Madeleine McCann: Another Christmas Present For The Papers
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
THE MAIL: “Maddie, the last happy Christmas”
Indeed. Now instead of stories of Santa, readers get stories of missing children. It’s what they enjoy.
THE SUN: “Maddie’s Xmas gifts are lying under the tree”
THE parents of missing Madeleine McCann wrestled with their anguish to buy her gifts — on their second Christmas without her.
Kate and Gerry McCann took the heart-wrenching decision as they released a fresh video appeal to find her.
They have wrapped the presents and put them under their tree almost 19 months after Maddie, then three, vanished from their holiday apartment in Portugal.
Last night Clarence Mitchell, the couple’s official spokesman, said there had already been a “very good” response to the new appeal.
IRISH INDEPENDENT (front page): “Please bring Maddy home – Parent’s plea at Christmas”
Still the papers are undecided: Maddy or Maddie? Of course both versions are the tabloids’ pet names and command the sobriquet “our”. The missing child is called Madeleine.
Pages 2 and 3: “McCanns plea for help with new vide of Maddy”
There are five pictures of the missing child; now new of any progress in finding what happened to her; and one story about how the family of “murdered French film executive Sophie Toscan du Plantier will stage a candlelit vigil tonight at the spot where she was brutally killed 12 years ago.”
The woman was killed in Cork and her murderer remains at large.
It all adds up to the first three pages of news in Ireland, shedding no light but gawping at suffering and giving readers a big dose of Mourn Porn.
THE SUN (page 9): “Maddie’s XMass gifts are lying under tree.”
Are these are new presents or the same as last year’s?
“GRAN’S TOY HEARTBREAK – Xmas gift on Maddie’s bed..huge pink teddy bear with white heart”
One year on and the McCanns are no longer suspects in their daughter’s disappearance. The case has been shelved in Portugal. And after so much news and campaigning the child remains unfound.
And how many years will the papers keep watching for the McCanns’ Christmas message? So long as the hacks are on holiday and looking for easy news?
Posted: 22nd, December 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink
