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McCann Apology


LEO
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Interestingly Leo when I made a snotty comment about tabloid journalists one of them took me to task and told me that they are actually much more careful what they write and they can usually prove 99% of it.  I would think maybe the tabloids will just watch this space because in time the truth will come out and they might even get their money back..
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[quote user="Ron Avery"]Interestingly Leo when I made a snotty comment about tabloid journalists one of them took me to task and told me that they are actually much more careful what they write and they can usually prove 99% of it.  I would think maybe the tabloids will just watch this space because in time the truth will come out and they might even get their money back..[/quote]

 

Hi Ron ,

I think it is pretty clear in this particular case, the truth is, that the tabloids were 99% wrong!

Or more accurately on their own admission 100%

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I hardly ever buy (English) newspapers because they are to expensive bu I have UK TV. My feeling is that there is a lot more to all this than meets the eye. Although I can't put my finger on it I just get a feeling all is not as it seems and it just does not sit right this whole McCann thing.

As said they are still official 'suspects' and until that is removed it's difficult to say much.

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In a general sense I hope that newspaper UK journalism does

not become timid.  Ignoring the

specifics of the McCanns, of course it is wrong to print lies and unfounded

allegations but to take a few facts and try and draw a few conclusions (ideally

presented as conclusions) is an important function of the press.

One thing I have noticed over recent years is how scared the

BBC news has become.  Unsure of the true

cause – maybe the Hutton Enquiry or some of its various scraps with the

government but these days it totally avoids controversial matters.  When something controversial is required

(because of its importance) it is brief with no “questions” or related info, no

investigation.  Compare the BBC to Channel

4 news and the BBC effectively looks like a department of government PR.  I often watch both BBC and Channel 4 early

evening news and even when they are both half hour ones the difference is

dramatic.

What I think is important is that journalism remains

investigative, questioning and prepared to pursue something even when it might

backfire on them.

 

As far as the McCanns are concerned – they seek out

publicity but get really uptight when what is written is not 100% positive

about them and not 100% supportive.  I

actually think the McCanns circumstances illustrate failing in UK

journalism.  Portuguese reporters were

prepared to actually investigate and question and found some very interesting

(and not 100% McCann supporting) facts - real facts in terms of witness

statements, conflicting reports, etc.. 

UK reporting was mostly all pro McCann and how they have done nothing

wrong and supporting their sometimes questionable “facts”.  As soon as McCanns get something “they don’t

like” its into court, threats, walking out of TV interviews, etc..  This is a general comment on the

relationship between the McCanns and the press as I did not read the story that

caused the latest thing.

Personally I think there are some major questions about the

McCanns involvement in this.  Maybe they

are guilty maybe not but it would certainly appear they have been less than

100% honest and open with press (and thus presumably the Police as well).  even their own story conflicts with itself.

Ian
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Ian, I have read all of your post with interest and, mostly, agreement.  You have made a valid and well thought out analysis of how newspapers and the BBC report the news.

Years ago, before the BBC became such a government mouthpiece, it was brave and controversial; it was the BBC's finest period in Public Service Broadcasting.

It is surely a central tenet of a broadcaster; print, TV, radio or internet, to ask the sort of questions that we as the public end-users of these media would like to be asked on our account.  On this basis alone, I do think that the broadcasters often fail us and I also think that a nation gets the TV and press that it deserves.  Therefore, we are ultimately to blame if standards fall; this is because we continue to subscribe and do not protest enough when the broadcasters don't do the things we want.

On the whole, however, and I do have some experience of TV and newspapers in other countries, I have to admit that the Beeb still do a better job than most.

Thank you for posting and providing me with some food for thought.

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They discussed this matter on the Politics show last night and the concusion was that although it looked like a large sum of money awarded in damages, for the papers concerned it was very little. The conclusion was that both papers would probably do the same again if the circumstances arose.

I try not to think about the McCanns - my blood pressure isn't up to it ![6]

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With the benefit of hindsight, I bet the McCanns wish they had taken the kids with them to dinner that night and endured the inconvenience of them running about the tables whilst they dined alfresco.

