Geeklawyer knows he’ll get flamed for this but it has to be said: enough, please please please. “Our Maddy” stories have reached the point of terminal boredom.
Yes she is incredibly pretty and very sweet. And Geeklawyer concedes that having her on the front page of every newspaper in the Universe, every website everywhere and occupying 90% of all TV news coverage everywhere may possibly get her back. But Lord it is dull.
If she didn’t have such a hot mum and if her family were not articulate and middle class then the press coverage would have been of the standard “Chav family’s Home Alone outrage: this mum should be jailed.” variety.
Can we have a new excuse for national mawkish sentimentality?
That phrase...
You are indeed going to be in trouble for this. But I do rather sympathise with your view.
You’re a braver man than me, GL. Let’s just hope the child is found and the stories go away.
How would you like your stake, (sic) GL? Anyone with burning torches outside Geeklawyer Hall yet?
The Press can only do so much. Maybe the press coverage will deter others in the future? It must be hell for the parents of any child who is abducted.
“…Geeklawyer concedes that having her on the front page of every newspaper in the Universe, every website everywhere and occupying 90% of all TV news coverage everywhere may possibly get her back. But Lord it is dull.”
To summarise then, you would rather there be [substantially] less chance of finding the 4-year old girl, and have less repetitive news instead?
An interesting viewpoint, certainly.
“substantially”? Can you quantify how substantial this chance is? And is ‘Our Maddy’ an exception - what about all the other lost children - why not add them in too after all why should news be interesting when a child is at stake? AmI the only one who thinks of the children?
The loss of chance is, of course, unquantifiable. But most reasonable people would, I think, assume that it will be much harder to keep the girl from the watchful eyes of the world if her face is plastered everywhere. This has negative connotations as well, of course; it may be that her abductors will panic, and kill her.
Other lost children should, of course, be equally entitled to such an overwhelming rescue response. But they’re not. For whatever reason (and I imagine there are a few), the Madeline McCann story has caught the public’s attention, and imagination. I don’t condone that discrimination, but I certainly don’t begrudge her parents the right to use the news as a vehicle to get her back.
Ultimately, to hold more dear the products of what is an artificial construct (”news”) than the life of a small girl is, I would suggest callous, but probably indicative of today’s iPod-wearinng, RSS-reading, PDA/phone-holding, news-overload world. If we don’t get our news fix, then we start to detox. Hence your post.
Fair point… Martin !
Geeklawyer - I agree. It was a lot worse last week though, when “updates” from Portugal used to happen every 15 - 20 minutes on BBC News 24.
You’re brave to say what a lot of people are thinking. As a criminal lawyer with some experience of the darker side of humanity I’m afraid I came to the same conclusion as Martin: whilst the desire by the parents to generate publicity is understandable, it may encourage the abductor to murder her rather than risk moving her in public.
Whilst I dont know the exact number of children that go missing every day, I know its a very high figure. A lot of those children have parents that care about them, so why does the the case of Maddy justify a higher level of publicity? It’s again hard to avoid the conclusion that its becuase she is a pretty child from a middle class family, whose parents have more knowledge than most about how to manipulate the media.
But what if Maddy is not found next week, next month? This level of media coverage cannot be maintained.
It’s also hard to avoid the sense that the media are capitalising on a natural fascination and sense of superiority over other peoples suffering, which also might help to explain the recent explosion in popularity of biographies of abused childhoods. Look at them…poor things, thank god I’m so clever and lucky that it hasn’t happened..to me.
There’s a fine line between publicity and voyeurism. Although given the helplessness that the parents must feel now, generating publicity is about the only positive thing they can do.
Ruthie…. on the button. Good shout.
Tragic situation and one cannot blame the parents for doing everything they can to keep press attention focussed. The Fourth Estate will move on… they always do….. a transient medium… and they rarely print anything unless it suits them to do so.
As Charon QC wisely says,
“The Fourth Estate will move on… they always do….. a transient medium… and they rarely print anything unless it suits them to do so”.
