Lest we forget…/Blacksmith

http://blacksmithbureau.blogspot.co.uk/

The Blacksmith Bureau

Friday, 18 May 2012
Lest we forget…

It won't make the Bureau popular but before we all start getting hung up on a version of events going, more or less, the Sun and the News of the World, both owned by Murdoch, immediately "adopted" the McCanns – for whatever reason – and set in train the crazily uncritical media support that drowned out factual analysis of the case, thus heading toward The Answer to It All, we need to pause.

The Bureau has always contrasted the performance of the "overground" media in the case with that of the Internet where, we felt, among the clamour of different voices it was possible to read another side of the story. That, certainly, was not the case on the overground: while readers' comments carried some telling criticisms there was the well known similarity of view about almost all the writing and television reportage of the case.

At least, that was so in late June/July 2007 when the original Bureau first took an interest in the case and neutral sites such as the Mirror forum provided an invaluable research tool for those interested in the affair.

But what about before that? We know that the overground had gone slightly mad from about two days after the disappearance. What was the Net, which wasn't under the control of anyone, doing then to keep it honest?

Well let's have a look with someone who knows, Emma Brockes of the London Guardian, writing on May 19 2007. Here are some excerpts from an article we hadn't seen before.

"…if you went online yesterday, seeking an outlet for your sympathy, you would have been confronted by a confusing and in some quarters horrifying array of options… dozens of sites and subsites that have sprung up in the last fortnight - findmaddie.com, help_find_madeleine_mccann.com, givemaddieback.com …of such breadth and randomness that by yesterday morning, the appeal set up by the McCann family… was forced to identify itself as The Official Website".

And:

"There are 90 different Madeleine-related groups on Facebook alone, circulating her photo to user communities of between six and 76,000 members….the official website has registered 60m hits and posters of her have been seen in campsites as far away as Bulgaria, translated into local languages via appeals put out by bloggers…"

And:

"When…Sarah Payne and James Bulger disappeared, there weren't the online communities available to power this kind of grassroots response, and for that response to have a knock-on effect in loftier quarters. But that doesn't quite explain the tone of the outpourings….homemade video tributes to Madeleine, posted on YouTube to soundtracks by Christina Aguilera and N Sync, and indistinguishable in tone and relish from the from the regular pop-star fan tributes… mutterings that this is a post-Diana thing…but much of the response seemed to have more to do with the News of the World's erstwhile anti-paedophile campaign, and the general hysteria that governs "right" versus "wrong" parenting.

"On the parenting websites, so riven along sectarian lines, here at least was something everyone could get solidly behind…No wonder the stampede to share the McCanns' pain has been so thunderous - although before the family's impeccable credentials became clear, one imagines there was a conflict in some tabloid newsrooms over Parents who left their kids alone while they had dinner, versus Evil Paedophile Under the Bed, he's coming for your kids next."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/may/19/crime.uknews

Not much about the Net being full of "haters", is there?

In fact it seems that there was much more pro-McCann bedlam on the Net early on, both in word-count and in readership ("60 million hits") than there was in the wicked overground media! And if you check the EMM news explorer site you will see that the really hefty propaganda for the McCanns on the overground hadn't yet begun: the outpourings on the Net were not triggered by Rebekah Brooks-type manipulation but based on the reasonably factual early agency reports and, most significantly, the claims, exhaustively described in the Cracked Mirror, of the parents themselves using their Team amplifiers.

The Bureau has always described the affair as a "psychological" phenomenon. That means roughly – because of course we're still learning – that the answer to the mystery underlying the Madeleine McCann Affair – as against the mystery of the child's fate itself – lies in the much deeper mystery of the way ordinary people behave. In this case that means the way that the great majority of the public reacted to the news that they read and accepted at the beginning, and not in any Sheepgate machinations of individuals, be they Brooks, Brown, Mitchell or Murdoch, all of whom, it now appears, were following that public mood, not creating it.

