Search Results
Madeleine McCann: Frankie Boyle’s Comedy Bingo
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann
THE PRESS (York): “Review: Frankie Boyle, Grand Opera House, York”
Gavin Aitchison scores a ticket to see watered down Gerry Sadowitz impersonator Frankie Boyle on stage
After a week in which he was condemned for a joke he made two years ago about the Queen, Boyle marched on to the stage and let rip at anything and everything that moved.
And something that didn’t…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 4th, November 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comments (81)
Caylee Anthony: Making Money From A Missing Child
CAYLEE Anthony is missing. Tabloid Baby, Anorak’s man in LA, hears a rumour that missing white chidlren make for good telly:
Word comes this afternoon that NBC News has paid $5,000 for an exclusive interview with Cindy Anthony, the mother of Casey Anthony, that woman in Florida who’s in jail on charges she murdered her daughter Caylee Anthony, who’s been missing for months.
Crime does pay. Who knew?
Paid for an interview?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 22nd, October 2008 | In: Reviews Comments (18)
Madeleine McCann: Family Danger, Caylee Anthony And A Challenge To Libel
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann
THE SUN: “Maddie: Hol chat on risk of kidnap”
James Clench continues his investigation of the McCann’s holiday, and he’s brought Lucy Hagan along for back up…
Perhaps James can be Gerry McCann and Lucy can be Kate, and they can turn their story into a multi-media play for today? Now read on…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 21st, October 2008 | In: Back pages Comments (90)
UNDER-achieving schools in Connecticut, USA, are encouraging uniform behaviour:
Some students who balked at the preppy look have found that they like wearing the clothes, particularly after people on the streets have reacted well.“ A lot of people thought I came from a prep school and they were surprised when I told them I go to Bulkeley,” said Luis Nunez, a senior and captain of the football team.
On the first day of school, Bulkeley High School students walking along the street in their new uniforms were cheered by residents who looked out their open windows…
And men in caravan parks…
Shannon Matthews: Paul Donovan’s ‘Vile’ School Uniform Sex
Loving The New McDonald’s Uniform
US Police Taser Man For Speeding: Give A Man A Uniform
Waking Up With Craig Meehan And Peado Spotting With The People
THE story so far: former upermarket fishmonger, Ken Morley look-alike, one time live-in male role model to Shannon Matthews and look alike Craig Meehan is found to be in possession of illegal images. He serves time in jail. He is then released. Now read on…
THE PEOPLE: “Shannon stepdad tries to lure girl to his house.”
EXCLUSIVE Inside the twisted world of kidnap Shannon’s pervert stepdad Craig Meehan He sends dirty txts & lures girl to house WITHOUT telling police.. Brags he’ll be ONLINE within days – Boasts he should be on Big Brother – Spends days on his Xbox, swigging lager and cuddling kitten at taxpayers’ expense…
A kitten… For shame! Joshua Layton And Jessica Boulton investigate…
The shameless stepdad of kidnap case girl Shannon Matthews has secretly tried to lure a pretty girl into his safe house for a sex tryst.
Shameless. Yeah, like the TV show. This is news reporting for anyone who thinks Shameless is a documentary and Craig Meehan an extra on it. Do you have trouble seperating fact from fiction?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 5th, October 2008 | In: Politicians, Reviews, Tabloids Comments (18)
Wikiepedia’s Jimmy Wales Meets The Chinese
LAST week, Wikipedia big wig Jimmy Wales met with Cai Mingzhao, Vice Director of China’s State Council Information Office – the government body whose “Internet Management Division” is in charge of censoring online content.
They discussed Jimmy’s concerns about censorship. No deals or agreements were made, but Jimmy tells me that the meeting has opened a channel of communication and dialogue between the Wikipedia community and the Chinese government.
Wikipedia: China -“Land of free and brave.”
The official website gave no further information about what was discussed. IT blogger Keso – on his blogspot blog but not on his main China-hosted blog – remarked: “In this kind of meeting, it’s unclear what Cai Mingzhao is smiling at Wales about, it must have been interesting.” I saw Jimmy on Saturday at the World Economic Forum meeting in Tianjin. (Jimmy is one of the WEF’s Young Global Leaders.) I told him that news of his meeting was on the Internet and that people were starting to wonder what was up. He was surprised, because he said his interlocutors had indicated they didn’t want the meeting to be public.
Since 2005 Wikipedia – both Chinese and English – has been blocked in China, but it was unblocked in the run-up to the Olympics, along with a number of other overseas websites.
