Jillee - why say that you are “amongst millions of other people worldwide …”, as if that somehow validates what you are saying. Do you take comfort from being part of the herd, and would you still post on here if your opinions were yours alone and not shared by anyone else? You are still allowed to think for yourself if you want to in this collective society.
There is a subtle difference between sarcasm and irony, and Terry makes some very valid points in his ironic way. Read his post again carefully, and please THINK about it. Then after evaluating it properly you will be entitled to disagree with him if you want to.
By the way, you obviously know the little girl personally and are therefore entitled to call her “Maddie”? Or is it just that you call her that because the tabloids do, and because millions of other people do too?
Please read this
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3402
and at least THINK about it.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
it’s so awful some people have to resort to being sarcastic and downright condesending. the views I am getting here are that somehow anyone who doesn’t agree with Ross and the usual suspect et al. Is somehow a stupid sheep incapable of thinking for themselves and waiting for the tabloids to tell them what to think.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Definition of irony
sarcasm, witty language used to convey insults or scorn
May 25th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
With regards to the use of sniffer dogs there has been a petition set up here http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/britishsnifferdogsformaddie
to be sent to the Portugese Embassy in London asking them to reconsider the use of British Dogs in the hunt. Time is running out - optimum period for their use is 28 days. Please sign up and pass on the link.
Every little helps
May 25th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
It’s just such a pity that Portuguese sniffer dogs aren’t up to it and that only British sniffer dogs can do the job. Just something else that we lead the world in then. As Tonee said in his abdication speech - “We all know it don’t we, this is the greatest country in the world.”
Portuguese cops, Portuguese dogs, just not good enough. Why oh why did this have to happen in Portugal?
May 25th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Perhaps the press furore about the alleged Portugese inadequacies should now be referred to as ‘Portugate’?
May 25th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
The McCann family….you are all in our thoughts and prayers here in South Africa. May your beautiful Madeleine be safe and returned to you very soon. Keep hoping, keep praying and stay strong.
May 25th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
come back home safe madaline, your a little princess.
May 25th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
What happened to the DNA tests? Last of the real NEWS I heard was that Murat rented a car, fibers were taken, DNA tests were run, a Russian was questioned, and there was a possible sighting in Moracco. What of any of that? The last few days has been nothing but opinions/editorials. Has anybody heard anything new over there in England that we’ew not getting in the USA?
May 25th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
I don’t care how much coverage Madeleine and her family receive regarding her disapperance. All I care about is that she is found safe and well.
To keep it in the news will keep it in the forfront of our minds because as soon as it stops being news the sooner we forget.
My brother went missing on holiday when he was eight and he wasn’t found until midnight it is the most awful feeling in the world and to have to deal with ‘that’ feeling everyday would be just unbearable.
I just wish the Portugese Police would use all the resources that the British Police have to offer, crucial time is passing by.
May 25th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
What? Are Portuguese dogs born with inferior olfactory organs to those of their British counter-parts? I have never heard of such a bizzare petition. Ever. Seems us British have superior police (the number of officers sent round to Jose Mourinho’s house last week, in order to arrest his Yorkshire Terrier, must fill the Portuguese people with confidence), and clearly superior dogs. Only thing we’re not as good at as these foreigners would seem to be in placing our children, our childrens’ needs and our childrens’ safety above all else.
May 25th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Terry, you are an ignorant man. I hope you never have to deal with this type of pain!