As we've suggested before, however unpalatable it is to accept, nobody but the the people created the invulnerability of the McCanns, just as nobody but the people created the flower-strewn martyrdom of Princess Diana. As in that sad case a large section of the British public – including editors and ministers, who are human beings as well – spontaneously poured out immeasurable torrents of emotion, or some as-yet-unidentified variant of emotion, onto the couple, and instead of scattering flowers, they followed up by hurling trunk-loads of money that the parents – Oh horrible irony – have used against us ever since.

As things stand the broader situation is now extremely hopeful: the interrupted investigation has finally resumed and the absurd media birthday jamboree is unlikely to have had the slightest effect on police activity, despite Redwood's inexperience with the media and Third Man Mitchell's rather tired gimmicks. In tandem we are watching the gradual destruction of the UK media players who, though they didn't initiate the lies – the McCanns and their Woolfall-taught team did that – treated us as mere counters in the various Great Games they were playing at our expense. Even the Portuguese, with more excuse than most to fear a whitewash, must have had some of their fears alleviated recently as the legal system has ground on, slowly but finely.

But if we're really interested in where the truth lies we should surely be cautious in pinning the blame for the origins of the affair on such easy targets as M/S Brooks or her senile employer. Time has brought the shadowy Master Manipulators of the Universe, one by one, starting with Gordon Brown, into the light, revealing them – disappointingly? – as rich but otherwise very ordinary people without the power to protect even their own reputations, let alone those of others. The Bureau could, of course, be completely wrong but we still think it does no harm to consider the role of the British public – Us – in making the McCanns so invulnerable.

Temporarily.

Annabel wrote:
But if we're really interested in where the truth lies we should surely be cautious in pinning the blame for the origins of the affair on such easy targets as M/S Brooks or her senile employer. Time has brought the shadowy Master Manipulators of the Universe, one by one, starting with Gordon Brown, into the light, revealing them – disappointingly? – as rich but otherwise very ordinary people without the power to protect even their own reputations, let alone those of others. The Bureau could, of course, be completely wrong but we still think it does no harm to consider the role of the British public – Us – in making the McCanns so invulnerable.

Temporarily.

Thanks Annabel for the share. I agree with much but have to take task on this (above). If UK media (mainly Murdoch) hadn't been so "supportive" of McCann stories then this would never have blown up to be such a story right from the start. If media hadn't covered the story then it would have disappeared. The overkill media exposure Madeleine's disappearance produced was not from normal UK pop it was created by "Team McCann" & media.

gillyspot wrote:

Annabel wrote:
But if we're really interested in where the truth lies we should surely be cautious in pinning the blame for the origins of the affair on such easy targets as M/S Brooks or her senile employer. Time has brought the shadowy Master Manipulators of the Universe, one by one, starting with Gordon Brown, into the light, revealing them – disappointingly? – as rich but otherwise very ordinary people without the power to protect even their own reputations, let alone those of others. The Bureau could, of course, be completely wrong but we still think it does no harm to consider the role of the British public – Us – in making the McCanns so invulnerable.

Temporarily.

Thanks Annabel for the share. I agree with much but have to take task on this (above). If UK media (mainly Murdoch) hadn't been so "supportive" of McCann stories then this would never have blown up to be such a story right from the start. If media hadn't covered the story then it would have disappeared. The overkill media exposure Madeleine's disappearance produced was not from normal UK pop it was created by "Team McCann" & media.

Hi gillyspot, I think what Blacksmith is saying
is that after guaging public opinion from the
start, Murdoch's media set about by responding
and placating the mob.

Yes... I agree with Marxman - the media do seem to sniff out what the public are excited about, then mirror that in their products (newspapers/documentaries/etc). They can't predict what'll catch the public's interest, but when something does, these days (what with Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Digital Spy, Newspaper forums etc) it goes 'viral'. Joseph Kony was the last issue to go viral as far as I'm aware. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17295078

As we've suggested before, however unpalatable it is to accept, nobody but the the people created the invulnerability of the McCanns, just as nobody but the people created the flower-strewn martyrdom of Princess Diana. As in that sad case a large section of the British public – including editors and ministers, who are human beings as well – spontaneously poured out immeasurable torrents of emotion, or some as-yet-unidentified variant of emotion, onto the couple, and instead of scattering flowers, they followed up by hurling trunk-loads of money that the parents – Oh horrible irony – have used against us ever since.
unquote

Exactly what I was thinking this morning - only I think the money suggestion was put in the public domain by the McC team. Otherwise we'd have had millions of teddy bears and many wealthy florists. The papers were not exactly pro from September 07 onwards - all the interesting machinations went on from then for about 6/7 months, during which the papers were converted to the true faith and essential evidence was lost.

