Madeleine McCann: The Pope’s Holy See
“FOR 26 anguished days she has not spent a night away form her twins. But yesterday, as the search for little Madeleine went on, Kate McCann had to say goodbye…”
What follows is “A MOTHER’S HEARTACHE”, as the Mirror sees Kate McCann say “GOODBYE DARLINGS” to her twin children.
In the mystery of Madeleine McCann, we are back to watching the parents, looking on as “TROUBLED” Kate McCann prepares to make the journey to meet the Pope.
What follows adds nothing to the search for Madeleine McCann. Adds nothing to the debate on why or how the girl was taken. But it adds much to the public spectacle and the media narrative, which threatens to consume the McCanns.
Pope Of Hope
The Mirror sees Kate flash her children a “bright smile”. She gazes into “their shining eyes”. Mum and dad are going now, off to see the Pope, a man who can help them find Madeleine by, as dad Gerry McCann says, giving them a “great spiritual lift”.
Gerry McCann tells us: “Meeting the Pope is so potentially hugely important to what we are trying to achieve as a family. We never thought for one moment we would get such publicity, but it means we can get our message across.”
From the parents of a missing girl, the McCanns now carry a message.
Writing Wrongs
The Sun calls them a “deeply religious couple”, but anyone who has followed the case knows Gerry to be less then that. The theft of his daughter has increased his religious convictions. Prayer is, after all one thing he can do for himself.
The McCanns cannot rely on the police. The Sun says “bungling Portuguese cops” miscalculated the height of the man seen carrying a child on the night Madeleine disappeared. The witness said he was 5ft 7in. The police converted that into metric and came back with 5ft 10in. The Sun is appalled. But fails to say how three inches would have cracked the case, nor how such a thing was overlooked by the crack British police it watched head to Portugal weeks ago. The Mail says chief suspect Robert Murat is 5ft 8in.
Thankfully, the Pope is here to help. Sun readers learn that the Pope will include Madeleine “prominently in prayers”. Who knew there was a pecking order, a hierarchy of prayer, the Pope sandwiching in Madeleine between payers for world peace, ecumenism and an end to accusations of paedophilia in the American Roman Catholic Church?
See You Soon
Readers learn that in the next few days the McCanns plan to travel to Madrid, Berlin and Amsterdam. They are looking for their daughter. We wish them well. But what is their odyssey but a chance for the papers to see the McCanns in new locations.
“Be safe darling, Mummy will be back soon,” says the Express’ front–page caption besides a picture of Kate McCann cradling her son. “The hardest goodbye for Madeleine’s mother as she leaves her twins behind,” says the Mail, its shot of Kate with her daughter.
And we will be looking on. As the Mirror says: “Kate knows if there is any hope of bringing Madeleine home safe she must do whatever is necessary to keep the story of the disappearance in the news worldwide.” So “she has emerged into the media spotlight every say and allowed herself to be filmed and photographed to keep the abduction highlighted.”
Do you see? Kate allows herself to be stalked by the papers. And the papers tell us about Madeleine. The Mirror justifies its story. Only it’s not keeping up its end of the deal. The Mirror does not tell us about Madeleine McCann, sheds no light on the case to find her and offers no insight.
The Mirror and it rivals tell us about Kate McCann. And we all know where she is…
Posted: 30th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids Comments (70) | TrackBack | Permalink
