Missing Madeline - Anyone else sick of this?

whiskeyman

Ok, this post is probably going to get a lot of hostile debate, but I feel strongly about this. I guess I could have posted this is News/Media, or humanities, but since it's getting so much coverage, this is probably the best place.

Firstly, I do think it's terrible that a little girl has gone missing, but I think the coverage and how a lot of people are taking to this story is way over the top. She's only one little girl. The media are as guilty in this story, giving us way too much details about her life and her parents. We seem to have an odd facination with stories like this. It's almost a morbid one. I remember listening to a comment of a colleague that she didn't think the mother seemed 'sad enough' during a press conference. How the hell does she know what it's like to have a daughter kidnapped or missing?? The child's first name is being use constantly, as if she's one of our own children or little friends. I just find all the coverage sickening at this stage. Sky News even have a montage during the bulletins and spend the first 20 mins of last nights 10pm news on the story. We're getting TV reports from church servies in Scotland and all sorts of interviews with priests and nannys. I just find it sickening at this stage.
Just wondering if anyone else feels the same? It's not something you can really tell some people, as they'll just think you're a cold hearted b*stard, but their just missing the point completely.

eirebhoy

The parents want to keep her in the media. They're ringing everyone under the sun.

RuggieBear

It's a sad story but it's not worthy of all this media attention.

zAbbo

cold hearted bastard to post it in AH to gain more exposure, ironic eh.

WindSock

I'm more interested in it then anything else in the news the last week. Probably because many of us can relate to it in some way. I cant relate to anything about the elections or whatever, and the Nurses strike is getting a bit old at this stage.

St Bill

Yeah there is a lot of information about Madeleine, count yourself lucky though that you seem to have little to be worried about. Well, little I'm guessing compared to what her parents are going through

Binomate

boreds wrote:

I'm more interested in it then anything else in the news the last week. Probably because many of us can relate to it in some way. I cant relate to anything about the elections or whatever, and the Nurses strike is getting a bit old at this stage.

You can relate to a little girl getting kidnapped?

skywalker

whiskeyman wrote:

The child's first name is being use constantly, as if she's one of our own children or little friends.

Presumably thats the thing about how they always refer to any kidnap victim by their first name as much as possible to try and force the kidnappers to view them as a person rather than an object.

tallaght01

I made similiar arguments to this during the fallout from 9/11. It made people very annoyed, probably quite rightly. I kept saying that there's effectively "a 9/11" in the developing world every week etc etc and that it was preventable etc etc.
The same could be said about this case. There are children taken from their familes in Africa and India, aswell as other countries around the world every single day. They are often sold on for puropses that would make your stomach turn. We rarely hear about this.
There are children dying every few minutes in places like Darfur of hunger, AIDS, malaria and simple things like diarrhoea.
However, the right time to make these points is not during the "acute phase" of a big story like that of Madeleine. These are points for discussion after she's hopefully found safe and well.
It's not like there would be stories of all the other atrocities happening to kids around the world on the news if she weren't dominating the headlines. Instead we'd just be hearing about Tony Blair's resignation, or some other such nonsense.
So, while I see you point to an extent, I think this is the wrong time to make it. The British public are not accustomed to things like this happening to their citizens, so they are understandably upset.

Endurance Man

Its a load of bollox, children are going missing every day, why is this child different?

Zaph

skywalker wrote:

Presumably thats the thing about how they always refer to any kidnap victim by their first name as much as possible to try and force the kidnappers to view them as a person rather than an object.

But presumably the kidnappers are in Portugal and aren't watching Sky News. I'd be interested to know how much coverage this story is getting in the Portugese media.

Call Me Jimmy

Binomate wrote:

You can relate to a little girl getting kidnapped?

wtf of course, anyone with a daughter or little sister knows what it's like to worry about them and know that if they were in the situation the parents are in they'd be doing the exact same thing.

BigTommyBomb

Lots of little boys and girls die in Iraq everyday but I suppose thats not very newsworthy as they aren't british and they are killed and not kidnapped by paedos.

Msfc

Dont watch Sky News then if your sick of this story. The only reason the media is giving loads of details about the child is beacuse her parents want everyone to know about her in the hope that somebody might recognise her and theyll get her back.
Id rather watch news about Madeline then watching them politicians.

drdre

RuggieBear wrote:

It's a sad story but it's not worthy of all this media attention.

Yes you said it right

Yakuza

It's getting decent coverage in Spain; I'm there rignt now.