I think Blacksmith is a Jungian - the collective subconscious rules!

On the other hand, according to the anthropologists we are 'narrative' apes. We construct a narrative around an event.
The narrative was:
A couple who adored each other, struggled to have their adored children, respected professionals, regular churchgoers. Their beloved , beautiful(this is a fairy tale, we can't have an ordinary child or one with a defect - the coloboma was just cute and made her more special) daughter is snatched from her bed and evil soldiers in this far away land refuse to look for her. Mother prays God for help - etc. - a good fairy called Clarentia comes to the rescue.....

Remember media were in force by 9am in PDL on 4.5.07 when most of us hadn't a clue who the McCanns were. Chicken & egg scenario in my opinion. Hysterical media created hysterical response & so on.

tigger wrote:As we've suggested before, however unpalatable it is to accept, nobody but the the people created the invulnerability of the McCanns, just as nobody but the people created the flower-strewn martyrdom of Princess Diana. As in that sad case a large section of the British public – including editors and ministers, who are human beings as well – spontaneously poured out immeasurable torrents of emotion, or some as-yet-unidentified variant of emotion, onto the couple, and instead of scattering flowers, they followed up by hurling trunk-loads of money that the parents – Oh horrible irony – have used against us ever since.
unquote

Exactly what I was thinking this morning - only I think the money suggestion was put in the public domain by the McC team. Otherwise we'd have had millions of teddy bears and many wealthy florists. The papers were not exactly pro from September 07 onwards - all the interesting machinations went on from then for about 6/7 months, during which the papers were converted to the true faith and essential evidence was lost.

I think Blacksmith is a Jungian - the collective subconscious rules!

On the other hand, according to the anthropologists we are 'narrative' apes. We construct a narrative around an event.
The narrative was:
A couple who adored each other, struggled to have their adored children, respected professionals, regular churchgoers. Their beloved , beautiful(this is a fairy tale, we can't have an ordinary child or one with a defect - the coloboma was just cute and made her more special) daughter is snatched from her bed and evil soldiers in this far away land refuse to look for her. Mother prays God for help - etc. - a good fairy called Clarentia comes to the rescue.....

Blacksmith et al may well be right about certain aspects of all this but personally I am of the opinion that the 'narrative' was constructed by the PR team and put out via the media in the very early stages. Once the narrative had been established the 'victimhood' was cultivated - parents v. corrupt police and of course parents v. press. IMO it is the media which influences public opinion and not vice versa. We are living in an age where the name of the game is PR, reputation management, propaganda - call it what you will. Even the current incumbent of Downing Street is a professional - for want of a better word - liar - because when it comes down to it, that is what these people do - lie and twist the truth to achieve a certain effect. Blaming the public is playing right into the McCann's and their PR team's court. Just my opinion.

Well said. That is my opinion also but you put it across so much better than I did.

How on earth could two oridinary people who work in a field so far removed from PR and media possibly orchestrate such a huge PR offensive so quickly? Personally, I find that one of the most implausible aspects of the case.

From the outset, it appears that the media
wrestled with finding a story that would gain
the most circulation, and a yarn that they
could milk for the many a year.
The McCanns must have felt safe and embouldered
within this 'saunctuary' provided by a supportive
and protective media.
IMO, the media has milked this 'wider agenda'
for all its worth, and I think and hope that
Gerry's 'marketing ploy' will fall flat due to
recent events that have revealed the inner
workings and dealings within the media and
politics.
This media circus cannot go on. The clowns
must be bricking it and many must be walking
a very unsteady high wire.
Just my opinion as usual.

Wallflower wrote:How on earth could two oridinary people who work in a field so far removed from PR and media possibly orchestrate such a huge PR offensive so quickly? Personally, I find that one of the most implausible aspects of the case.