Let’s hope she’s found so they can move on quickly.
Geeklawyer- I am also feeling Maddy fatigue. Was there this much coverage of the two little girls in Soham?
I don’t blame the parents for wanting to capitalise on the media interest, I’m sure if I were a parent who had been stupid enough to do what they did, (or even if it happened under my nose for that matter) I would do the same. What gets under my skin is that if this had been a young single mother, or anyone who wasn’t white middle class can you imagine the reaction of the media?
LAEW Girl: GL… is a very subtle man… I do not know him, other than through the blog / and a recent conference … but he does have a point
One of the reasons why I enjoy wandering around his blog … apart from the conditions attached to my ASBO… is as follows (infra… seriatim)
Ruthie usually manages to do the really analytical stuff…(Wot I come for) … what we call in the world of UK & Euroblogging … the ‘legalo-philosophical deconstruction’ … the Hegelian dialectic… and, to be frank… when I need a bit of a Hart to Hart… kick the odd concept of law about…. over a glass of wine and bread dipped in Olivecrona …
Mostly I make my nocturnal visits to this temple of audacity…. “to destroy the distorting influence of metaphysics upon legal thinking and to provide the secure philosophical foundation for scientific knowledge of the law.”
Mind you…. my interestin Jurisprudence really kicked off when I wanted to find out what time The Jonathan Ross show on BBC started… searched ‘Google’ and came across the the Danish philosopher and jurist Alf Ross.. and the rest is history.
Law Girl: If you really want to get flamed by GeekLawyer… ask him if he feels that his blog benefits from the selfless, intelligent and perceptive contribution made by RUTHIE.
I am now… getting my coat…and while I am it… I may as well get a few others to reduce my carbon footprint next winter.
Bon Bank Holiday… one and all !
Cheers Charon. Glad to see that you appreciate my contribution.
ask him if he feels that his blog benefits from the selfless, intelligent and perceptive contribution made by RUTHIE.
That would be likely to be met not with a flame but puzzled incredulity…
Hi GL…. Quite! Always a pleasure to pop over and see what is happening…. As it happens, off for a lunch with myself to read the papers and think. No doubt, I’ll be writing later
Sorry about the incorrect spelling of your name Law Girl …. I have been watching too much cricket and, I fear, may have read far too much law this last week.
Charon QC: no worries, my real name is just as hard to spell
You should try being burdened by my real name…. even I can’t spell it on a saturday night
Despite my above comments, I would agree that this is going too far:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6696497.stm
Do they expect the Pope to put leaflets through letterboxes or something?
The McCanns overt catholicism makes them something of a pin up for a church currently short of credible role models. I’m sure that Blair’s imminent conversion will do nothing to help their cause. But hey, he’s needs someone to replace Georege Bush, and with the current mutterings about war crimes indictments, he obviously feels he needs all the help he can get.
As a member of the Fourth Estate, I feel an urge to step in here.
1) Allegedly the McCanns need to ‘raise awareness’ (in PR-speak) of their daughter’s abduction in countries other than those drinking from the Beeb and the Tabs’ cups - i.e. pretty much everywhere else than here, Canada and suchlike. Seeing the Pope is a big hitter for Catholic countries, Latin countries and the like. The Pope’s a big draw. Lord know who they’ll go to after, however. No pun intended.
2) Blaming the press for keeping this story warm is like shooting fish in a barrel. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. It’s consumerism in a nutshell. Millions watch BB, read the tabs, Heat, you name it, and then moan about what they write/say. Get real; look in a mirror.
Most people want to read about Madeleine McCann because they will get a semi-subconscious feeling of relief from projecting themselves into the scenario. The press is imho just delivering this wish fulfillment of “thank god that’s not me, I can imagine what it would be like if it were my little girl” when, in fact, they cannot, and do not want to. I’m not saying I agree with how it does it, though.
However, it is sad that Alan Johnston never makes the front page, but the Johnston thing is a related issue - he’s being put in the papers for kind of the same reason.
