Madeleine McCann

Solius

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Yeah sounds like Sky did nothing wrong. She deserved to be confronted.
 

sullydnl

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From the very few tweets I've seen in articles about her, what she posted was fairly tame. She seemed very angry with the parents, presumably on the basis she thought they were somehow responsible for Madeleine's death. It wasn't the kind of really repulsive trolling you see from the type of low-lives who specialise in that sort of thing though. Came across more as someone who was just a bit thick, rather than anything more malignant.

I agree that that nobody should post stuff on social media anonymously that they wouldn't do in person but I don't really understand why this woman ended up getting door-stepped when there are so many other examples of genuinely unpleasant trolls for them to pick on. Unless I there are really bad tweets that didn't get mentioned in the press?
According to that reports she sent thousands of tweets on the subject. I think the sheer volume alone would probably make her a fair subject for that kind of interview.

Plus it might have been better for Sky to interview someone who could write something more coherent then "Mcanns r murderz wud stab dem 2 ded" or whatever.
 

Pogue Mahone

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According to that reports she sent thousands of tweets on the subject. I think the sheer volume alone would probably make her a fair subject for that kind of interview.

Plus it might have been better for Sky to interview someone who could write something more coherent then "Mcanns r murderz wud stab dem 2 ded" or whatever.
Ok, then. That makes more sense.

Of course that would fit in with some sort of mental illness on her part.

I expect the main reason Sky ended up door-stopping her had little to do with her potential as an interviewee and more to do with her own naivety at maintaining an anonymous online presence. The really unpleasant internet trolls are probably fairly skilled at keeping their identity hidden.
 
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Solius

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Sky in the clear yeah? that will be a comfort to her family then
Obviously sad that she's dead but it was her own decision. If someone from Sky asking her a few questions pushed her over the edge then it sounds like it wouldn't have taken much.
 

Drifter

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Don't be ridiculous. Blaming sky news.

Their reporters found out that she was one of the ones posting vile stuff about the McCanns and their surviving children, found her and asked her some pretty mild questions.

She then disappeared and has now apparently killed herself, perhaps faced with the fact that her disgusting words weren't as anonymous as she thought.

Sky News haven't done anything wrong here, unless you call exposing someone's darkest, most evil secrets as "wrong".

You make it sound like she was plotting to kill them and Sky News concerned about this lept into action . This seems to be one of the most dark and evil secrets she came out with. " “How long must the Mccanns suffer” answer “for the rest of their miserable lives” ". Hardly worth a doorstep ambush from Brunt . Hope they will be visiting and exposing the trolls that gave her abuse when the story broke.
 

rednev

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From the very few tweets I've seen in articles about her, what she posted was fairly tame. She seemed very angry with the parents, presumably on the basis she thought they were somehow responsible for Madeleine's death. It wasn't the kind of really repulsive trolling you see from the type of low-lives who specialise in that sort of thing though. Came across more as someone who was just a bit thick, rather than anything more malignant.

I agree that that nobody should post stuff on social media anonymously that they wouldn't do in person but I don't really understand why this woman ended up getting door-stepped when there are so many other examples of genuinely unpleasant trolls for them to pick on. Unless I there are really bad tweets that didn't get mentioned in the press?
I agree.

What irritates me is the way Sky News conflated her tweets with those that were much more extreme and abusive. Given what I have seen of what she posted online, it seems that she was merely involved in a rather obsessive and crude campaign of accusing the McCanns, albeit insensitively. The idea that you can do this and then be surprised at your doorstep by a camera crew from a national news channel is fecking ridiculous. It was way out of proportion.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Obviously sad that she's dead but it was her own decision. If someone from Sky asking her a few questions pushed her over the edge then it sounds like it wouldn't have taken much.
Being outed like that on tv would be a massive deal for anyone. Much more to it than "asking a few questions".

Obviously, the proviso still stands that anyone who passes their time slagging off named individuals anonymously online* is a fairly unsympathetic character to begin with.




*my criticism of Van Persie's workrate not included...
 

Livvie

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And now Katie Hopkins has stepped in to the argument. Hardly the kind of person you'd want in your corner imo.
 

Livvie

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Everything has something to do with her it seems.

She was more or less blaming the McCanns for the death of the woman accused of trolling.
 

Catt

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Over 4000 tweets in one year I think and she wasn't the worst. Whatever opinion people have of the parents, wishing death or threaten their twins is just wrong. Don't think she went that far but quite a few has.
 

