Missing Madeline - Anyone else sick of this?

Lynfo

I'm absolutely dumbfounded by some of the posts on this thread.

I don't have kids, I don't even have younger siblings but my heart goes out to that poor family in portugal - and just for the record - I also feel for any family who loses a child in circumstances such as this.

I must be completely naive because I never thought I would hear people saying the things that have been said on this.

The family want to keep the story in the news so that people don't forget about it, so that if somebody finds their little girl they will recognise her. God forbid if this were to happen to an Irish family, don't you think RTE would be reporting on it all the time?

If you don't like what you see on TV then change the f*cking channel. I don't like football - so I simply don't watch it - it's dead easy, I just CHANGE THE STATION!

If I had to quote everybody who made my jaw drop on this thread I would be here all day, I wonder if something awful happens to one of you lot will you expect people to help you out? Maybe they'll just think 'Ah never mind sure that happens to black people all the time'

Some of you need to seriously grow up, then again, maybe the despicable ones are only kids themselves and therefore know no better.

HashSlinging

Mossy Monk wrote:

Maybe they should have a missing persons channel and have that 24/7.

There currently isnt a channel. But its a line of work you certainly would do very well at, but you certainly would need to be desensitised from the whole thing to be successful at it, which you seem to be.

Jonesy3110

If I had to quote everybody who made my jaw drop on this thread I would be here all day, I wonder if something awful happens to one of you lot will you expect people to help you out? Maybe they'll just think 'Ah never mind sure that happens to black people all the time'

Maybe Im misunderstanding you, or maybe your misunderstanding me, I dont know.

Im not saying that this isn't a tragedy, in fact, I made a point of saying thats what I thought, I think it's a bigger tragedy that other children won't ever get this coverage because of the colour of their skin.

The only thing that makes me feel sicker is that this child could have been abducted by paedophiles.

0ubliette

Hrududu wrote:

This is it for me. Its a terrible thing that has happened. But if the family had been black would there be anywhere near as much coverage? And I guarantee if the family was black the fact that they left the child alone in their apartment would be getting some serious criticism.

Just like there was zero coverage of any of the little black teenagers like damiloa taylor and the other lad Stephen Lawrence that was knifed in london? Yeah, the media are all terrible racists arent they? All rupert murdochs fault, lets all get our tin foil hats on etc etc

Jonesy3110

All rupert murdochs fault, lets all get our tin foil hats on etc etc

Wait, does this mean I'm the only one whos already put on my tin foil hat?

Whats wrong with you people!!!???

Mossy Monk

HashSlinging wrote:

There currently isnt a channel. But its a line of work you certainly would do very well at, but you certainly would need to be desensitised from the whole thing to be successful at it, which you seem to be.

I wouldn't say that I am desensitised by it at all but I do think that the balance of coverage with these cases is all over the place. I don't see why RTÉ should run with this all the time like you suggested earlier especially considering that we have our own missing people in this country. I think though that the coverage that this is getting will desensitise people.

Hrududu

Im not saying that this isn't a tragedy, in fact, I made a point of saying thats what I thought, I think it's a bigger tragedy that other children won't ever get this coverage because of the colour of their skin.

That was my point exactly. I am not taking away from this tragedy at all. But somehow those comments get disregarded as the hysterical police take one part of the post and jump on it.

So in clear English:

Terrible tragedy, nobody should ever have to go through this.

But the media coverage is all to do with white middle class parents of a beautiful looking child.

To suggest otherwise is naive.

Oh and to double state.

Terrible tragedy. The poor child.

Dudess

Hrududu wrote:

Terrible tragedy, nobody should ever have to go through this.
But the media coverage is all to do with white middle class parents of a beautiful looking child.
To suggest otherwise is naive.

Spot-on. And will the people who are accusing those of us who are questioning this salacious coverage please get your heads out of your arses? As already stated (but it seems to require repeating): there are countless little children going missing who aren't living in the West, are not white, come from poor families and whose parents are not educated. These children don't even make it into the News in Brief section of the paper.
We all hope Madeleine is found alive and well, that she hasn't been damaged in any way, but we don't agree with the cynical media coverage.

Oriel

One more thing. MILF.

Dudess

Oriel wrote:

One more thing. MILF.

That kind of comment is what should be bothering people.

vorbis

Dudess, this might be hard for you to understand but news coverage to an extent is local. This involves a child from the UK, the country next to us! Thats what makes it newsworhy. To suggest that Sky news should be reporting on a kid abducted in South Africa is bizarre. I wouldn't expect South African news to carry this story.

This appalling attitude of "but what about the people getting killed in Africa, missing in Indonesia" is the same one that castigates anyone who tries to help people. The reason is most people do nothing to help other people these days and get annoyed if the actions of someone else makes them feel guilty about it.