I have not seen this latest furore over "slanderous statements" or anything,  but journalists are if anything 100% human and plenty of us mere mortals believe there is something in this story that does not lay quite right on the palette, something that leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.   

On a similar vein, anyone seen the coverage of the Australian paedophile who has been forcibly sent back to the UK?   He was a persistant offender but the aussies had him serve his latest 12 year stretch then packed him onto a plane back to London, because he was born in the UK and not Oz it gave them the right to get rid of him permanently.    Nice to know another one is free to carry on his evil ways, albeit under the veil of the Sex offenders Register.    I doubt the man is going to integrate into the society he has been deposited into either since he has no living relatives in the UK to join so it looks like the murky world he previously walked in is only a step away again.   Worrying for parents everywhere since they are not going to be privileged to the information as to the whereabouts of this monster.

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I agree that the BBC after the 'sexing-up dosier' row have caved-in - a great shame. The British troops during the invasion of Iraq used to ask if the could watch Sky news as they so distrusted the BBC.

One of the many sad things about the McCann's situation is that there were few facts for the press to report - so crap papers like the Express resorted to recycling malevelant fantacies from the Portugese press. This leads to otherwise sane people (who expect the stories in the press to contain some truth) to say 'no smoke without fire'. (See some of the posts above).

Our family has holidayed at Mark Warner resorts and all I can say is 'there but for the grace of God go I'.

I doubt that there is an parent on this forum who has not at some time left their child unguarded for a moment, so 'there but for the grace of God go all of us' which leads to the question of who exactly is in the position to cast the first stone? Other than the fine examples of truthfullness at the Express, (note their uncritical support to the fantasies of Mohommed Fayed - anything for a front page headline with the word Diana in it).

Regarding the Portugese police naming the McCanns as suspects, well these policemen have been out of their depth all along.
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Leaving your child 'unguarded for a moment' is not quite the same as going to a restaurant leaving 3 children under 4 years of age alone, in a strange place and out of sight and hearing of their parents, and with a swimming pool between them and you.

I don't think they had anything to do with the actual disappearance, but I do think they are deluded. They wanted the press attention, that is a double edged sword, quite what they expected when they uttered the immortal words 'we are not bad parents' heaven knows.

I can only suppose that the McCanns imagine that all 'bad' parents live on sink estates and pedophiles belong to some obviously lower class - [6]

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Sorry for raking this over again but there is unguarded and unguarded!!!.  Leaving 18 month old toddlers and a 3 year old 75 yards away in a locked room is not unguarded[:-))].  How exactly did they know their kids would not wake up and try and get out of bed?  Why did Mrs McCann allegedly go on her own to check her kids and not with the "friend" who has now changed her evidence? No chance of them having come round by then???  Why was Gerry McCann shown on TV walking around with a smirk on his face a couple of days after his beloved daughter had gone missing, not exactly distraught was he?  She looks worse and worse, maybe the strain of knowing what really happened to her daughter will tell one day and she will crack perhaps?  Perhaps the Portugese Police know exactly who did it but lack the evidence, (like the body) to convict them.

Being out of your depth and not leaking all the evidence to the papers is not the same thing, the so called British experts and private detectives have not exactly come up with the goods yet have they?  The UK press just could not cope with the suppression of evidence to them and rank that as incompetent whereas if it had been good old Inspector Knacker of the Yard the case would have been closed by now and the press fully briefed on every shred of evidence...........  as if[blink]

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[quote user="Ron Avery"]

 She looks worse and worse, maybe the strain of knowing what really happened to her daughter will tell one day and she will crack perhaps? 

[/quote]

Or maybe it's the strain of NOT knowing what really happened to her daughter. I don't know and neither do you, Ron, but I certainly expected better of you than a Daily Star-style rant.

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The Portugese Police have been woefully inept from Day One.   An event of the magnitude and public interest of Madeleine McCann's disappearance is not something a police station in a relatively small holiday resort would be expected to have experience of, in which case it ought to have been handled by the police in Lisbon  who are perhaps more used to dealing with high-profile cases, ie. as Scotland Yard takes control of cases in the UK.    Any chance of finding forensic evidence after the event was lost due to those bumbling buffoons crashing about in the apartment and the hire cars etc.