Livvie

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They created the circus to begin with, no sympathy.
They want their child back. You expect them to fade into the background? They're driven by a need and a fair amount of guilt. They've use a willing media but it's what 99.9% of parents would do.
 

matherto

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They want their child back. You expect them to fade into the background? They're driven by a need and a fair amount of guilt. They've use a willing media but it's what 99.9% of parents would do.
Except that children go missing all the time, the families still look, hope and pray but the media don't persue it and yet this one drags on and on in the public eye.

They created it, they milked it and benefitted from it and they're continuing it for their own ends.
 

Shamwow

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Except that children go missing all the time, the families still look, hope and pray but the media don't persue it and yet this one drags on and on in the public eye.

They created it, they milked it and benefitted from it and they're continuing it for their own ends.
What exactly are "their own ends"?
 

Livvie

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Except that children go missing all the time, the families still look, hope and pray but the media don't persue it and yet this one drags on and on in the public eye.

They created it, they milked it and benefitted from it and they're continuing it for their own ends.
That's just rubbish. They milked it, and are continuing it because they want their child back. As any parent would. They're not benefitting from it except as a means of keeping their daughter's profile in the public eye. The media have also pursued the cases of Ben Needham and Katrice Lee. Maybe other families should make more fuss if they want to get noticed - I'd never let it die if my child was missing.
 

sullydnl

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So, if you somehow manage to keep media attention focused on your missing daughter then you don't deserve sympathy when people start publicly abusing you and accusing you of murder? Very odd logic.

I get that a lot of people don't like the McCanns but you can't seriously criticise them for doing everything they can to keep attention focused on their missing child. Or at least you can't if you're a fair minded person.
 
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Livvie

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So, if you somehow manage to keep media attention focused on your missing daughter then you don't deserve sympathy when people start publicly abusing you and accusing you of murder? Very odd logic.

I get that a lot of people don't like the McCanns but you can't seriously criticise them for doing everything they can to keep attention focused on their missing child. Or at least you can't if you're a fair minded person.
Exactly.

We all know the McCanns were stupid. No-one is denying that. And guilt probably plays a huge part in motivating their actions.
 

Jippy

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Except that children go missing all the time, the families still look, hope and pray but the media don't persue it and yet this one drags on and on in the public eye.
suitable
They created it, they milked it and benefitted from it and they're continuing it for their own ends.
There is a weird belief among some that somehow the McCanns are somehow loving the attention and keeping the Maddie case in the public eye for 'their own ends' as you say. Am sure any parent in the same situation would do the same thing.

Looking at it dispassionately, maybe this case had suitable intrigue to keep the media interested. Cute kid, middle class parents, element of doubt over their story plus the opportunity to tut-tut over them leaving her alone...and add in swarthy types seen lurking near-by.

The Alice Gross case got loads of attention and I've barely seen her parents on TV. That desperately sad story seems to have the media's (or aspects of) favourite narrative of unchecked immigration and murderous Eastern Europeans to carry it along.
 

cesc's_mullet

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Pretty much agree with Pexbo. If you decide to publish something on twitter then you should be prepared to stand over it in real life. If you can't handle being called out on the abuse you post then don't post abuse. I don't see why Sky wouldn't be entitled to question her about it.
Agreed.
 

EricaNo7

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It's a very sad case and I can't even begin to imagine the grief of losing a child , to have one die is bad enough but to not know what happened must be horrendous. They must luge with it every minute of the day. I know it's horrible of me but there is something so dislikeable about Gerry. I still feel sorry for him though
 

Pogue Mahone

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Except that children go missing all the time, the families still look, hope and pray but the media don't persue it and yet this one drags on and on in the public eye.

They created it, they milked it and benefitted from it and they're continuing it for their own ends.
What a weird accusation. What are their "own ends" you talk of?

Other than the continued search for their missing daughter, that is.
 

Dans

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They want their child back. You expect them to fade into the background? They're driven by a need and a fair amount of guilt. They've use a willing media but it's what 99.9% of parents would do.
Precisely. Paying an awful price for a terrible mistake. I would also feel like I owe it to my kid to search forever.
 

Stack

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Except that children go missing all the time, the families still look, hope and pray but the media don't persue it and yet this one drags on and on in the public eye.

They created it, they milked it and benefitted from it and they're continuing it for their own ends.
wow, just wow
 

Chorley1974

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It's a very sad case and I can't even begin to imagine the grief of losing a child , to have one die is bad enough but to not know what happened must be horrendous. They must luge with it every minute of the day. I know it's horrible of me but there is something so dislikeable about Gerry. I still feel sorry for him though
I don't think either of the parents come across as likeable, but like most people, we have a huge amount of sympathy and compassion for them. I don't really understand the media obsession, I think it must be encouraged by the parents, and they must have massively thick skin to continue to pursue it via the media, but have every right to do what they think is best to solve this puzzle. Other parents of missing children may shun the media, or they may wish they had the same amount of mass media attention, either way they probably wish that they had a fraction of the police effort going into their cases.
 