Morning Wallflower, that is what Clarence was for!! We may not like him but must give him credit for protecting the McCanns and using his contacts to make sure the Press print whatever he chooses. Had he not been employed so early in the game, no way would the McCanns have got the best kind of
publicity and deals.

Perhaps this article (snipped) from June 2007 will help.

"JK Rowling, Sir Richard Branson, the theatre impresario Bill Kenwright, the philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter and Jacqueline Gold of the Ann Summers sex shop chain, have each pledged hundreds of thousands of pounds for information leading to Madeleine's safe return; one Scottish businessman offered a million. Sir Philip Green loaned his private jet, which took the couple to the Vatican and brought them back in time to tuck Madeleine's twin siblings into bed. BP, Exxon, McDonald's, Carrefour, the French bank Crédit Agricole and the Spanish Banco Santander are displaying her poster around Europe; Vodafone, O2 and the Spanish Telefonica network have sent text messages to their subscribers. In the US, Madeleine's face has appeared on the cover of People magazine, and Oprah Winfrey has invited the family on to her talk show."

A beautiful child, snatched from her bed while two babies slept alongside, will always be headline news. Yet rarely has the world's media had so much to say - daily, inexhaustible, blanket coverage - about so very little hard information. The McCanns themselves, say friends, have been bewildered at the scale of the coverage, while at the same time feeling a compulsion to ramp it up, convinced that someone will be stung into coming forward. They can scarcely have imagined that, a month on, the perfect media storm would appear very far from blowing itself out.

The McCanns were immediately certain that their daughter had been kidnapped and determined to publicise her disappearance as widely as possible, ensuring that, from the very first moments, the hunt for Madeleine was as much about the media coverage as it was the police investigation. Jill Renwick has known the couple since they all worked together at a Glasgow hospital more than a decade ago. She spoke to Kate at 7am on the morning after Madeleine vanished: "She just said, 'Help me, please help me'. She said, 'We've been searching all night until 4.30am, and then everybody left us'. At that stage there was only one police officer at the door. They didn't know what to do. So I phoned GMTV."

She also phoned the McCanns' wider circle of friends, who mobilised to phone anyone they could think of to beg for help. Renwick's sister called someone she knew in CID, someone had a connection with Des Browne, the defence secretary. One friend lives close to the Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, said Renwick: "She knocked on her door and said, 'I know you must think I'm mad but my friend's wee girl is missing, can you do anything to help?' Though they are not friends, Gordon Brown's brother John lives in the same street as Renwick: "I stopped him in the street the day afterwards and said, 'These are my friends. Do you think you could speak to Gordon about it?' And he said of course. I don't know if anything came about that way."

In Praia da Luz, meanwhile, the couple rapidly found themselves the beneficiaries of high-level media advice. The holiday firm Mark Warner reacted with admirable speed to the kidnap. By Saturday morning its managing director and UK operations director were in the resort, along with two trauma counsellors and Alex Woolfall, a PR specialist contracted by the firm. Woolfall, head of crisis management at leading PR agency Bell Pottinger, who advised Monsanto during the storm over GM food, would become for a fortnight the family's adviser and press go-between. He is probably one of the people in Britain best placed to manage such a situation, and it showed. Very swiftly, the storm of TV and print journalists camped outside the family's apartment had established a number of informal rules of engagement: Kate and Gerry would be left largely alone to take their twins to playgroup, for instance; TV cameras would remain fixed. It was made known to reporters that the family wanted their daughter to be referred to as Madeleine rather than the tabloid-coined Maddy.

"We were aware from the outset that there was a huge amount of media interest," said Woolfall, "and they in all the conversations I had with them were very keen to see the media as a partner."

Thus began a carefully scheduled round of interviews, photo-opportunities and press conferences. Helped by the wider family at home, additional photographs were released of Madeleine: a picture of the toddler in an Everton top mobilised the club and Kenwright, its chairman, to their own gestures of support. A holiday snap of the family in Donegal was splashed across the Irish papers. Vigils in Scotland and Leicestershire ensured the presence of their local media in Praia da Luz.