Yes we have all left our kids unguarded for a moment or two, but as Russethouse says, an unguarded moment is somewhat different to a planned, childfree evening in the tapas bar having a jolly time with your pals  whilst leaving three little ones alone in a strange environment,  indeed much less because between the tapas bar and the apartment is a large swimming pool that a child could easily fall into if they awoke and decided to find Mummy & Daddy.    That is an irresponsible act that the fiend who abducted Madeleine took full advantage of, so then contrast this to the little Spanish girl who was abducted recently not too far from the Mark Warner complex who was found dead.  No blanket coverage of this family's terrible loss, a loss not greater nor lesser than the McCanns yet one that received scant coverage in comparison.

I wonder if we will ever know what really happenned to Madeleine.

As for the BBC - I gave up on that ages ago when it became the Mouthpiece of  Labour.   Sky News for us nowadays as they at least TRY to maintain an unbiased opinion on things and simply deliver the news without a hectoring lecture thrown in.  [;-)]

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[quote user="Ron Avery"]

the so called British experts and private detectives have not exactly come up with the goods yet have they? 

[/quote]

And what a nice little earner that is. It implied on C4 News that it costs £100,000 a month for the private detectives and that the compensation will go to them so they can carry on investigating.

Sorry but I'm with Ron and Gay on this, they have said exactly what I would have said.

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I've been watching this thread over recent days and been tempted a few times to add my comments but declined to do so up to now.  I did however today have a look on the Find Madeline Website and have read through a lot of the information posted and also read through Gerry's blog with interest and horror.

I know that people will argue about the mistake they made in leaving the children alone in a room... and everyone will have an opinion and no doubt the McCann's will live with the guilt of this decision for the rest of their lives... so I'm going to avoid this one... but... I would recommend people go and look at their website and see some of the work they are doing to highlight the plight of all missing children.  I was shocked by the numbers of little ones that disappear every year and I was shocked by the level of child sex exploitation and abuse worldwide and the amount of money this industry is making out of innocent children.  There is a page of information here http://www.findmadeleine.com/missingchildren/

I know that some people have criticised the manner in which the McCann's have used the media but maybe they are just a family that are learning more and more about these crimes and have become more and more involved in trying to find answers... I ask myself what would I do if you were a parent in the same situation... would I want to keep fighting and searching and pushing... I think that maybe I would?  I don't think the McCann's killed their daughter, I think the press were wrong and I am glad they apologised... and having read the website and the links to other organisations I think that if nothing else can come out of the whole sad story perhaps bringing about change or public awareness to this most shocking of crimes will be good. 

I lifted these figures from http://www.missingchildreneurope.eu/?q=node/23  it's discussed on the Find Madeline Website here http://www.findmadeleine.com/blog/?cmd=find#Blog

Missing …
In Belgium, in 2006, Child Focus worked on more than 3,300 cases involving nearly 3,600 children: runaways, parental abductions, third party abductions, sexual abuse, unaccompanied minors…

In France, the ministry for internal affairs gives the following figures for 2006: 43 245 runaways, 895 worrying disappearances of minors, from which 380 parental abductions, 1 570 other disappearances.

…and sexually exploited children
Recent data show that criminal networks are developing more and more child pornography to generate income. Child pornography is fairly easy and cheap to produce and the market is enormous. Child pornography generates huge profits and the risk of prosecution is far less than in arms or drugs trafficking, because legislation is not adequate for internet crime.

I found other shocking statistics about the number of children under three involved in child exploitation and pornography... it is just too shocking and sad... what sort of a world do we live in? 

 

 

 

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The contradictory posts on this thread relating to how this case was treated by the Portugese just goes to highlight the whole issue.

