Posted on 03/09/2008 12:25:26 PM PDT by marthemaria
Last night I was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight about the difference in the scale of media coverage following the disappearances of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews. As so often with live broadcasts, the discussion was unsatisfying because it was too brief. However, I'm not quite certain whether I was on the right lines or not. First, the evidence, most of which was highlighted by an excellent Independent on Sunday article, Missing: The contrasting searches for Shannon and Madeleine. Coverage across all media, especially newspapers, has been noticeably less for nine-year-old Shannon than four-year-old Madeleine. Within two weeks of Madeleine's disappearance the rewards totalled £2.6m while those for Shannon amount to £25,500 (including £20,000 from The Sun). Footballers, celebrities and high-profile businessmen offered public support to Madeleine's parents. With the exception of Leona Lewis, celebrities have not rushed to assist Shannon's parents. Public donations for Madeleine reached £1.1m within two weeks. Those for Shannon amount to "thousands at best." The Sun is the single paper to have covered the story with a measure of prominence and persistence. It splashes it again this morning, though with a negative angle. And, as the Sindy reported, even The Sun's support has caused a some disappointment. It quoted a neighbour who said he was "devastated" because the paper placed its Shannon poster on page 17 rather than the front page. So what's the reason for the differences? Here's my admittedly tentative view. Overarching everything is social class. Shannon comes from a council house in a deprived working class area of Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire. Her mother, Karen, has what one might call an unsympathetic domestic profile with seven children from five different fathers. . . p>
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.guardian.co.uk ...
Every missing person should get equal coverage, it should not be about their status in life.
Every missing person should get equal coverage, it should not be about their status in life.
No one would need to rush to anyone’s aid for a missing child if we had public executions for convicted sexual predators of children, be it a family member or a stranger.
Instead, governments decide to release them back into our towns and cities...creating more and more victims.
I live in a town of 6,000. We have SIX convicted sexual predators living here. That’s six too many. (And these are grown men, one as old as 72; not some nineteen year old boy having sex with his 15 year old girlfriend.)
This reeks of ‘it’s not fair’ whining to me. Now is every missing person guaranteed an equal amount of time? On the same news program? and equal donations towards their cause? Shall we MAKE Greta do it even-Steven, then?
I am SO SICK OF ‘it’s not fair.’ Life is not fair, and only children demand that it would be. And no adult in their right mind gives in to it.
And it’s REALLY not fair to not use paragraphing.
I had never heard of Shannon Matthews until now for reasons explained in the article.
Any photos?
What happened to her?
She is still missing.The night before she disappeared she pleaded with her uncle to stay with him.She was afraid of her stepfather.My guess is that she is dead. : (
When I was a little kid, there wasn’t the demented porn available to already sick people to agg them on in acting out their sick thinking. However, another deterrent was the fact that thousands of our daddies had just come home from WWII, battle hardened and still in possession of their firearms and the ability and lack of any hesitancy whatsoever to use them. Deterrents are good things.
What an unforgivable tragedy.
They could have sent her to me in the Republic Panama, and I would have taken care of her for a while.
“I know that I probably should not blame the mother.But it get really angry thinking this could be avoided if she put her children first.”
I feel the same way. I agree with 100%.
Thank you.
Yep. I had a very protective Dad & Grandpa and a bunch of rowdy Uncles. No one was ever going to live if they touched a hair on any of their womenfolks’ heads. (Pity our Boyfriends when we got older, LOL!)
It’s a shame what Socialism has done to our families. No one protects women and children anymore, little girls (and boys) don’t have a father to guide them and boys are now completely feminized in Public School, or drugged into submission if they DARE to act like boys!
No wonder we REAL women (not those idiot feminists) are frustrated by the sad state of society today.
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