Back in the UK, relatives launched a website and fund to handle some of the many thousands of offers of support they had received; in the first 48 hours the site had received 75m hits, becoming the fastest-growing website on the internet. But however much access the family offer, they cannot hope to meet a demand that remains, a month on, apparently insatiable. Some 62% of all traffic on the Google news website last week consisted of searches about Madeleine....

Woolfall left Praia da Luz after a fortnight; the McCanns are now being advised on behalf of the Foreign Office by Clarence Mitchell, a former BBC reporter. He organised, in association with British embassies around Europe, the current publicity tour. If anything, say members of the still sizeable press pack accompanying the McCanns, the media operation has become even more professional....

Team McCann, as the family campaign calls itself, shows little sign of running out of ideas. Assuming Madeleine has not been found, they plan to target the Tour de France, golf tournaments, Grand Prix events, the Isle of Man TT, perhaps even the publishers of the new Harry Potter novel. Leicester hospital has planned a summer ball in aid of the fund; Squirrel Hayes first school in Biddulph, Staffordshire, will be doing their bit on Wednesday with a fashion show."


IMO Woollfall & then Mitchell's ran the story not the McCanns - and the fact that so many of the "team" lived near to celebrities etc would have helped get the profile high in the initial stages.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jun/02/ukcrime.comment

Panda wrote:

Wallflower wrote:How on earth could two oridinary people who work in a field so far removed from PR and media possibly orchestrate such a huge PR offensive so quickly? Personally, I find that one of the most implausible aspects of the case.

Morning Wallflower, that is what Clarence was for!! We may not like him but must give him credit for protecting the McCanns and using his contacts to make sure the Press print whatever he chooses. Had he not been employed so early in the game, no way would the McCanns have got the best kind of
publicity and deals.

Hi Panda
But WHY did Clarence get involved? He already had a job working with the govt Media Monitoring Unit. He didn't need a job, one would assume? It still doesn't make sense to me. The ONLY way that this would be a good move for Clarence would be if he knew the story would run adn that the public innocence of K & G would be maintained.

eta interesting article gilly, will have a read later.

Thanks gillyspot, yes , the McCanns have certainly received the best help possible and are now known all over the World, pity they have managed to
eclipse the reason for the Fund by travelling around promoting Kate's Book..

Hi Wallflower, I think it was Gordon Brown who initially seconded Mitchell to help the McCanns and it became a full time job for a long time, now he works as an when required and has another jib.

The Press have no scruples, so expect them to put the Fleet Street foot firmly in the other boot once there is the merest hint of a change in the wind.

There will be no apologies, just a brazen sea-change in attitude.

Give it six months max.

The End Is Nigh wrote:The Press have no scruples, so expect them to put the Fleet Street foot firmly in the other boot once there is the merest hint of a change in the wind.

There will be no apologies, just a brazen sea-change in attitude.

Give it six months max.

Morning TEIN,

A long time ago Matthew Parris of The Spectator said the British Press were aggriedved at the treatment they received in PDL and if ever it was found
that the McCanns had a hand in their Daughter's disappearance, the British Press would turn on them like rotweilers.

I have never understood why Demond, who paid over £1 million in Legal fees is still prepared to write about these ridiculous sightings instead of doing
their own private investigating.

Wallflower wrote:How on earth could two oridinary people who work in a field so far removed from PR and media possibly orchestrate such a huge PR offensive so quickly? Personally, I find that one of the most implausible aspects of the case.

They didn't orchestrate it though. The government of the day was involved at a very early stage - almost at the same time as the alleged abduction (or even before it?). They, using their professional reputation management crowd orchestrated it for them. The might of the professional opinion benders was overwhelming - the Portuguese police didn't stand a chance and neither did the majority of the British public. But thankfully there are signs that the British public no longer buy into their story in the numbers they once did and slowly but surely their support is starting to become untenable in political circles.

Seeing as Mcspin is still ongoing even after Rebekah Brooks arrest it appears she was merely a pawn in the case (working on behalf of ?)

A pawn?