Wikipedia: challengeing facts across borders…
Jimmy Wales On Rachel Marsden On Wikipedia
Jimmy Wales’ Stir-Fried Wikipedia
Shoes For Hats: Daily Mirror Hack’s Zany Wikiepdia Cheat
Shannon Matthews: Sir Norman Bettison’s Wikipedia Update
Lawrence Solomon On Wikipedia Climate Control
French Reporters Warned Off Facebook And Wikipedia
The Battle For The Soul Of Wikipedia
Wikipedia: The Journalists’ Friend
Jimmy Wales On Rachel Marsden On Wikipedia
Al Sugar’s 54-A-Side Manchester City
Is The Times Fixing For Free Web Traffic On Wikipedia?
Jimmy Wales Accused Of Editing Wikiepdia For Money
Celebrity News Of The Day: Vernon Kaye Is Not Dead:
Wikipedia’s NPOV Is Negotiable On Climate Change
Shoes For Hats: Daily Mirror Hack’s Zany Wikiepdia Cheat
THE Mirror’s David Anderson writes from Nicosia of Manchester City’s UEFA Cup match with Omonia Nicosia.
Despite City’s raised profile, they must make do with the UEFA Cup this season and Hughes will not tolerate any slip-ups against the Cypriot side, whose fans are known as the ‘Zany Ones’ and wear hats made from shoes.
Well, that’s what is says on the Wikipedia page for Omonia Nicosia, as updated by “godspants”, a web wag, and slavishly borrowed by Anderson as he does his, er, research…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 2nd, October 2008 | In: Back pages, Tabloids Comments (3)
Osama bin Laden And Hermann Göring Barred By Ryanair
ULRIKA Örtegren-Kärjenmäki is waiting to board a plane, a Ryanair flight from Stanstead Airport.
She was still waiting right to the point she spent £380 on a new supersize ticket.
She may encounter similar problems until she can find and marry a Mr Right, a Mr Ng or a Mr Anorak. It is also reported that the “dots” on the letters invalidated it in security checks.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 23rd, September 2008 | In: Money, Strange But True Comments (4)
Craig Meehan And Paedo Spotting Coronation Street
YESTERDAY, Anorak, with tips from Telford local council, instructed you in ways to spot a paedophile.
Today, we learn in the Star that Craig Meehan, one-time lover to Karen Matthews, mother to Shannon Matthews, denies downloading child porn on his computer. The trial continues.
We also lean that Mr Meehan resembles a certain Ken Morley, who was once employed as a supermarket worker called “Reg” in Coronation Street.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 11th, September 2008 | In: Reviews, Tabloids Comments (5)
Madeleine McCann: They Call Me Maddie, In Venezuela And African Bingo
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann
THE SUNDAY EXPRESS (front page): “IS THIS WHO TOOK MADDIE?”
A change in the quotidian Express story. No longer is Madeleine, “MADELEINE”. Madeleine McCann is now “MADDIE”. It’s the name the media, mostly, have dubbed her.
Maddie is what the missing child has taken to calling herself when she visits party shops in Amsterdam…
So who took her. The Express has a photfit.
NEWS OF THE WORLD (front page): “I spotted Maddie’s tell-tale eye”
This is the least savoury headline Anorak has read on the matter for some time…
“I WAS AFRAID TO GRAB HER – Witness was sure restaurant girl was Maddie but feared causing a scene”
A VITAL new witness in the hunt for Madeleine McCann has told cops: “I saw Maddie. I know it was her—I saw the unique blemish in her eye.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 10th, August 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (39)
Not Jill Dando’s Killer Barry George And Tabloid TV BBC
BARRY George has had his conviction for the murder of BBC TV presenter Jill Dando quashed on appeal. He has been in prison for eight years.
Says Mr George: “I want to thank my family, my legal team, my medical team and all the people who have supported me at Belmarsh, Whitemoor and Manchester prisons, and all my supporters.”
On the BBC 10 o’clock news, this was the lead story. And twice during the feature Mr George was called an “oddball”.
Anorak cannot help but think of libelled Robert Murat, called an “oddball” by the tabloid press in its obsession with the Madeleine McCann case. He’s the Mail’s “oddball“.
Farmer Joaquim Marques was also called an “oddball” by the Daily Mirror. The Sun saw another Madeleine McCann “oddball” in a photofit.
Mick Donovan, who was allegedly found in the company of missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews, was the Sun’s “oddball“.
Michael Jackson has been the Star’s “oddball“.
