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And who's actually paying for this?
By which, I mean, who's actually funding this London advertising campaign? The News Of The World? Those not-so-secret capitalist benefactors? I'm sure Clear Channel aren't giving their billboards for free. And if they are - why? (By which I mean, why not one of the other missing or abused children?)
I thought the media heat had died down, but apparently not.
The parents have been invited to the Vatican to meet the Pope tomorrow. Kate and Gerry McCann will have a private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow morning at the end of a general audience meeting in the Vatican. According to the Guardian, the couple will fly to Rome this afternoon from Faro on a 12-seater Gulfstream jet owned by the businessman Sir Philip Green. (Ah, he'll be the one pressured into getting involved by the News Of The World on our behalf.) I respect the couple's Catholic faith and the strength it's clearly given them. But meeting the Pope? These grieving people are being turned into pop stars. I know they're courting the media because it's the only way they can keep their daughter in the headlines, but it's a circus now. It's all totally out of proportion.
Clarence Mitchell, a "spokesman for the McCann family", said that that although they were grateful of Green's offer to let them use his private jet, they would only use it on this one occasion.
I do not question the motives of the parents, as I've stated before, but the rest of us have got to calm down. Haven't we?
posted by Andrew Collins @ 12:42 AM
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31 Comments:
I was going to write something trite here about Big Brohter starting next week and that killing off any remaining media interest. Then I watched that video. The way she and, I presume, her sister fell over on those little steps reminds me of something my three year old would do and I am actually in tears as I type.
I know it is hopeless and I am not sure what point I want to make about the callousness of our media but I just want this story to stay in the public eye. Free of hyperbole as much as possible but still visible. I cannot begin to imagine what those parents are going through.
Perhaps they want to make use of the catholic church's extensive network of paedophile priests that it's protected all these years to open up new lines of enquiry?
Andrew:
"The rest of us have got to calm down. Haven't we?"
In a word, yes.
Kitchen Cynic:
Under the circumstances, that's just tasteless.
What about the parents of other children who have gone missing - approximately 4000 a year.
Will they be getting the same advantages? When the next child goes missing, will all the stops be pulled out like they are here? I doubt it.
I'm with five-centres there. Seems unfair that wealth and economic status can exert influence in situations such as this.
And what of the involvement of Sir Phillip Green? Has he inked a deal with the McCanns that he'll fly them out there as long as a) it's mentioned in News of the World Philip Green Owner of Arcadia Group including Topshop, BHS etc generously donated £250k to Madeleine's cause and now offers to fly them to the Vatican and b) they come off the plane and meet the Pope in Topshop's summer collection.
Px said:
Kitchen Cynic:
Under the circumstances, that's just tasteless.
What? And the media's reaction to all of this isn't? I think we've gone beyond tasteless now. This is a media circus spiralling out of all control.
Of course we all want her to turn up safe and sound - but please... I refer you to all the other people who have mentioned the vast numbers of missing people that don't get anywhere near this level of attention.
What I would really like to know is, is all this media attention a proven method for retrieving a missing person. I'm certainly no expert but I would doubt its efficacy as a proven technique. If someone has got this girl, surely he or she is going do do all they can to lie very low and disguise this poor girl or worse. If however a media furore is a proven effective way of finding missing persons I will stand corrected. It doesn't feel right to me though.
One assumes that if the child is found alive it will be 'Praise be to God!' and if, and we all hope this does not happen, she is found dead it will be God moving in mysterious ways again.
if i get the email - i wil return it saying she is not here and i havent' seen her.
Paul
Er... did I suggest the media's reaction was tasteful? I don't recall saying that.
Just because the media is being tasteless here (there's a big suprise!) doesn't warrant making unhelpful remarks about someone's religion.
Gwen asks if this media attention is a proven method for retrieving a missing person...
Does it matter? This is not about finding a missing person. This is about selling newspapers, increasing ratings.
And by that measure, you have to say the whole thing's been a great success. Well done lads! Bonuses all round!