Already in this thread, we've had people criticise a businessman for offering money for her safe return and sky news for helping keep the case in the public's mind. (Sky are overdoing it but they are a 24 hour news station)

tallus

I agree with vorbis, and if people are sick of the coverage just change the channel. Simple as that.

whiskeyman

vorbis wrote:

Already in this thread, we've had people criticise a businessman for offering money for her safe return

And rightly so.

In my opinion, the rewards are excessive. The coverage alone this case is getting should be enough to spur people on. The reward will just lead to 'jackpot chasers' wasting police resources with spurious sightings etc.. It's a sad state that these 'businessmen' (and that's what they know) are named and came public.

Remember the high profile case of missing / murdered teenager of Amanda 'Milly' Dowler a couple of years ago?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1947954.stm
Surrey Police put forward a modest reward of £50,000 for info leading to catching the killers. I'm pretty sure if this kidnapping occured in the UK, the police forces there would have advised them against it / told media contacts not to publicise them in order to prevent the 'jackpot chasers' jumping on board.

Dudess

vorbis wrote:

Dudess, this might be hard for you to understand but news coverage to an extent is local

How exactly did you draw the conclusion that it would be hard for me to understand?

Some fair points, but your argument is a bit more reasoned than the people who have practically been accusing us of not caring about what happens to Madeleine McCann (by "us" I mean those who object to the way the media is turning it into a circus).

failsafe

My two cents (for what it's worth!)

Firts off I think it's a horrible tradgedy, the kind of which I wouldn't wish upon anyone in the world. Now I can't believe i'm about to phrase it like this.... but discussions in this thread brings to mind a bible parable/story I heard as a kid: Jesus (or some such biblical character) was walking along a beach with a friend, where hundreds of starfish had washed up at high tide, and were now left stranded in the sun, drying out and dying. Jesus picked one up starfish and threw it back into the sea, saving it from certain death. His friend said "Ah Jesus, what are you playin at! There's thousands of them dying on this beach, you can't make a difference" and he replied "to that starfish, it made a world of difference."

Sky news are very good at picking what stories to cover, and how much coverage to give each story, so as to please their audience/maintain viewership. They wouldn't be where they are if they didn't. If this is the way they choose to schedule their coverage then that's fine by me, it's their network! I'll watch if i'm intrested, or flick over if I'm not. It really makes no difference how much they "care"

I have no kids myself, but I know I would do everything humanly possible, like this poor little girl's parents are. I have no quams with that, i'd probably have quams if they didn't! If someone wants to send me a "help find madeline" email, who cares? I've deleted the one I got, but it wasn't the most irritating thing that's ever happened to me, it's for a good cause (whether futile or not). If papers want to carry it front page, let them, it's their paper!

However, having said that, there are some aspects of this case that made me almost ill. I saw a pic in the herald am today of a few england players with some sort of caption like "rooney, crouch join the fight to save madeline" and i read further to see the absurd amount of money that had been raised, and they were wearing t-shirts with her picture on them, like her face was a logo or something. I read on this thread that the figure was somewhere in the region of £2.5m?? To think that one little girl can raise that kind of money in that space of time (and for what I don't know, to pay the police!?) and yet the story of 100 cambodian children being sold into slavery would be unlikely to raise that in a year. I don't know why, but the image of the footballers in the 'madeline missing' t-shirts really made my stomach turn. Like as if it's some sort of brand which now has celebrity endorsement.

The disproportionate amount of airtime is unfortunate, but this is the way of the world, it wouldn't work the other way, but at the same time at least one missing person is getting media coverage. And the title of the thread suggesting that one could be sick oh her being missing, or sick of people caring, is a bit too inhmane for my liking.

The disproportionate amount of funding and action however (as opposed to attention) is where i draw the line. Celebrity backing and £2.5m to find one missing girl is a logic i've yet to wrap my head around, and quite frankly makes me worry for the world we live in.

(p.s. sorry again if the parable was too gay!)

whiskeyman

failsafe wrote:

I don't know why, but the image of the footballers in the 'madeline missing' t-shirts really made my stomach turn. Like as if it's some sort of brand which now has celebrity endorsement.

Couldn't agree more. I should have mentioned this in my original post

failsafe wrote:

And the title of the thread suggesting that one could be sick oh her being missing, or sick of people caring, is a bit too inhmane for my liking.

I already explained in further posted I intentially used 'Missing Madeline' to say I was sick of the 'brand', so to speak, of the hype and peoples want to associate with it, and not of the fact a little girl is missing.

homah_7ft

failsafe wrote:

My two cents (for what it's worth!)

Firts off I think it's a horrible tradgedy, the kind of which I wouldn't wish upon anyone in the world. Now I can't believe i'm about to phrase it like this.... but discussions in this thread brings to mind a bible parable/story I heard as a kid: Jesus (or some such biblical character) was walking along a beach with a friend, where hundreds of starfish had washed up at high tide, and were now left stranded in the sun, drying out and dying. Jesus picked one up starfish and threw it back into the sea, saving it from certain death. His friend said "Ah Jesus, what are you playin at! There's thousands of them dying on this beach, you can't make a difference" and he replied "to that starfish, it made a world of difference."

