An article in the TIMES about the McCann case - INTERESTING?

Question

This article by Stefanie Marsh appeared in the Times - I hope this link works but I am also reproducing parts of it below.... finally a journalist starts to question the mass, mawkish hysteria of the British public ....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article1865968.ece

……..My mood doesn’t do a U-turn every time Cuddle Cat is mentioned on ITV News. I care, of course I care, it would be inhuman not to, but if you really want to know, I think the public references to a private thing such as a child’s soft toy are in poor taste, as are the overfamiliar abbreviation of the girl’s name to bring us closer to the scene of this wretched mystery. Worse than the abbreviations are the people who correct the abbreviators: “It’s Madeleine, not Maddy. That’s what the parents call her,” in an offended tone as if they know her, or have been personally affected. People talk about “feeling the McCanns’ pain”, but we do not………..Where the welfare of a child is concerned one must, in Britain, now be obsessed – especially when there is a whiff of abuse. And not merely obsessed but hysterically, visibly, mawkishly so. Once you are obsessed, it is necessary to wear your hysteria on your sleeve. Or, as MPs did with yellow ribbons, on your lapel. More important still is the need to reassure yourself that everybody else feels the same. That the vicarious worrying is not just normal behaviour but required. There is a tyranny here………………Misery Lit, ie, memoirs of child abuse, “have emerged as the liveliest new category of books”, reports The Bookseller.Five to ten of these books come out every month. A high-ranking publisher friend tells me that the books’ lurid titles are made up at brain-storming meetings before the manuscript has been seen or in some cases, written. 
So we have: Please Daddy, No; A Child Called “It”; Don’t Tell Mummy: A True Story of the Ultimate Betrayal; A Girl Called Karen: A True Story of Sexual Abuse and Resilience; and Damagedto name a handful. The stand-out Mis Lit success story, Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood, has sold 500,000 copies. Of the top 100 bestselling paperbacks in 2006, 11 were misery memoirs; with total sales of 1.9 million copies. 
Why are these books so popular? Like the McCann case they deliver a predictable emotional charge and allow the reader to experience a strong sense of vicarious self-pity.

Beau Brummell · Accepted Answer

This writer's assessment of modern emotional incontinence and competitive grieving sums up what a great many people have been thinking ever since the death of Diana. Even worse than the 'pain sharing' is the unbridled aggression and hatred towards people who do not behave in this way. Some of the answers to your question display that admirably, if not very elegantly!

It seems to pass over some peoples' heads that it is possible to feel compassion and concern without public breastbeating.  We are not all into the woe, woe woe syndrome. Even worse, if being one of the 'caring' brigade means that you have to offer violent and vicious abuse to all and sundry then it is a very strange way of showing that you care.

? · Answer

To Whipass Chick and Alsanja - If the McCanns had said right at the start "Omg what have we done? We were so stupid. We were selfish, we just wanted a night out without the kids and we thought we'd save a couple of quid by not getting a babysitter. We just didnt think. I'll never make that mistake again. God forgive me I cant think about anything except how to get maddy back so I'm sorry I cant do any more interviews for you. I cant even think straight I am so worried. I shall never forgive myself" etc etc. THEN I would have had bags of sympathy for them. But they didnt say any of that. What they actually did was to fail to admit that they had been negligent. They swanned off on foreign holidays to see the Pope and to the USA, and they said they had only been "naive". So because of that I have no sympathy for the parents at all and I would not be at all surprised if they had something to do with it.

True Blue Brit · Answer

Dear me.  Like your reporters, I can't say that the thoughts of missing Madeleine McCann rule my day or night.  However, I do find that article quite patronising.  
It seems to me as thugh everytime someone has a genuine feeling of compassion, kindness, sympathy, they are labelled as "mawkish".  Am I a supporter of Madeleine McCann?  I certainly don't condemn them, sugest they murdered their child, etc Well, I haven't donated money to the cause, but yes, every now and again I stop and think about the anguish the poor parents must be going through. And I find myself hoping that the child is safe.  but I try not to dwell on that, because it must be horrendous. Is that  "mawkish", "hysterical"?  Self-pitying?
So where do we draw the line?  Are we supposed to ignore someone's obvious suffering?  
Because someone has been told by her editor to write an article about the McCann's case and the response of the world?  
I have a head and a brain.  I like to think that I am an independent thinker.  And yes, I can feel sympathy.  Doesn't mean I'm hysterical.

thing55000 · Answer

Good article, but it's not just the supporters who are a worry. What about the other band ~ the self righteous whose deep involvement is all about blaming someone and declaring themselves constitutionally unable ever to make an error of judgement that may land their kids in hospital, the law courts orthe thralls of a paedophile.

Some of the stuff on here has been truly sickening, and it's appalling reading the classist, racist, nasty comments people on both sides have made, as though they KNOW these people.

