Gerry and Kate on Crimewatch last night.

£10 million reckoned to be spent by Met. so far on the enquiry.
Is this a normal amount each time for when a child goes missing?

The extra train fare ?

Gypsies in the frame now


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2550836/Maddie-McCann-detectives-probe-Portuguese-gypsy-site-15-minutes-hotel-three-year-old-snatched-2007.html

Pity then that the McCanns and friends didn't cooperate properly from the start

len port---journalist Portugal

The recent flurry of fictitious reports about the Madeleine McCann case is another example of how far quality journalism has been replaced by the latest form of ‘churnalism.’

A story is concocted by a reporter and published on the website of a major newspaper or TV network. Within hours, it has been copied, rewritten or translated without anyone bothering to check for accuracy. If it is sensational enough, the story is then regurgitated around the world.

The media have long been able to share important information from established news agencies and other reliable sources. The rot set in with the upsurge some years ago of propaganda and slanted press releases put out by PR people. The Internet has dramatically speeded and simplified shoddy, second-hand reporting.

Churnalism has now reached unprecedented levels with media organisations shamelessly copying one another online. As a result, a profusion of misinformation is spewed out daily.

Last week’s excitement over the Madeleine McCann case was based on the fact that four Scotland Yard detectives flew to the Algarve to meet with Polícia Judiciária counterparts. The visit followed a letter of request sent by the British Crown Prosecution Service to the Portuguese equivalent.

Officials in both countries refused to comment on the contents of the letter or the reason for the visit. This did not stop the British tabloids from improvising. They spoke of “a dramatic breakthrough” and claimed that the arrest of three burglars was “imminent.”

Kate and Gerry McCann were said to be “on tenderhooks” and being "kept fully informed" about the latest developments.



These “exclusive” assertions in the Daily Mirror were picked up and used not only by competing tabloids, but by ‘quality’ papers such as the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.

Portuguese papers did not jump on the bandwagon, but the revelation of a ‘breakthrough’ spun around the world and found its way into the Sydney Morning Herald, the Times of India, the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast to name but a few online services.

The Epoch Times, which prides itself on being published in 21 languages in 35 countries across five continents, was running the same “imminent arrest” yarn on the same day ITV mercifully set the record straight with the headline: “No imminent plans to make any arrests in Madeleine McCann case.”

ITV described the meeting between British and Portuguese detectives as “a routine part of the investigation to establish what happened to Madeleine McCann.”

USA Today quoted the British investigative reporter and former detective Mark Williams-Thomas as saying, “this isn’t a major breakthrough” and “burglars don’t abduct children.”

By then the media damage had been done. As the Sunday Mirror columnist Carole Malone put it: “How devastating this must all be for Kate and Gerry McCann – another flurry of headlines, more promises of suspects and arrests... and then nothing. Again!”

The copy and paste style of churnalism practised nowadays is akin to plagiarism, but who cares? For example, a retired British police superintendent with a keen interest in the McCann case spotted that several paragraphs in a Daily Mirror story on 28 December had been copied almost word-for-word, without quoting or crediting the source, from a story that had appeared in the Daily Mail on 15 October. He brought this to the attention of both papers and the Press Complaints Commission. They expressed little interest.

Journalistic analysts put the growth in churnalism down to a combination of things, including increased competition, reduced revenues and inadequate staff with insufficient time to verify and properly develop stories.

It is likely to get ever more frantic. We have already moved on from last week’s “imminent arrests” to this week’s tabloid revelation that “detectives are probing a Portuguese gypsy site just 15 minutes away from where Madeleine was snatched.”

Well, maybe, but for starters the place the foreign media are talking about is not a gypsy site at all. 

One thing is certain though: the media will continue to churn out this sort of rubbish as long as there are people who want to read it.

I don't know if they cooperated properly or not. I was under the impression that the detective had decided that the parents did 'it' and set about trying to find evidence to support this.

No, the Portuguese investigation didn't consider them suspects for months .

Also very likely the stuff about The McAnns being “on tenderhooks” and being "kept fully informed" , likely comes from their own PR people rather than the police.

yes yes , i'm just pasting the dailymail text or whatever it was from

very likely the stuff about The McAnns being “on tenderhooks” and being "kept fully informed" , likely comes from their own PR people rather than the police.

1.01 Clarence Mitchell

But there is no evidence that says the McCanns apartment was broken into.

I always noticed the Roma's behind the stall not taking their eyes of any kids that happened to be there including my sister, even when they moved along there eyes followed them

they were probably worried about their goods getting nicked

A_T they were gipsies selling tat, cheap stuff unpacked from flimsy boxes like disney socks, primark like t-shirts etc, they could hardly give it away let alone have it nicked.

yes mesmerised solved it just by looking at a gypsies eye, nice work folks, case closed

to be fair UK cops mentioned gypsies 1st

Gypsies were near by, so they must have done it..
Well I can see the logic here, nobody likes Gypsies so lets just blame them
ffs

In the Sunday Express today there is a claim(I have no idea of truth of this)
the McCann's keys were lost shortly before she vanished.

Well if the McCann's lost them then surely they should have told the Portuguese police..
I don't know..it may have been the hotel....but this is significant evidence, id true

It is all right blaming the Portuguese police, but then if the McCann's were not totally honest with them
it is hardly their fault is it???????????

And in English?

In the Sunday Express today there is a claim(I have no idea of truth of this)
the McCann's keys were lost shortly before she vanished.

Irrelevant as the McCanns say they left both doors to the apartment unlocked.

only now keys come to light?

why has that never been exposed

were they swingers then?