Lembit Opik, the MP, has been a Mail on Sunday “oddball“.
When did the BBC become tabloid TV?
Posted: 1st, August 2008 | In: Tabloids, TV & Radio Comments (12)
Madeleine McCann: Relocated To The Royal Court
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE TIMES: Relocated at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London SW1
Yesterday, the Telegraph’s Charles Spencer reviewed the play Relocated and thought of Madeleine McCann, the Soham murders and Josef Fritzl. He left out Shannon Matthews. Can the Times’ Sam Marlow do better at Tabloid Bingo!?
Anthony Neilson’s new play, written during the rehearsal period and finished just days before its opening, is claustrophobic and clotted with menace. It’s performed, in the author’s horribly compelling production, behind a black gauze, which turns from opaque to transparent with lighting changes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 17th, June 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (219)
Madeleine McCann: EastEnders Reacts, Evil GP And Relocated
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
The newspapers’ hunt for Madeleine McCann has passed. The missing child now serves as a point of reference for anyone looking to add realism to a work of fiction:
PEOPLE: “I’m having a BLAST in EastEnders – EXCLUSIVE As evil GP Mad May is back to terrorise Walford actress Amanda Drew lifts lid on her return”
Eastenders’ “Mad May” is one of the most sinister psychos to grace Walford. The evil GP vanished last year after trying to steal her love rival’s baby.
A female doctor, like Kate McCann?
In an exclusive chat with The People, Amanda, 38, talks about being single, her friendship with Catherine Tate and why she was relieved when scriptwriters changed her storylines at the time Madeleine McCann went missing.
Firth things first:
Q When you left last year your storylines were rewritten because it was too similar to the Madeleine McCann disappearance.
How did you feel about it?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 16th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (273)
Madeleine McCann: Fact Checking The Truth About Maddie McCann And Ben Affleck’s Fiction As Fact
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
Ben Affleck has a new panic film – Gone Baby Gone – in which the lead child is blonde enough to remind all reviewers of Madeleine McCann. The film – a work of fiction – cannot be mentioned without also making mention of missing Madeleine.
It is the 12th Rule of Journalism.
THE OBSERVER: “The cruellest crime of all -Delayed by the McCann case, Ben Affleck’s intense and gripping thriller is well worth the wait”
Crimes involving children touch on our deepest emotions and though we’ve seen numerous films about infant abduction over the past 50 years, ranging in tone from Seance on a Wet Afternoon to Murder on the Orient Express, the subject is peculiarly affecting at the moment in the light of the publicity given to the cases of Shannon Matthews in Dewsbury and Madeleine McCann in Portugal… To add to the anxiety, there is an uncanny physical resemblance between Madeleine McCann and the film’s four-year-old Amanda McCready.
It’s tabloid bingo, in the broadsheet Observer! Can anyone mention Fritzl and get the prize?
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “It’s a film that examines the media hysteria and prurience that happens when children are abducted — especially pertinent themes in our post-Madeleine post-Austrian crazies times.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 8th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (164)
Niqab, Kebab And Stab: Welcome To Dewsbury Theme Park
WHO dares go to Dewsbury?
Don’t rush to make a decision. When Shannon Matthews was found, and her family members arrested, police handed out leaflets telling locals not to “jump to any conclusions about people who may be involved in this inquiry”.
As if anyone would do that. Don’t be hasty. Listen to the travel advice.
The Times would like to tell you in “Dewsbury: Kidnap, lynching and a suicide” that “The savage beating to death of a 17-year-old boy was merely the latest in a grim litany of incidents in this West Yorkshire town.”
Know that: “It is fast becoming the town that dare not speak its name.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 28th, May 2008 | In: Broadsheets Comments (6)
Moral Missionaries: Sarah Ferguson, Jamie Oliver And Richard & Judy’s Life On Earth
SARAH Ferguson is living with people in Hull on the telly. She even managed to find a family of copper tops to make her paper more at home, but it just ends up looking like a patronising version of the Prince and the Pauper.
Every morning Sarah says she wakes up feeling fat, ugly and disgusting, as opposed to disgusting, fat and ugly, like those lucky sods in Hull who are too ignorant to notice let alone mind.
But Sarah will show them how repugnant they truly are. She’s the missionary teaching the godless to feel shame for their bad eating habits and for looking bad naked.
Now Jamie Oliver tells one and all: “I am now living lives with people in Rotherham who don’t have cooking in their lives. I want them to fall in love with cooking.”
