Madeleine McCann And Missing Shannon Matthews In The Media
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews
DAILY MAIL: “The shocking truth behind daycare at nurseries and crèches”
“Britain’s childcare industry is booming,” says Imogen Willcox, who has no children. But she knows. And she’s blonde.
“Every working day, more than a million parents drop off their precious little cargos at childminders and private nurseries. All of them do it firm in the belief that those they trust with their babies are highly-qualified, strictly regulated and genuine, caring people. Terrifyingly, they are wrong.”
“During an eight-month investigation for the BBC1 investigative programme Whistleblower, I uncovered a childcare culture where a new career’s criminal records and references are never checked, yet they will immediately be left alone with young, vulnerable children.”
You mean someone with a conviction for criminal damage, non-payment of their TV licence or being banned from driving can be in charge of a child!?
And – worst of all – they may be left in the care of a childless TV reporter and Daily Mail writer posing as a caring nursery school helper as she snoops on her fellow staff members – those sad sacks circling life’s plughole without a media career!?
Imogen Willcox carries secret filming equipment into nurseries. Sick? Certainly. Perverted? You decide.
“The builders left their power tools inches away from where the children were playing and no one seemed to notice. I spent that particular session on tenterhooks,” says she.
Were the tools plugged on? Were they on, the drill whirring as Imogen reads the story of Little Red Riding Hood – the girl abducted by the leering wolf-like pervert? Frozen with fear, how could she turn them off or move them out of harm’s way?!
And what has this to do with Madeleine McCann? Patience. Imogen is working up to it. She secures a job on a Mark Warner holiday complex, a Hilton resort in Dahab, Egypt.
“Three weeks after I returned from Egypt, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from a Mark Warner resort in Praia da Luz in Portugal made headlines around the world.
“No one blamed the company or its staff for the little girl’s disappearance, but given the case, I assumed the company would toughen up its vetting of nannies.”
Did the nanny do it? But the McCanns never hired a nanny to look after their children on that fateful night. What does Miss Willcox know?
DAILY MIRROR (front page): “’Give me back my Shannon”
“Lonely” Megan Aldridge wants her friend Shannon back. “I sat on the bench at school today on my own at break time because I had no one to play with. I just want my friend back. She was the bestest friend in the world.”
Mawkish sentiment. A child appealing for another missing child to be allowed to go by whoever has taken her. The Mirror jumping on bandwagon and showing how much it cares. Look at the child. Look at her pain.
THE SUN (front page): “IT’S NOT ME – Stepdad’s denials over cruel rumours.”
The Sun would never indulge in rumour. It just lets its readers know that the rumours that Shannon’s stepdad Craig Meehan had a hand in his daughter’s vanishing are “cruel”.
“I’M NO FIEND” – Craig says: “I know people start pointing fingers at family and friends when things like this happen. But I had nothing to do with Shannon’s disappearance.”
“SHANNON CIRCLED BY 1,400 SEX BEASTS – Evil stalks a 25-mile radius of her home.”
The Sun “can reveal” that almost 1,400 registered sex offenders live in a 25-mile radius of Shannon Matthews home.
DAILY STAR: “SHANNON: BODY DOGS SNIFF OUT 500 HOME”
“The animals, trained to detect the scent of corpses, were taken into 500 houses in Dewsbury, West Yorks.”
The police move came after Shannon’s mum Karen, 32, said she no longer trusted those “really close’’ to her.
Karen believes someone she knows may be responsible for the child’s disappearance.
THE SCOTSMAN: “Police hope DNA will help Shannon hunt”
Senior officers leading the massive hunt said the profile, together with a full set of fingerprints, had been pieced together by analysing items from the girl’s bedroom and other objects, including her schoolbooks.
Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan said: “Both of these items will assist the investigation in the long term.”
DAILY EXPRESS (front page): “MISSING SHANNON – Why her swimsuit holds the vital clue”
Not “Shannon”, rather “Missing Shannon”. Not blonde. Brunette.
“Swim costume is ‘key to finding Shannon.’”
Shannon, missing Shannon, disappeared after a school swimming lesson. She was carrying the swimsuit when she left Dewsbury Leisure Centre.
Madeleine McCann and media exploitation
Posted: 5th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (726) | TrackBack | Permalink