I've a five-year old daughter (and a 3-day old son!), if (God forbid) anything like that happened to either of them, I'd move heaven and earth to keep awareness up, if that would aid in their recovery.

luckat

True enough - hundreds of immigrant children are going missing in the 'care' of the HSE and there isn't this kind of campaign.

Of course there should be a campaign - we should have missing-kids pics on the milk cartons like the Americans - but it shouldn't only be for pretty little blondes with doctor parents. Poor little mite.

6ix

zaph wrote:

But presumably the kidnappers are in Portugal and aren't watching Sky News. I'd be interested to know how much coverage this story is getting in the Portugese media.

Here's a Portugese newspaper with Eusebio on the front.

humbert

Emotional stuff always gets viewers, even with big disasters the news, sky being one of the worst, focuses on individual cases to get viewers.

Mossy Monk

Msfc wrote:

Dont watch Sky News then if your sick of this story

Indeed. I don't see how people can watch that over sensationalist crap.

6ix

Mossy Monk wrote:

Indeed. I don't see how people can watch that over sensationalist crap.

Yeah, I don't know one person who watches Sky News tbh. When it was first available, it was a novelty to have rolling news. Now it's just incredibly biased and repetitive tripe like a lot of the media.

jonnybax

If it'll help get her back, what's the problem?

A a three-year-old girl being kidnapped and a soldier being killed in Iraq is completely incomparable.

Giblet

Ah you're all cynical bastards, just change the channel. It's hardly bothering you that much.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Tha Gopher

tallaght01 wrote:

I made similiar arguments to this during the fallout from 9/11. It made people very annoyed, probably quite rightly. I kept saying that there's effectively "a 9/11" in the developing world every week etc etc and that it was preventable etc etc.

We are well used to natural disasters and famines. What we werent used to was an attack straight out of a film plot. A 4 figure death toll in the worlds most famous city. The shock that they managed to get 4 planes. I actually remember that it was around Christmas 2001 before I had seen a single day of news that didnt show the smouldering wreckage of the towers.

BigTommyBomb

I personally couldnt give a **** about anybody elses life unless I know them personally. If you are going to pretend to feel human empathy then it should be equal for all people of the world and for all ages/sex etc.

PinkPrincess26

Whiskeyman is obviously not a parent and hopefully will never become one..... your child is the most precious person in the world. her parents are tryig to keep the littles girls face in everyones mind incase someone somewere spots her or remembers something about the night she went missing...

BigTommyBomb

Whiskeyman is obviously not a parent and hopefully will never become one..... your child is the most precious person in the world.

It might be to you but not to the rest of us. A child is just another person in a world of billions. Nothing special at all about them

andrew

I think storys regarding kids in the developing world aren't reported for the same reason that the OP is making this thread - hearing about kids for which pretty much nothing can be done just makes people desensitized, and this is whats happened with the 3rd world kidnappings etc.its famine fatigue.

Mr.Nice Guy

BigTommyBomb wrote:

It might be to you but not to the rest of us. A child is just another person in a world of billions. Nothing special at all about them

The funny thing is this guy's actually a teacher.

kensutz

I wouldn't believe him being a teacher one bit

Call Me Jimmy

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

The funny thing is this guy's actually a teacher.

Yeah he speaks the truth it's just it is sky news that are to blame for the big hooplah. It's just that one more soldier dying isn't shocking (unfortunately) and one more african dying of famine isn't shocking.
This is shocking because people think that it could happen to them and so the viewers tune in and so sky news will continue.

My heart goes out to the parents but there are other things going on in the world. Watching news channels from other countries really shows how bad sky news is, chinese news has all types of stories from all over asia and almost never focuses on personal things like this. Same with french news, its more global and reports stuff from places that sky news probably never heard of.

roberta c

ok so the point of the media attention is to find her. But she isnt in ireland or england.. the media over here is pointless to that effect.
but the media want viewers and thats what they'l get with a story like this!

InFront

It's only really the redtops and sky news that are devoting so much attention to this story. Just buy regular media, and let those guys simply be vehicles as an advertising service for the family's problem, hopefully leading to a good resolution.

I'm glad those tabloid media finally come in useful for something, to be honest. What would you prefer them to be talking about, Jordan? They don't have a lot to say at the best of times.

fade2black

I don't understand how anyone can be annoyed about something like this. If the family are doing everything they can to keep their daughter in the limelight, then fair play to them. We'd all do the same if we were in their boat. Are you house bound by the way? Is the off button on the TV broken?