SteveJ

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TBH, the McCann's recent campaign doesn't seem to me to be about online abuse...more about controlling the narrative that someone other than them is responsible for Madeleine's fate (whatever that may be).
 

swooshboy

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TBH, the McCann's recent campaign doesn't seem to me to be about online abuse...more about controlling the narrative that someone other than them is responsible for Madeleine's fate (whatever that may be).
I agree with you on this.
 

Pogue Mahone

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TBH, the McCann's recent campaign doesn't seem to me to be about online abuse...more about controlling the narrative that someone other than them is responsible for Madeleine's fate (whatever that may be).
What campaign is this?

They recently sued the Sunday Times for suggesting they were suppressing evidence. A claim which was upheld. That's a straightforward libel case. Not sure how it could be construed as a "campaign". After the decision, Gerry McCann took a broadside at the press not learning any lessons from the Leveson enquiry but that's completely understandable when you've just been libelled.

This whole twitter troll thing seems to have been initiated by a dossier submitted by "the general public", with the McCann's only involvement being to comment on this when approached by the press:
"We do not have any significant presence on social media or online and I've got grave concerns about our children as they grow up and start to access the internet in an unsupervised capacity.

"People are threatening to kidnap our children, people are threatening violence against Kate and myself."
That all seems eminently reasonable, especially the bit in bold.
 

Eyepopper

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TBH, the McCann's recent campaign doesn't seem to me to be about online abuse...more about controlling the narrative that someone other than them is responsible for Madeleine's fate (whatever that may be).
Really? I was under the impression that it was about not letting a newspaper get away with making unfounded claims about someone in order to sell copy.

The judge agreed with them...

Hold on, maybe he's in on it.. doctors, judges....they'd probably all be in cahoots, being upper class en all.
 

EricaNo7

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I don't think either of the parents come across as likeable, but like most people, we have a huge amount of sympathy and compassion for them. I don't really understand the media obsession, I think it must be encouraged by the parents, and they must have massively thick skin to continue to pursue it via the media, but have every right to do what they think is best to solve this puzzle. Other parents of missing children may shun the media, or they may wish they had the same amount of mass media attention, either way they probably wish that they had a fraction of the police effort going into their cases.
Yes you're completely correct in that
 

Eyepopper

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I don't think either of the parents come across as likeable, but like most people, we have a huge amount of sympathy and compassion for them. I don't really understand the media obsession, I think it must be encouraged by the parents, and they must have massively thick skin to continue to pursue it via the media, but have every right to do what they think is best to solve this puzzle. Other parents of missing children may shun the media, or they may wish they had the same amount of mass media attention, either way they probably wish that they had a fraction of the police effort going into their cases.
If my kid went missing I'd pursue every possible avenue, for as long as I could, to find them. And I'd guess having a thick skin wouldn't come into weathering the comments of a few morons on the internet.

Either way, the McCanns aren't to blame for the fact that other cases don't receive the same resources. For their part a considerable portion of the funds raised by their foundation go towards helping other parents in similar situations.
 

Chorley1974

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If my kid went missing I'd pursue every possible avenue, for as long as I could, to find them. And I'd guess having a thick skin wouldn't come into weathering the comments of a few morons on the internet.

Either way, the McCanns aren't to blame for the fact that other cases don't receive the same resources. For their part a considerable portion of the funds raised by their foundation go towards helping other parents in similar situations.
By thick skin I was thinking about meant the mass media attention, to live this long in it must be awful, and take an awful lot of strength to continue with, the morons on the internet wouldn't even be on the radar.
 

Eyepopper

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I guess they view it as a necessary evil. Considering how the investigation was handled originally, I don't blame them for taking matters into their own hands.
 

golden_blunder

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Except that children go missing all the time, the families still look, hope and pray but the media don't persue it and yet this one drags on and on in the public eye.

They created it, they milked it and benefitted from it and they're continuing it for their own ends.
Wow. What a nice human being you are.

I really dont follow your logic. Any parent would do whatever they could do to try and find their missing child. Just because the McCann's have been able to keep it in the media, people like you take a dislike to them? why?
 

Sampy93

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So who else thinks that they were reckless and accident happened and they tried to cover it up. They look really guilty everytime I see them on tv.
 

Eyepopper

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So who else thinks that they were reckless and accident happened and they tried to cover it up. They look really guilty everytime I see them on tv.
A few thousand other sad, lazy, gossip hungry, ignoramuses on the internet at last count.