Friday 18 May 2007

Double Edged Sword Of The Media

The double edged sword of the British media was prominent this week as the Madeleine McCann story continues to dominates front pages.
Four year old Madeline went missing in Portugal over two weeks ago with the broadcast and newspaper media religiously keeping the public informed as well as raising the profile of the case across the globe in the attempt of fencing off possible hiding places for the kidnappers.
The dirty, more grubby side of the media came with the news that Briton Robert Murat has been named as the only formal suspect in the case.
Innocent until proven guilty is never something the press stick to when they have a sniff of a story so Mr Murat has had every aspect of his private life researched, printed and questioned infront of the World.
I have no idea of Mr Murat's guilt or innocence but until he is charged the vicious character assassination by tabloid is unwarranted.
If he is found to have taken Madeline then it should be a free for all but if he isn't found guilty of anything, then his life has been destroyed while the likes of The Sun & The Mirror shrug their shoulders and move onto another story.
It is the way of the press i'm afraid but it stinks.

5 comments:

The Fez Monkey said...

Gee - I guess the US and the UK aren't that different after all.

Ook ook

Falling on a bruise said...

Our tabloids can be nasty, and by a coincedence, the worst one is owned by Rupert Murdoch so imagine Fox News in newspaper form and you get the idea.

Anonymous said...

I haven't read up on it - things have ben depressing enough without, lately- bu didn't the parents leave three very young children unattended while they went to eat? Have the cops had anything to say about that?

Paula said...

I think I read that too, Joe. People freak out about leaving little kids alone here in the U.S.

Falling on a bruise said...

Interestingly, some people have questioned how they could leave 3 young children alone while they went out for the evening although they said that they did check back every 30 mins.
The fact that both parents are Doctors and very middle class do seem to be shiedling them slightly because you can guarantee that if they were not such well spoken proefessional people, these questions would be asked much louder.