Oliver wants the sad and stupid to see how wrong they are, to feel shame and experience the sweet sting of epiphany over some sun dried polenta stir fry.
And then there’s Richard and Judy contemplating a week-long visit to Dewsbury Moor.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, May 2008 | In: Celebrities, Royal Family, TV & Radio Comments (3)
Madeleine McCann: ‘Pray Like Mad’, Seeing The Light And McCanns’ ‘Cleared’
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCannTHE OBSERVER (front page): “One year on, Kate McCann’s please: ‘Please stay with us. Pray like mad.’”
DAILY MIRROR (front page): “MADDIE: KATE’S PLEA: ‘KEEP WITH US..KEEP PRAYING’”
MAIL ON SUNDAY: “Kate McCann’s pulpit plea: stay with us and pray like mad”
The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “It’s an intensely private and very difficult day for them.”
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “’PUBLIC KEEP US STRONG’ – MISSING FOR A YEAR: BRITAIN, PORTUGAL AND WORLD UNITED IN HOPE”
The world unites.
“LIGHT HER WAY HOME – MISSING FOR A YEAR: BRITAIN, PORTUGAL AND WORLD UNITED IN HOPE ‘You are a light that shines in the darkest times. Guide all who search for Madeleine’ – By Rachael Bletchley In Praia Da Luz”
The sunrise over Praia da Luz was as beautiful as ever yesterday. A warm, orange glow spread up from the horizon then burst into the dazzling rays that give the resort its name – Beach of Light.
A rosy-fingered dawn…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 4th, May 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (101)
Talk Of The Town: A Tabloid Guide To Dewsbury
“IT HAS BECOME the town that dare not speak its name,” announces the Daily Mirror.
“People outside must shudder at the thought of living in or even visiting Dewsbury in West Yorkshire. It has become a byword for everything that is bad about Britain – the Dewsbury bomber, the veil row, the toddler who nearly died after being strung up from a tree, the story of a man crucified… and now the Shannon Matthews saga.”
Strong words. But what of those who live there. Do they shudder too?
Being a good, reliable newspaper, the Mirror has tracked down an (anonymous) Dewsbury resident….
“A barman said yesterday: ‘I’m ashamed to say I’m from Dewsbury. Now, I say I’m from Leeds instead. It’s horrible living here.'”
OK, so he’s not happy. But take another look at that first paragraph. In particular, take a look at the bit that says people “must shudder”. Is that an opinion or an order?
A bit of both, it seems. The Mirror seems to have reached an opinion, and now it’s ordering us to follow its lead.
But what of the incidents from which the paper has constructed its case against Dewsbury?
Yes, Mohammed Sidique Khan was one of the London bombers. But as far as we at Anorak are aware, every other bomber (of whatever persuasion) throughout British history has come from outside Dewsbury.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 14th, April 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews, Tabloids Comments (4)
Madeleine McCann: Heather Mills, Bad Jokes And A Lynch Mob
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SCOTSMAN: “Child molester escapes mob”
A convicted child molester, Santiago del Valle Garcia, arrested in connection with the violent death of a five-year-old Spanish girl, narrowly escaped a mob who tried to grab him from a police van.
The man has yet to be charged with kidnapping and killing Mari Luz Cortes.
The girl disappeared less than two hours’ drive from where Madeleine McCann vanished in May 2007.
Is a two hour drive so very near? It takes around one and a half hours to drive from London to Birmingham, or across London.
CBS NEWS: “Loathing Heather Mills – Why Britain Hates The Former Mrs. McCartney”
You either love her or you hate her but the chances are that if you are British and you have ever heard her or seen her – you probably hate her. Heather Mills – the ex-Mrs Paul McCartney – is our latest willing export across the Atlantic. We loathe her – I mean really, really loathe her.
Well, most of us admire Lady Heather, but as for love, that would be stretching things. Can we settle on lusting after her? But what has this do with a missing child?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 28th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (815)
Madeleine McCann: Selling Books, Keeping Your Child Safe And Michael Donovan
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “Wearing kid gloves – In this age of multiple dangers, how do parents strike a balance between wrapping children in swaddling clothes and giving them leeway? Aine Nugent reads a new guidebook on the subject”
Clinical psychologist Paul Gilligan has penned Keeping Your Child Safe, a book that will spread anxiety and must be read ANYONE who genuinely cares about their kids. If you don’t read it, then you only have yourself to blame should something dreadful befall your children.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as nine-year-old Shannon Matthews was found safe and well. It is every parent’s worst nightmare that their child should go missing — a tragic reality that the families of Madeleine McCann and Amy Fitzpatrick are still going through.