Px, it's not for me to defend someone else's comment, but I think the line about paedophiles in the Catholic Church, while near the knuckle, does have some basis in truth. It's not necessarily an attack on Catholicism to bring this unsavoury truth up. (After all, if you prevent priests from having sex or getting married, whatever their faith, you're not exactly encouraging "normal" sexual behaviour are you?)
That said, it was a joke, wasn't it?
The Vatican has a Marketing department which is just as 'shrewd' as any of the newspapers. Witness it in action now. Perhaps it's part of a 'rebranding' exercise.
Yes, ISBW, and I'd be very interested to find out exactly what they've been doing in Portugal - a largely Catholic country - to get behind the search for Madeleine.
I'm wondering exactly what the royal family is doing while all this is going on. They're useless and completely out of touch. Diana would have been out there weeks ago (if Channel 4 hadn't killed her).
When did this become a thread about kicking the Catholic Church ? There are good Catholics out there who don't go around buggering small boys and frankly I get a little tired repeating the fact to people who feel they can say what they like about a religion followed by millions.
Anyway the point I wanted to make was that this whole thing makes me feel queasy. I know the media are over the top and yes there are children that go missing all the time. They do not however generally go missing in this manner. Predatory child snatching like this is relatively rare which is why it is such big news.
I just wonder if by being so cynical about their response we are not being a tad self righteous, and are as guilty of the cynicism we despise in them. I do include myself in that catchment as well.
The one area that I do not excuse the media for is their persecution of this Murat bloke. That is scandalous.
"That said, it was a joke, wasn't it?"
Made me laugh...
Andrew
Apologies, you're absolutely right. I know it was a joke, I just felt that given the McCann's are drawing on their faith as a source of strength at the moment to make some cheap gag about paedophiles was not actually all that funny, and would probably be seen by them as quite offensive. I agree with you about priests nont geting married - there's a whole other topic there for another time, but now is probably not that time.
I love the irony of the McCanns leaving behind their other two children (when leaving their children got them into this situation in the first place) to go and meet the man in charge of the biggest force of nonces the world over. Brilliant.
As for the media coverage well as far as I can see it's only counterproductive. Madelaine is dead. If she was snatched (and do we know for sure that she was? She may have just fallen down a drain) then whoever has her is sure to kill her now that she's internationally famous, more trouble than she's worth you see.
If that upsets anyone well get over it, it's the facts of the matter.
Harsh.
As for Pierre's point about cynicism: I don't think any cynicism we might show as consumers of the media can ever match the downright cynicism of the media itself.
I am cynical of the media. I distrust its motives, as it is a capitalist media, responsible only to its shareholders for the most part. The media are cynical of me. They think I am stupid. Who's the one with the most power? That's the decider.
I have just gone through my MySpace friends (I was actually looking for someone, and unless I'm being stupid, I don't think it's possible to arrange them in alphabetical order), and four out of the 1300-odd who are there have replaced their photo with a photo of Maddie.
I'm saying nothing.
I think the Pope is hiding her under his big hat
The comments sections on this subject (across all the Madeline-related posts) is fast becoming one of the colder, more cynical and borderline offensive corners of the blogosphere. Posters calling for some consideration (px and the mighty pierre) or sensitivity are castigated while the flaming comments of the gleam are left to stand. Andrew, you're better than some of the company you're keeping here.
I have to say yesterday was a tough day for me and this whole thing I was really upset seeing that video and was hitting out a little indiscriminately. I pissed somebody of on my regular forum as well.
I know the media are hypocrites the way they pick out some stories and ignore others and I was just as vitriolic a few summers ago about the over the top coverage of Holly and Jessica. In the meantime I have had a kid and my perspective has changed a little.
A few year's ago I could have smiled at Gleam's comment (or one like it that was actually funny) but now it just seems heartless and unpleasant.