Sure the media is partly to blame, for giving us an entree into the living rooms of celebrities from A Grade to Z, but as consumers aren't we just the tiniest bit responsible?

Consider this ~ 20 years ago, women's magazines contained recipes, knitting pattersns, short stories and a couple of articles, mostly with photos, of well known people.

Now, the 'gossip' is the magazine, the 'real' things, things we can actually DO, take very second place to the stories offering the chance to eavesdrop vicariously in the conversations of people who are entirely strangers to us.

It's ridiculous and chilling, if this is the way our culture is truly heading.

Edited to add: Being Australian, I've been shocked to the core to read comments about how different it would have been if the missing child was a poor child, or the child of a single mother. Can that really be true? Coming from a place where any missing child causes people to get out of bed and scour the bush, voluntarily until the little one is found or the search must be given up (often 10 days later), I find this attitiude staggering. I mean would those people writing this actually care LESS if the missing child was the child of a poor person? That's so sad.

Anonymous · Answer

I have long believed that the Great British public is like a piece of putty in the hands of the Great British media.  They are able to twist and turn us at will - build someone up to the status of national hero, and then pull them apart. See Paul Gascoigne, Victoria Beckham, et al.

I feel for the McCann family - I know how I would react in such a situation (although I would NEVER have left my children to go for a meal) - but cannot escape the unsavoury conclusion that the publicity has been generated because they are an aspirational family.  Would we have heard qite so much, and would the press have been so sympathetic, had Maddy been the daughter of a single Mum on income support from a housing esate in an inner city somewhere?

I suspect not

babyshambles · Answer

RufusTfirefly you should take care not to have a heart attack- ranting like that does your face turn red?

I read the article on Sat, and feel the supporters on here are embroiled in the "competative grieving" as mentioned in the article by Stephanie Marsh.

triptipper · Answer

Will have a look at it now.... 

Ok... I saw this article I do recall it well. Thanks for re-posting it. There have been some balanced articles in the Times and the Independent  and Guardian in particular [thankfully]. At the moment I am trying to translate some articles from the Portugese press which have been very disapproving of the McCanns actions . I fear the Portugese may believe us all to be fund donating, McCann hugging, yellow ribbon wearing fawners...

Incidentally have you seen these articles?
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37797
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2082505,00.html
If the last link does not work go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ and type in the words: "The British media does not do responsibility. It does stories"
into the search engine!
---------------------------
ADDITIONAL
Hmmm the LUMPENPROLETARIAT [PiltdownMan and SaturnFive] - are at it again "dteacher1UK".... I think you have struck a raw nerve with them.. anyway i do not feel you should be referring to newspapers which are beyond their academic capabilites.. maybe next time provide a link to the Sunday Sport or the Sun!!!!
Question: 
Why does PiltdownMan say "Well said" whenever there is even a glimmer that ONE person might agree with him.....
[ which is not that often I hasten to add...]  Is he really that desperate for people to approve of his answers?????? 
Why does he keep referring to money and status...? hmmmmm one strongly suspects that he is in fact the person working on the production line plucking chicken feathers.. keep up the good work.. are you based at the Bernard Matthews Plant??!!!

? · Answer

1

Anonymous · Answer

I sort of don't quite understand where you are coming from with your question,  a reporter writes an article giving a point of view which is not quite in line with the tabloid opinion and is ,technically, a comment on the publics appetite for heart wrenching  stories or rather, lurid child abuse cases.

As I see it it has very little to do with the McCann case except as an example and not, as one or more of the respondents to this question seem to think a comment on whose side the majority favour, people who think the McCanns should be executed or people who think they were unfortunate.

My point is that I don't know what it is you are asking, you could have put up an article about Frankie Dettori winning the Derby or an article covering the furore over the pictures of princess Di that channel 4 are supposed to be showing and put "Interesting" in capital letters - I agree, it is interesting, but so what?

Faith · Answer

Yes, the entire case does seem vicarious & mawkish but doesn't that happen with every single case that touches the hearts of the public? When people go to the media for coverage this is what is expected & wanted in certain cases to keep the case fresh in the minds of the public. I would like to made one thing clear...
NO ONE supports Madeleine's parents in leaving their babies alone. But everyone should support them in what they think is best to get their baby back & channel their minds positively towards creating awareness for other missing children.  They will be charged with neglect for sure & are facing (worse for them their Madeleine is facing)
the worst possible punishment. You want to hound them for leaving the babies, do it...if it makes you happy & proves a point to other irresponsible parents. But passing cheap comments Mrs.McCann clutching Cuddle Cat & what they wear & what they do & how/why/when they met the Pope & their every single gesture, expresssion & twisting their comments does not make for an objective debate but just a cruel witchhunt.   I do think that its this trivial mentality that turns a tragegy into a circus which of course the media feeds the public on.

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An article in the TIMES about the McCann case - INTERESTING?

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