Keeping our children safe is the first priority of parents, and the modern world has more dangers in it than it did when we were children — perhaps because we’re more aware of them. Because of developments in technology, communication has never been easier — and never more fraught with danger.
Read on if you dare…
Keeping Your Child Safe looks at the ways in which children can be put in danger, unwittingly, unintentionally, but detrimentally.
Madeleine McCann: Spreading the fear
Shannon Matthews: Michael Donovan, 39, will appear before Dewsbury magistrates court in West Yorkshire. He was arrested on March 14 after police raided a house and found the missing 11-year-old.
Posted: 26th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (514)
Madeleine McCann: The Star ‘Donates’ To The McCanns, The Express Apologises And Sue Carroll Explains
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews
DAILY EXPRESS: “Kate and Gerry McCann: Sorry”
The Express once more has the disappearance of Madeleine McCann on its front page. No picture of the missing blonde child. Not now. Instead, readers see a picture of her parents looking pained.
Read more here.
And how Anorak broke this story.
The Daily Express today takes the unprecedented step of making a front-page apology to Kate and Gerry McCann.
We do so because we accept that a number of articles in the newspaper have suggested that the couple caused the death of their missing daughter Madeleine and then covered it up.
We acknowledge that there is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance.
We trust that the suspicion that has clouded their lives for many months will soon be lifted.
As an expression of its regret, the Daily Express has now paid a very substantial sum into the Madeleine Fund and we promise to do all in our power to help efforts to find her.
Kate and Gerry, we are truly sorry to have added to your distress.
We assure you that we hope Madeleine will one day be found alive and well and will be restored to her loving family.
The paper paid the money into the find Madeleine Fund, or the paper paid the money to the McCanns – as the law decreed it should – and it is they who have chosen to pay it in to the Find Madeleine Fund?
Anyhow, at least the sensation is now at an end.
DAILY STAR: “KATE & GERRY MCCANN: SORRY”
The Daily Star today makes a wholehearted apology to Kate and Gerry McCann for stories suggesting the couple were responsible for, or may be responsible for, the death of their daughter Madeleine and for covering it up. We now recognise that such a suggestion is absolutely untrue and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance.
As an expression of our regret we have now made a substantial donation to the Madeleine Fund in the hope that it helps efforts to find her.
We sincerely apologise for any additional distress we have caused the family.
THE SUN: “McCann rage at Maddie book claim”
A FORMER Portuguese police chief has angered Madeleine McCann’s parents by claiming in a novel that the toddler is dead – and her body dumped at sea.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 19th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (645)
Madeleine McCann: Compare And Contrast, An Easter Miracle And David Cameron
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
INDEPENDENT: “Shannon’s miracle: the backlash begins”
Cole Moreton writes:
Comparisons with Madeleine McCann who went missing in Portugal last year were inevitable. Shannon was not the daughter of a couple of good-looking, wealthy, middle-class doctors with friends who knew how to work the media, as Madeleine was…
There are already signs that the togetherness brought on by the search for Shannon could fall apart. But so much was achieved by the people of this much-maligned area. They lacked the glamour, the organisation or the wealth of the campaign to find Madeleine McCann (currently offering a reward of £2.6m sponsored by Sir Richard Branson, among others), and they faced the prejudice of people who looked down on a scruffy council estate on a hill in West Yorkshire, but they kept going anyway, even when it looked hopeless. “People are saying Julie Bushby deserves an honour, and she does,” said Mr Hyett, “but there should be something for the whole community. We didn’t give up.”
Poor but plucky. That’s the real story in the media…
IAIN DALE (Tory blogger): “The ‘People Like Us’ Phenomenon”
Last night on Sky News we briefly discussed why the media gave a much higher profile to the Madeleine McCann case than the Shannon Matthews disappearance. There are, I’m sure lots of factors, but one was the fact that for the media, the McCanns were very much “people like us”, or should I say, people like them. The Matthews family were nothing like the media classes in appearance, lifestyle and outlook. I really think there is something in this. Let’s take the analogy further.
Let’s…
My fellow panelist, Peter Whittle, asserted that the reason David Cameron was given more or less a free ride by the media in his first eighteen months was because he belonged to the “people like us” class. Was this part of the reason the media were so keen to promote him, and do down David Davis after his conference speech? Not consciously, but I do wonder if there was something subconcious about it.