There's a growing number of people on internet discussion forums wondering whether the parents have faked her disappearance. With the fund nearing £400,000 controlled by a limited company set up by family members, who cite one of the ways in which the money will be spent is to "support the family", there could be an argument for financial reasons. Parents through history have faked the abductions of their children. There's something very odd about this case.
I spent my lunch hour in a local caff today, flicking through the papers. The Mirror has a double-page spread of photos of Madeleine's tearful mum, hugging her other two children and crying because she knows she has to leave them. That's how it was phrased – she "had" to leave them. Two things upset me about this. Firstly, she didn't "have" to leave them. Getting the Pope to bless a photograph of their daughter might have given them some emotional support, but surely not the kind of support that's outweighed by the sadness of leaving their other children behind. Secondly, these photos have very obviously been planned and posed, which leaves a very sour taste.
Also, read this - the McCann's diary from last week's Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=456348&in_page_id=1770. It's all very, very unsettling somehow.
Anonymous, I take your point, but I don't think any of the opinions expressed are "offensive". (Leaving aside cheap digs at the Catholic church - but I think I've covered that.) I think, if anything, the comments here have a sense of relief about them, as if people have found a rare outlet for views that are deemed "out of step" with the consensus, or "inappropritate" by the emotionally superior. (Lots of stories of workmates disapproving of anything other than blanket emotional empathy for two strangers abroad.)
I don't think anybody's gloating about the unfortunate events that have unfolded in Portugal - the subject here is media manipulation and emotional blackmail. This story is at the centre of it.
For whatever reasons, Madeleine has become a symbol. She represents a set of different things to different people.
Whatever your views, and whatever your feelings, you have to admit, it's out of control. The story has come loose from its moorings, and is no longer about the facts of the case.
Because the discussion has ranged over three separate posts, we mustn't forget the earliest ones, where people made clear that they were not being heartless about those actually involved with the story, but had a big problem with the chain letters and the media sensationalism. I think we can take as read that nobody wishes any harm on any parent or child. I'd remove any post that crossed that line.
But let's not be afraid to say what's on our minds.
I actually feel quite sorry for the other kids whose lives have been turned upside down by all this. Where I can understand the parents wanting to remain in Portugal, I can't help feeling the kids might benefit from the stability of going back home. And also, why did she not take those kids to Rome? It can't be for financial reasons, as everyone seems to be throwing money at this at the moment, and I doubt the Pope would have objected to meeting the kids as well as the parents. It just feels wrong to me.
Two houses on my road have cut-out newspaper pictures of Madeleine in the window, and somehow I doubt she's in Gospel Oak...
Px
With regard to The Mighty Pierre's comments, there is a distinction to be made between having a go at the Catholic Church (or the Pope as head thereof) and having a go at Catholics or the Catholic faith. It's similar(ish) to the distinction between being critical of Israel and being anti-Semitic. The Catholic Church deserves all it gets for its attempts to protect paedophile priests.
Newspapers put up posters to help find this child, but they just can't stop themselves plastering their mastheads all over them. I'm waiting for one of them to project a massive picture of her onto the Houses of Parliament. I am cynical and perhaps self-righteous, but what other response can there be to that huge inflatable advert for the News Of The World?
I get the impression from watching the events unfold on TV and in papers that it isn't a powerless family who are being manipulated by the nasty media for once. The McCann family and their supporters are carefully planning each step of their campaign and from that point of view I have been impressed by the way they are orchestrating it.
I don't think I have ever seen ordinary punters use the media in quite this way before.
Whether it will work will depend on what happened. We don't know what the police know and it is pointless stating theories and suspicions about what happened that night as we are not there and we don't know the main players.
Elizabeth
After suffering through Big Brother opening night I had a rather vivid dream where Madeline was unveiled as the new housemate on Friday. The most worrying thing about this, (after the news of the Dutch kidney programme.) is that probably isn't as massive a leap of real world to fictionally as you'd hope.
I saw a poster of 'Maddy' on a bus stop in Berkshire yesterday, tired point but how does that help?
I just wanted to point out this story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk:80/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=459006&in_page_id=1770
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