A prawn more like - have you seen what colour her hair is after landing in hot water?

The End Is Nigh wrote:A pawn?

A prawn more like - have you seen what colour her hair is after landing in hot water?

Never a truer word spoken

gillyspot wrote:Seeing as Mcspin is still ongoing even after Rebekah Brooks arrest it appears she was merely a pawn in the case (working on behalf of ?)

I don't think Brooks was a pawn - she was an active policy maker who was also able to exert pressure on the Prime Minister to fulfil her objectives or the objectives on behalf of whoever she was working for. Who could that be and why? Well, it's pretty obvious who, but why - we'll probably never know. And yet, Brooks and News International are perhaps but a welcome sideshow which diverts attention away from the political interference. Cameron is far more involved in this than we've been led to believe. The latest initiative by his government to dictate to people how they are to raise their children strengthens my belief that the crux of the matter is not the disappearance of Madeleine per se, but the differing beliefs on parenting. On the one hand we have the professional classes trying to balance parenthood with their demanding careers and on the other, we have the majority of people who do not see children as an accessory which one can ill afford timewise. The Madeleine affair has always been about a conflict between those "we all do it" and those who wouldn't dream of doing it i.e. leaving their children alone whilst they go out to enjoy themselves.

Sadly I think it is the fact that many Women today are not just Mothers, most work to help with Household expenses and maybe many children today
are latchdoor kids because of it, as is obesity in children , having easily packed lunches, crisps, soft drink, a sandwich and maybe a bar of chocolate.
Tired Mothers making use of frozen meals too much.

This is what puzzles me about the McCanns who so desperately wanted children that Kate had IVF treatment . Apart from the fact that there was only
20 months difference in age between Madeleine and the twins, Kate went back to work one and a half days a week before Madeleine was in School , obviously for financial reasons because they had moved into a 4 bedroom house costing a lot more . Where was the planning in all this? Why did they
not think to take a Buggy, a Baby Monitor? arrange a babysitting service when they knew Madeleine had cried? They could afford to go into the Bar every night , pay for Tennis Lessons........seems their priorities were not the children.

gillyspot wrote:Remember media were in force by 9am in PDL on 4.5.07 when most of us hadn't a clue who the McCanns were. Chicken & egg scenario in my opinion. Hysterical media created hysterical response & so on.

The newspapers may also keep an eye on the internet to see the responses to news items and run with it. They're not interested in anything but selling a lot of papers. Circulation is still going down at a steady rate.
I think the McCanns were pulling as many strings as they could - possibly even before 3/5 (because that day is out for me as the day when Maddie disappeared) Ambassador was on the spot, without FO telling him to, he wouldn't have done. It's the Consul's job or at best the Consul-General.
I still think Gordon Brown was rather too helpful in the whole affair and he may have had his own reasons to do so. The lack of personal contact and no attempt to use the popularity of the McCanns to help him win the election later, leads me to believe that he did what he did for himself.

All this string pulling was to safeguard themselves by unleashing the full glare of publicity and getting public sympathy. But it turned into an all round hysteria - very much like the Diana hysteria.
So how could they stop themselves gloating, lapping up the attention, behaving like royalty? Their plan had worked 1000 times better than they'd hoped.
The way they behaved shows up their personalities in every unpleasant detail.

So the McCanns are imprisoned forever,
or to the whim of a very powerful media.
Their very existence must depend upon
support, security, and control of this
monolithic giant that has the same grip
upon British politics and its servants.
A very disturbing thought indeed.

The McCanns are rich now, no more Mortgage ,Book revenue, and after 5 years they certainly cannot ask the Public to keep searching for Madeleine.

Let's face it, we would never have known about the £800,000 paid by The Times if it wasn't mentioned in the Leveson Enquiry .Now the support will
disappear from the Sun and hopefully we will be spared any more ridiculous sightings My guess is Eddie, the lone searcher for Madeleine, who has not found even one credible piecce of information after over 2 years, the McCanns will stay out of the limelight. They can forget any help from Cameron ,
he has enough on his plate wondering what Rebekah,s Trial will reveal and trying to keep Britain from losing it's AAA rating.