I'm sick of hearing about Madeleine McCann

I'm a nice person, but enough is enough. A little girl disappeared in Portugal in 2007 and we're still hearing about it.

Since she disappeared there have been no confirmed sightings.

She was not the child of anybody famous.

It is a tragedy for her family.

Millions of other little children have died all over the world in the last five years through hunger, the lack of clean water, disease and war.

Why is the British media obsessed with this case?
Why can't her parents have the dignity to suffer in private and stop wasting police and politicians' time and resources?


Today the police have released an image of what Madeleine might look like if she were still alive and aged 9.



What a complete waste of time and money. The chances that the little girl is alive, that this picture will resonate with somebody and lead to her being found alive is absolutely tiny.

This is before I even get into the issue that the parents are responsible for her disappearance by leaving her unattended in a foreign country.

Is anyone else sick of Madeleine McCann? Am I being unfair?

largehat wrote:
Why can't her parents have the dignity to suffer in private and stop wasting police and politicians' time and resources?

Let me guess....you have no children?

I have no children, but I've had immediate family die. It's possible, Natasha, to have a discussion about something in the news without it become a discussion of the individuals on the forum. Bear that in mind.

Let me put it this way, normally when something like this happens, the police and family appeal for privacy. Five years on, these parents are doing rhe polar opposite. They are obsessed with media attention, anyone with a basic grasp of the facts can see the little girl has almost certainly been dead for years.

She might look like the picture below, in 20 years.


She might have changed her surname to Kahn by then as well.

largehat wrote:I have no children, but I've had immediate family die. It's possible, Natasha, to have a discussion about something in the news without it become a discussion of the individuals on the forum. Bear that in mind.

Let me put it this way, normally when something like this happens, the police and family appeal for privacy. Five years on, these parents are doing rhe polar opposite. They are obsessed with media attention, anyone with a basic grasp of the facts can see the little girl has almost certainly been dead for years.

The point I was making was that if you had a child you'd know that a parent would do ANYTHING they possibly could to find out what happened to their daughter - of course they're going to try to keep her name in the media, it's the only way, no matter how slight, they will find their daughter if she's still alive.

Totally disagree with you here Largehat, what the McCann's are doing is completely understandable in my opinion. If someone took one of my kids I would do exactly the same, do you expect them to just give up and forget about their daughter?

Natasha Whittam wrote:
The point I was making was that if you had a child you'd know that a parent would do ANYTHING they possibly could to find out what happened to their daughter - of course they're going to try to keep her name in the media, it's the only way, no matter how slight, they will find their daughter if she's still alive.

I understand that point, it's the same sentiment expressed by Winnie Johnson who was tortured for decades because they couldn't find her son's body on Saddleworth Moor. I get that. But Madeleine or her body could be anywhere in the world, and there are no leads.

My OP was really about the media rather than the parents though.

Passi wrote:Totally disagree with you here Largehat, what the McCann's are doing is completely understandable in my opinion. If someone took one of my kids I would do exactly the same, do you expect them to just give up and forget about their daughter?

What about the media? Are you personally, as a consumer of the media, actually interested in this story?

Is your sympathy for the McCanns not tempered even slightly by leaving their young children unattended while they had tapas and cocktails?

Do you think this case deserves precedence over all the other little children who go missing each year?

And do you think there's even a 1% chance she is still alive?

largehat wrote:
What about the media? Are you personally, as a consumer of the media, actually interested in this story?

Is your sympathy for the McCanns not tempered even slightly by leaving their young children unattended while they had tapas and cocktails?

And do you think there's even a 1% chance she is still alive?

I think there's a much bigger chance she is alive, it's not easy to kill and dispose of a body in this day and age. It's much easier for me to believe someone took her and brainwashed the kid.

I am still interested in the story because I put myself in the McCann's position and my heart bleeds for them. I can totally understand a young man like you not caring much, I'd have been the same at your age, but I don't suppose the McCann's care who likes/dislikes the story as long as people keep their daughter's face in their head.

As for the McCann's being in the wrong for leaving the girl alone, they've admitted to that and I have little doubt it eats away at them every day. But as a parent myself I've done silly things, I guess I was just lucky to get away with it.

Fair enough Passi. A different perspective on things, I respect that answer.

Believe me Largehat, one day you'll have kids and you'll change your whole outlook on the McCann saga.

To answer your added point, I certainly don't think Madeleine McCann deserves more coverage than any other missing child - but being brutally honest, the story is just a lot sexier for the media and sells papers.

I don't really pay much mind to this story to be honest.

the only reason she gets so much coverage is because she's a "poster child" for white middle class success.

lots of children go missing, none have had this kind of coverage.

but i wouldn't say I'm sick of it, i'm just nonplussed.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:
the only reason she gets so much coverage is because she's a "poster child" for white middle class success.

lots of children go missing, none have had this kind of coverage.

I wasn't going to bring the class thing into it HN but you are absolutely spot on.

If that was a working class family the media would not give a shit.

largehat wrote:

I wasn't going to bring the class thing into it HN but you are absolutely spot on.

If that was a working class family the media would not give a shit.

Bollocks. What about Shannon Matthews? She was from a working class family and it was all over the media - even before the truth came to light.

Isn't more likely that very few children actually go missing?

that was because Shannon Matthew's mother brought the harrowing tale of a "kidnap" to the media.

Are you telling me there have been 2 children who have disappeared in the last decade.

Natasha Whittam wrote:
Bollocks. What about Shannon Matthews? She was from a working class family and it was all over the media - even before the truth came to light.

Isn't more likely that very few children actually go missing?

Who?

I'm talking about fawning over the family 1,2,3,4,5 - where it will end I don't know - years after the disappearance. It's unprecedented.

Many children go missing, though usually they are in their teens, but they are still children. It's a big deal because the McCanns are middle class and bad things like that are only supposed to happen to the unwashed masses, right Natasha?

Hipster_Nebula wrote:that was because Shannon Matthew's mother brought the harrowing tale of a "kidnap" to the media.

Are you telling me there have been 2 children who have disappeared in the last decade.

I don't know, I was asking the question....without using Google I can't think of any other missing children, other than Ben Needham in Greece in the early 90's.

Well i did use google, just searched Uk missing people. Children brings up this image.



I certainly don't recognise any of them from the hours of media coverage and pages and pages of newspaper articles.

I can't say I am sick of seeing it, I don't have kids myself but would probably try and keep her name out there as long as possible.

It certainly helps the family has a lot of money, though the only thing that slightly annoys me about the whole thing is them selling books on it and getting into Wembley to see the FA cup semi final for sod all.

They're all older children, perhaps the answer is there are very few young children that go missing - hence the media obsession with Madeleine McCann.