Why was the coverage of the New Orleans floods slightly underdone by the US media? It might it have been different if it had happened in Manhatten, where “people like us” live?
Harriet Harman was given a comparatively easy ride by the media when she sent her kids to a selective school. Could it have been because many media people were facing the same dilemma?
Then: “I could go on, but you see my point.”
That Madeleine McCann can be placed in the cotext of the New Orleans flood, Harriet Harman’s children and a speech by David Cameron? MaddyWatch was made for such things…
SUNDAY HERALD: “How fortunate the police chose not to follow the media’s shoddy example”
Torcuil Crichton on class and crime
EVEN THOUGH it is close to Easter, describing the discovery of missing Shannon Matthews alive, just one mile from her home, as “back from the dead” may not have been media hyperbole…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 16th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (84)
Madeleine McCann: Prayers, Bones And Media
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
Remember, everyone, to play Anorak Bingo you must mention Madeleine McCann, Shannon Matthews and – here’s the tie-breaker – Scarlett Keeling. Eyes down…
DAILY MAIL: Amanda Platell
There cannot be a person in the country who didn’t feel a surge of delight on learning that little Shannon Matthews has been found alive and well.
We can think of one.
All the more so in these days when good news has become such a rare commodity. Yet even as we celebrate, we should spare a thought for Gerry and Kate McCann, for whom Shannon’s discovery, wonderful as it is, will be a fresh reminder of their own terrible loss. The return of one lost girl is a marvel. The return of two . . . now that’s a miracle worth praying for.
Was it the power of prayer that got Shannon Matthews found? If so, who gets the reward?
Tick. Tick.
THE INDEPENDENT: “Deborah Orr: Wonderful news that carries a message for the media”
It isn’t often that the papers have some really wonderful news to report. But it really is wonderful that Shannon Matthews has been found alive.
Amanda Platell agrees.
This amazing news also carries a lesson for the media, about the way it turns horrible crimes into great stories, and what an unpleasant, self-regarding business this can be.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 15th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (621)
Fiona MacKeown Ticks All The Boxes In Anorak Bingo
FIONA MacKeown, mother to murdered teenager Scarlett Keeling, is the subject of heated debate among the newspaper columnists.
Much of the opinion is prefaced by the word “sorry” or “forgive me”. This is always followed by an attack. “Sorry, but I blame Scarlett’s mother,” says Allison Pearson on the Mail’s front page.
Readers can join play along. It’s all part of Anorak Bingo – the game that’s taking the press by storm. The aim is to get the names ‘McCann’, ‘Matthews’ and ‘MacKeown’ into your article. Get all three and score double points. Pens at the ready…
THE PRESS: “What was her mum thinking?
Says Mike Bentley:
Well forgive me, love, but if you hadn’t decided to cart your eight (repeat, eight) children off to India for a six-month holiday, and then left one of them to fend for herself while you cleared off with your partner and the other kids (exact number of fathers unknown, but at least four), then there’s an even better chance that Scarlett might not be dead now.
Bentley has done his research. He manages to tick all the boxes. Madeleine McCann. Tick. Shannon Matthews. Tick.
Fiona MacKeown is a “soap-dodging, pikey mother”. DAILY RECORD: “Terrible Price To Pay For One Bad Decision”
Joan Burnie writes:
FIONA MacKEOWN, the mum of 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling, who was raped and murdered in Goa, is unlikely to ever win Mother of the Year. There are those who also, even if they don’t say it right out loud, whisper it about Kate McCann.
Tick.
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Hands-off mums do their children no favours
Says Alice Thomson:
“Though the children stayed away for many moons, the beautiful mother always left the window open for them to fly back. I do like a mother’s love, don’t you?” Wendy tells Peter Pan.
“You are wrong about mothers, Wendy,” Peter replies. “When I flew back to my mother, the window was barred, and there was another little boy asleep in my bed.”
Mothers in the 21st century are even more divided than the ones described in JM Barrie’s book.
Fiction. Fact. Can you spot the difference?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 14th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids Comments (23)
Madeleine McCann: The Benchmark For Missing Children
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN: “How could she just vanish?”
The Sun is speaking of Shannon Matthews.
The absence of any clues is not for the want of looking. In contrast to the bungling by Portuguese police in the early days of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, the hunt for Shannon by West Yorkshire police has been textbook.
Even if the child has not been found, neither in Yorkshire, nor in Portugal.
CNN: “’Underworld’ tip leads to new Maddie hunt”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 13th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (376)