'In France, the ministry for internal affairs gives the following figures for 2006: 43 245 runaways, 895 worrying disappearances of minors, from which 380 parental abductions, 1 570 other disappearances'

'The Portugese Police have been woefully inept from Day One.   An event of the magnitude and public interest of Madeleine McCann's disappearance is not something a police station in a relatively small holiday resort would be expected to have experience of, in which case it ought to have been handled by the police in Lisbon  who are perhaps more used to dealing with high-profile cases, ie. as Scotland Yard takes control of cases in the UK.    Any chance of finding forensic evidence after the event was lost due to those bumbling buffoons crashing about in the apartment and the hire cars etc.'

 

I imagine the French figures may be similar to Portugal, so why does the Madeleine case, of apparently such magnitude and public interest warrant so much more interest than the hundreds of others. Policing and Politics in the UK may be slavishly driven by press and media attention, thankfully the same knee jerk principles do not seem to apply in Portugal.

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Padstow........ where did that name come from Russethouse ? and I think yes maybe scotland yard would be there like a shot if any thing out of the ordinary happened as our prince Harry is known to requent the area every now and then.................[Www]

Are you a local cornish woman or is this your choice of holiday place ?  

I find it hard to believe any one would leave children of that age alone in a strange place in a hotel room........

Since day one I have said the parents have behaved in a odd manner, you dont lose one child and then leave the other two for weeks in a child care centre while they go about making themselves known to the public in readyness for the book? NO normal people would hold the other two children so close to them for fear of losing them too..........  

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I still find it funny, that way before the papers started speculating about the parents being involved, my mum, a social worker, said she thought something with them wasn't 'right' and she felt they may be involved, somehow, as in, it was her gut instinct/ professional opinion. At the time, i didn't really take much notice, thought it a bit far fetched, but now it  really makes me think.......

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[quote user="Meg "]I still find it funny, that way before the papers started speculating about the parents being involved, my mum, a social worker, said she thought something with them wasn't 'right' and she felt they may be involved, somehow, as in, it was her gut instinct/ professional opinion. At the time, i didn't really take much notice, thought it a bit far fetched, but now it  really makes me think.......
[/quote]

Hi Meg, like you I thought at the time, it was a bit far fetched, and I still think that idea is far fetched.

My firm belief is the parents made an error of judgement, when they left the children on their own but, thereafter had no involment in the abduction whatsoever.

 

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But leo do you not find it odd that they then went on to leave the other two for weeks in a holiday child care centre ( known for perfection !! traveling teenage kids looking for holiday jobs) while they courted the press , made a visit to the pope ect..... what great photo opertunities for the future book I think
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  • 1 year later...

Yes I have revived this thread and the reason why is because it seems somebody has access to the police files and stuff has started to appear in the press and not just in the UK. I have always thought from the very start that things were never right, you know what I mean you read it and think this does not add up somehow.

There are some interesting facts which may explain why the Portuguese police had them marked as official suspects.

When the police searched the room she was last in "Cadaver dogs, trained to detect the scent of death, reacted positively to many items, from Kate’s clothes to Maddie’s favorite stuffed animal.  Blood was detected in their rental car."

There is also a TV interview between a police officer and a news reader

Interviewer - And what's your theory?

Policeman - I think the girl died on May 3, and it would have been utterly impossible for the kidnapping to have taken place. The abduction has been only half construction, Because there is not one supporting fact to support this.

Interviewer - Why the McCanns are now saying that there is no evidence that Madeleine is dead?

Policeman - Because their (the McCann's) interpretation is contrary to death, in fact there is evidence: corpse odor, the scent of human blood and there is a set of forensic evidence, evidence that the girl is dead unfortunately.

Interviewer - Can your surmise that with such evidence that there has been a murder, manslaughter ...

Policeman - Yes

Interviewer - But the case has been shelved

Policeman -  I am sure that were it a Portuguese couple, the treatment would not have been the same. The forensic evidence would have been Constitutes as proof, and probably the couple would be in prison.

The interviewer was Alejandro Vázquez and the interview was carried out on the 25th Feb 2010 on the Cuatro news program.

Now I wonder why they really wanted the book suppressed?

A quick disclaimer, the above has nothing to do with the book or the injunction placed upon it.

As I said many of the case documents are in the public domain now and can be viewed HERE in English and there are scanned copies of the originals in Portuguese.

 

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