3) If you think this is bad, wait for the trial.
4) Let’s poke at lawyers, rather than the press, for a change on this one:
a) The McCanns have had some very good, very expensive PR help here, most likely pro bono.
b) It’s working very well, for now.
c) Would they have got this expensive, high quality legal/PR advice if they weren’t your ‘middle-class, good-looking’ people who could see the benefit of it?
d) And, ahem, is pro bono work really as altruistic as lawyers like it to be perceived? Think of the publicity…
5) The reality of compassion fatigue:
I got an forwarded email this morning from a friend, allegedly originally from Phil McCann, with a pic of the girl and message to pass the email on to everyone in my address book to help them reach out beyond the UK press circle.
My first thought was “is this a trojan?” My second was “please not my mailbox!” My third was “wow, if I was a malware writer, this would be the PERFECT cover for a keylogging virus”. Not until I wrote this sentence did I remember fully what this is actually about.
In other words, Geeklawyer’s point is perhaps not one that he realised he was making. Will we all become so inured that we feel nothing when the press do, inevitably, move on?
I wondered how long it would take for the new Pope to issue a Papal Bull
The press coverage is too much, it won’t do anything to get her back. If anything it probaly adds to the thrill of the deluded mind that kidnapped her.
Lets get back to some serious issues such as the many children who die at the hands of the captalist system.
Several alone died in making this nescafe coffee I am drinking.
Have a read of this article in todays Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article1865968.ece
then consider whether we should be hiring lawyers to deal with plagarism…
I also see we now have “Madeleine:the tour” with free private jet provided by Philip Green “Save Madeleine: shop at BHS!”
How long before we have Madeleine the musical with Robert Murat playing the child catcher? Does anyone give any thought to life of his ex-wife and daughter, who although completely innocent have been driven out of their home by the attentions of the press?
Oh and here’s some details of a black kid that has been abducted, which funnily enough you didn’t hear about on the 6 o clock news.
myspace.com/jewelmahaviastrong
[…] failed to cause offence to anyone other than Martin by suggesting the McAnn’s were not holy Geeklawyer thought he’d have another go. This time about […]
The story of Madeleine McCann is now getting beyong a joke. It IS a very sad situation the family are in, but is one a number of families are in. More importantly, it is one sad story among many others. The abduction world tour seems a little misjudged.
I wonder at what point journalists and their organisations will back away from the story. Only to then report about again following a; a puplic backlash or b; the 6 month anniversary and or Wembley concert. Sigh.
Some people who kidnap do not murder and some who murder do not kidnap some who rape do not murder some who murder so not rape meaning it is hard to really know what you are dealing with. There is nothing to indicate Madeleine is not alive. No doubt more should be done to find all abducted children. I don’t know the statistics of how many abducted children are found. Having seen the statistics of the numbers missing I assume in comparison not nearly enough is being done to find them.
If people offer to help one family of a missing child… or each popular magazine covers one missing child a month or? There should be a number of ways to help with issues instead of doing nothing and depending entirely on the police.
Oh, and if every lawyer would help a family find one missing child!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that’s an idea.
I agree that not enough is being done to find missing children. In fact not enough is being done to find missing people. In todays fractured society it becomes ever easier for people to disappear and not be missed. So: look out for your friends and neighbours.
The Amber Alert system used in the States seems to work quite well, but if the national newspapers just dedicated say one page to missing people every week that could make a huge difference. The “Big Issue” magazine has always had a page featuring missing people.
I was amused at the instant shock horror response in the media when a German reporter recently suggested that the parents may be complicit in the abduction, followed by a sharp intake of breath at the thought of “what if, and then won’t we have all looked really stupid?” Becuase in the vast majority of kidnaps and murders the victim is known to the perpetrator. Not that I am suggesting that is the case here. I fear poor Madeleine was snatched to order.
I was also amused at the parents comments that they were shocked at the extent of the media interest. Really? When you have gone out of your way to generate that interest?