Did he pick up the white starfish?

Madge

Ye can relax, it's no longer Sky News's 'top story'. Chris Tarrant is! :rolleyes:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/home

phantom_lord

just saw this; pointless and ridiculous imo

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MID=367137231&MemberId=4066734966

DublinWriter

Dudess wrote:

Of course you would. But it's Sky News's sensationalising of the case that's getting to people.

I mean really. So f*cking what. If it helps to jog just one person's memory, then it's worth it.

Those that criticise the current media coverage just because it's interfering with their daily tv-media-celeb-entertainment-fest should really take a step back and question their shallow existence.

David Michael

phantom_lord wrote:

just saw this; pointless and ridiculous imo

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MID=367137231&MemberId=4066734966

Between that and the circle jerk threads on PI I pray for a "24 hours later" like virus.

Armageddon ... you're late..... get a move on.

milf comment was the funneh though


Card dead and I just sat out AJ posting here

/cries

Limerick Dude

I cannot understand everyone's negative view over all the media coverage. The more media coverage there is on this story, then the better chance of the little girl being found.

End of.

Catari Jaguar

Yea, we all know whet she looks like by now. Wtf is teh point of that bebo page? That actually annoyed me, like its the in thing to do to leave your "luv" for Maddie. The comments being left are ridiculous.

I wanted to see the story on that pregnant tennager who was murdered the other night, but only a little bit of writing mentioned it, no story, just footage of Madeleine's parents being followed around while they carried baloons, and people tying yellow ribbons to things. That IS NOT news!!!! People saying "we all love you Maddy, we all miss you!" You never even met the child!

People just swept up in media hyp on a band wagon. Yea, it's a shame that she's gone missing. She'l turn up (hopefully alive) at some stage and then be forgotten about.

Also want to say that I completely agree with the people saying that this media coverage never happens for kidnapped black kids. Think of kidnap stories that had similar hype. Any non whites???

ejmaztec

Just the thing for all you negative shallow-thinking folks. Ring up Sky news, they'll run for a week on this one. The rest of us can stay in the real world, that evil place that we've grown to know and love.


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055092486

Maccattack

Am I right in thinking the OP doesnt have kids?

I dont know why but this abduction really knocked me for six. I'm not quite sure why but it really depressed me for a few days.

I guess me having 2 little girls has something to do with it. but ive never been upset about other abductions in the past. at least not in the same way.

I hope they find her and she gets home to mum and dad unharmed.

Keeping it in the media spotlight for as long as possible is the right thing to do from the parents point of view.

Sure some people might be sick of hearing about it but a child is worth more than a few hours of alternative TV.

Catari Jaguar

Maccattack wrote:

I dont know why but this abduction really knocked me for six. I'm not quite sure why but it really depressed me for a few days.

Maybe.... because of how it has been presented by the media, hmm??

Pighead

Maccattack wrote:

Keeping it in the media spotlight for as long as possible is the right thing to do from the parents point of view.

Sure some people might be sick of hearing about it but a child is worth more than a few hours of alternative TV.

Nobodys arguing with that point though Maccattack. Whats getting peoples goat is the opportunistic cads that are making money out of the whole sorry affair.

Pighead remembers a good few years ago this young kid called Wally went missing. Nobody could find the poor wee fcuker anywhere. Next thing you know theres a whole line of books and puzzles cashing in on the wee fellas plight. Thats the sort of blatant commercialism thats annoying some of us here.

David Michael

Pighead wrote:

Nobodys arguing with that point though Maccattack. Whats getting peoples goat is the opportunistic cads that are making money out of the whole sorry affair.

Pighead remembers a good few years ago this young kid called Wally went missing. Nobody could find the poor wee fcuker anywhere. Next thing you know theres a whole line of books and puzzles cashing in on the wee fellas plight. Thats the sort of blatant commercialism thats annoying some of us here.

Blondie86Star

While it is a terrible tragedy i think it's been blown completely out of proportion. That stupid bebo page is further to that. I also dont understand this yellow ribbon thing, who thought up that wearing yellow will help get her back?

Would there be as much positive coverage if it was a single mother who went to dinner, leaving her kid alone, she'd be ripped apart by the press!

I dont see why news channels need 24 hour coverage of this, when theres people being killed left right and centre.

thebaz

Deleted User wrote:

I
Sure it's a tragedy, but it's one which could have easily been avoided. Her parents are to blame, through their own stupidity and neglect.

?

thats a bit cheap , blaming the parents !

yes sky's coverage is OTT , but thats sky , they pick up on something and saturate there viewers , i think they have sent the whole sky news team to portugal ;

the other thing i don't like is there constant criticsm of the Portuegese police , for keeping there investigation dark, that to me would be right way to go , rather than the constant news conferences they have in the UK, that also suit sky .