The Sun Shines On Madeleine McCann
MADELEINE McCann is still missing.
“WE HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE,” says the Sun’s front page. The paper quotes Chief Inspector Oligario Sousa: “We have examined many leads, but each has now been discontinued. Everything that we have looked at so far has been discounted.”
At least this is what Sousa is telling the Sun. The Portuguese police have not involved the British press in all aspects of the hunt for Madeleine McCann. Sousa is not a recognisable face to British readers and TV watchers from press conferences. The E-fit picture of Madeleine was not made available to the Sun.
So instead of the Sun saying how tireless Portuguese police work is, by a process of elimination, moving ever closer to solving the mystery, readers get an altogether less positive headline.
The message is that the Portuguese police haven’t a clue, and this despite the McCanns thanking them for their hard work. And this in light of what the Mirror calls an “official news blackout”.
What will get results is the Sun’s poster, which it tells us is “a big hit”. The poster is “flying around the globe”. Thanks to the Sun, 15,000 posters of Madeleine’s face were handed out at Saturday’s Celtic v Aberdeen football match.
“Maddie cops are back to square one,” says the Sun. Although they are not. The Portuguese police have ruled out suspects and possibilities.
But no matter, because the Sun will crack the case. Or at least spread the anxiety, remind people that a girl has gone missing and that it could have been your child.
But the Sun is not alone. Here’s Tony Parsons in the Mirror. He has lost sight of his child:
“My wife and my daughter were in the school changing room packing up the tutu after ballet. I was waiting right outside, kicking around a ball with the kid brother of one of my daughter’s friends. Eventually my wife came out alone. ‘Where is she?’ my wife asked. ‘Isn’t she with you?’ I said. And that’s how it happens.”
Parsons’ child was found in a classroom. She was “chilling out”. Nearly all children are found. The theft of a child is extremely rare.
Parsons is a victim of the anxiety of what is routinely called “every parent’s worst nightmare”, and he is helping to spread the virus of fear.
Meanwhile, away from Parson’s ballet trauma and a football match in Scotland, the Mirror leads with yet another picture of Madeleine McCann’s parents. More time for readers to see the strain “etched” on their faces. “PRAY FOR MADELEINE,” says the Mirror’s masthead.
There is no news of Madeleine McCann. But the papers continue to report without any need to inform or educate, to spread the fear and compete to show which of them cares the most…
Posted: 14th, May 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (80) | TrackBack | Permalink
