Friday
07Sep2007
kate mccann to be charged (?) and the tabloid media's short memory
Friday, September 7, 2007 at 11:07AM
So Kate McCann is a suspect in connection with the disappearance of her four-year-old daughter, Madeleine, by Portuguese police.
Of course one corner of the blogosphere has suspected the McCann's from day one.
It would be foolish in the extreme to presume the outcome of any investigation, but isn't that what the media have been doing ever since the little girl went missing? How many copies have parasitic tabloid editors sold of their maudlin, "Save Madeleine" newspapers? The parents, sick and fucking irresponsible in the extreme for abandoning their tiny children while they sipped Sangria, have been held up as tortured saints, simply because they're good o'l middle-class professionals. She's a doctor y'know? I wonder if the press would have been so forgiving of this indiscretion, if they'd been overweight factory workers? Just a thought...
And what the fuck is wrong with the British people? Why do you buy these fetid rags? If someone were to spend your lunch hour insulting your intelligence, would you listen or would you tell them to bugger off? Exactly. So why give time to newspapers that do exactly that?
Have we not seen from the last decade of morbid Diana worship, that the tabloids know that feminine death sells, and that we're stupid enough to continue to lap it up day-after-day? As the Portuguese police tried to make sense of the web of deceit, the British press ridiculed and scorned, all the while lionising the opportunistic McCann's. Again, the media's tacit racism shows through.
And what of the apparently innocent men who cried their innocence? Their families scrutinised and their lives wrecked. Oh how the media loved the thought of some lonely middle-aged man who they could pin the whole case on. You can just imagine Rebekah Wade et al, licking their lips at the prospect. The media love nothing more.
A beautiful little girl is missing. In cases such as this we have experienced and highly trained police services. Maybe once, just once, the tabloids will act with a modicum of decency and not profiteer from a tragedy. Trial by media is an obscene reality of modernity, but it looks like it'll never change.
Of course one corner of the blogosphere has suspected the McCann's from day one.
It would be foolish in the extreme to presume the outcome of any investigation, but isn't that what the media have been doing ever since the little girl went missing? How many copies have parasitic tabloid editors sold of their maudlin, "Save Madeleine" newspapers? The parents, sick and fucking irresponsible in the extreme for abandoning their tiny children while they sipped Sangria, have been held up as tortured saints, simply because they're good o'l middle-class professionals. She's a doctor y'know? I wonder if the press would have been so forgiving of this indiscretion, if they'd been overweight factory workers? Just a thought...
And what the fuck is wrong with the British people? Why do you buy these fetid rags? If someone were to spend your lunch hour insulting your intelligence, would you listen or would you tell them to bugger off? Exactly. So why give time to newspapers that do exactly that?
Have we not seen from the last decade of morbid Diana worship, that the tabloids know that feminine death sells, and that we're stupid enough to continue to lap it up day-after-day? As the Portuguese police tried to make sense of the web of deceit, the British press ridiculed and scorned, all the while lionising the opportunistic McCann's. Again, the media's tacit racism shows through.
And what of the apparently innocent men who cried their innocence? Their families scrutinised and their lives wrecked. Oh how the media loved the thought of some lonely middle-aged man who they could pin the whole case on. You can just imagine Rebekah Wade et al, licking their lips at the prospect. The media love nothing more.
A beautiful little girl is missing. In cases such as this we have experienced and highly trained police services. Maybe once, just once, the tabloids will act with a modicum of decency and not profiteer from a tragedy. Trial by media is an obscene reality of modernity, but it looks like it'll never change.
Reader Comments (15)
ppl who live by greed always always !die! by it. (Sadly) the McCanns are public property now.
question - who has ownership of what will happen to them. this is (sadly yet again that phrase) neatly mirrored by the question - what happened to Lady Di. and who had ownership of that.
is it feminine death which sells. or rather an iconic tragedy. It is all rather feverish. That in itself (i.e a fever) is a sign of an illness.
"Maybe once, just once, the tabloids will act with a modicum of decency and not profiteer from a tragedy."
I'm pretty sure we both know that ain't gonna happen.
"The parents, sick and fucking irresponsible in the extreme for abandoning their tiny children while they sipped Sangria"
Woohoo, great to see someone agree with me that the McCanns were responsible for their daughter's disappearance because they left her alone.
young children left alone for an hour - they were apparently checked every hour.
.
.
too distressing that. ....the phrase "abandoned" was used elsewhere on the blog.
Ash, I believe that leaving one's children AT ALL is wrong at that age. Especially when creche and babysitting provisions were available.
Anyway, it is the "checking every hour" that appears to have caused Kate so many problems. It appears that they did NOT check every hour.
Ash, I believe that leaving one’s children AT ALL is wrong at that age. Especially when creche and babysitting provisions were available.
.
.
.
the parents are negligent. and from the child's perspective cruel.
think the parents are damaged goods. though not guilty......however it is now time that they had the grace to hand over the million quid. to a trust that they have no links with and whose remit is to support parents of missing children. furthermore,
I recall seeing a documentary a few years back, on cases where children get killed, and there is always blame of "outsiders", and appeals from relatives on TV - and in the majority of cases it turns out to be someone whom the children knew.
Apparently the "going on TV" bit is so common, it's a marker and the police actually sit back and wait and watch how they perform. Truly grieving families tend to be too distraught to be coherant or even go through with appearing in public and appoint solicitors to do the talking in neutral solicitor language, whereas the guilty ones tend to do the "brave appeals" very well and relish doing it in person... Even when the killer is not related to the family, they want to go on TV and do the "brave appeal" thing - eg Ian Huntley (who knew his victims).
You are right that it is bizarre that people would leave their children unattended - even on the meanest council estates you see mothers protectively watching their toddlers, and the middle classes are even more paranoid about watching their babes.
Amazingly, and sadly, the Daily Express sold 30,000 more copies last month than it did in July (http://media.guardian.co.uk/circulationfigures/story/0,,2164573,00.html). And what was on the front page nearly every day? The latest "updates" on Madeleine. This isn't going away any time soon.
i saw today, the appeal made by McCann, the day after the disappearance. and he looked genuinely distraught.
The McCanns are certainly good for newspaper circulation. They are also good for directing webtraffic to my blog. Sorry that should be piss-poor blog.
Yes, it should (be piss-poor blog)
This might be of interest too : "The McCann Media Circus...
http://gatwickcity.phpbb3now.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9
I only get my news from blogs now as newspapers and broadcasters in UK are a complete waste of space. Well done for reflecting the views of us proles.
pretty livid. that the McCanns are using the lawyer (as used by Pinochet)to "avoid deportation". An unhappy spin that.
"""""""The McCanns can be recalled to Portugal with five days' notice. They are being advised by Michael Caplan QC and Angus McBride, from London legal firm Kingsley Napley.
Mr Caplan acted for former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet when Spain attempted to extradite him from the UK in 1999. """""
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6986514.stm