Bodhidharma

BigTommyBomb wrote:

It might be to you but not to the rest of us. A child is just another person in a world of billions. Nothing special at all about them

I have to say thats a horrible comment. Just cause there are billions of people in the world doesnt mean we're not special. I would argue the opposite. Every single life is important. I'm not going to argue about importance, the Iraq war, famine, AIDS, all of these things. Yes they are all dreadful and in terms of significance, the kidnapping of a little girl is not comparable.

I think Sky do try to cash in, but the story is big because people are empathising with the parents and feeling some emotion, i'd rather people watch this than Coronation Street.

kelle

Endurance Man wrote:

Its a load of bollox, children are going missing every day, why is this child different?

Hope you never have a child go missing.

Nephew

I wonder how many children have died worldwide from hunger since this kid went missing

fade2black

Nephew wrote:

I wonder how many children have died worldwide from hunger since this kid went missing

Yep, horrible. Hope none of them were raped as they starved too.

Nehpets

RuggieBear wrote:

It's a sad story but it's not worthy of all this media attention.

Not worthy. What the hell? This is a child life.

A lot of children might go missing and a lot might not get this type of coverage but if they are lucky enough to then hopefully it will create enough support and determination to find the child

I wonder how many children have died worldwide from hunger since this kid went missing

A lot maybe but that is a different type of scenario. World hunger can't be prevent in the next few weeks but the child might have a chance of being found.

BigTommyBomb

Just cause there are billions of people in the world doesnt mean we're not special

Haha. Are you serious? I'm talking about the real world here and not Barney's version of it.
If everybody is special then nobody is special. Special by its very nature is something different or unique.

Nephew

Nehpets wrote:

A lot maybe but that is a different type of scenario. World hunger can't be prevent in the next few weeks but the child might have a chance of being found.

Someone is offering a £1.5m reward to the pleb who finds this kid, imagine how many lives £1.5m could save in parts of Africa.

BigTommyBomb

imagine how many lives £1.5m could save in parts of Africa.

Yeah but they are weird looking black kids. This is the life of a little white girl we are talking about. She is special.

DublinWriter

RuggieBear wrote:

It's a sad story but it's not worthy of all this media attention.

I think we have reached a new level of Me Feinery.

This is one deeply sick topic title.

The media is all over it because everyone (with the slightest modicum of empathy and feeling) is worried and concerned for the parents and child.

If you think otherwise, then go back to your X-Box stage of development and hope you'll grow a heart soon.

St Bill

Nephew wrote:

Someone is offering a £1.5m reward to the pleb who finds this kid, imagine how many lives £1.5m could save in parts of Africa.

Imagine how many lives we could save if we weren't arsing around Boards. We all have the ability to do something, not just those with millions.

At the end of the day, Madeleine's abduction is a situation that has captured everyone's attention. If the media hype helps to get her back safely, it'll be worth it. Yes she's only one child, and unfortunately there are a million others whose voices have gone unheard, but who can honestly say that they wouldn't be glad to see this child re-united with her parents?

Call Me Jimmy

DublinWriter wrote:

I think we have reached a new level of Me Feinery.

This is one deeply sick topic title.

The media is all over it because everyone (with the slightest modicum of empathy and feeling) is worried and concerned for the parents and child.

If you think otherwise, then go back to your X-Box stage of development and hope you'll grow a heart soon.

You're pretty out of line there. Did you read the thread? Nobody is saying it isn't tragic, I have a little sister and I sympathise with them completely. People are saying she is getting too much media attention and that she's not the only child suffering in the world. 9 days of wall to wall coverage is a bit much. Why do you care more about her than all the other children suffering that sky news aren't telling you about?

NotMe

The total reward is £2.5m now. That's crazy. Let's hope no criminal types get any quick money-making ideas from it.

1. Black van
2. Small girl
3. ???
4. Profit

Nephew wrote:

imagine how many lives £1.5m could save in parts of Africa.

That's a good point.

Caliden

I thought the same thing about those girls in manchester those years ago. New news please

Call Me Jimmy

Caliden wrote:

I thought the same thing about those girls in manchester those years ago. New news please

15 year old black kid gets stabbed in london gets 5 mins.

Mr.Nice Guy

DublinWriter wrote:

I think we have reached a new level of Me Feinery.

This is one deeply sick topic title.

The media is all over it because everyone (with the slightest modicum of empathy and feeling) is worried and concerned for the parents and child.

If you think otherwise, then go back to your X-Box stage of development and hope you'll grow a heart soon.

Agree totally with you.

Some of the comments on this thread are pretty despicable and I hope to God no one else experiences the agony that this poor family are going through.

Nehpets

St Bill wrote:

If the media hype helps to get her back safely, it'll be worth it.

Exactly. and if not, it was worth a try!