CREATE A MONSTER the McCann propaganda wars

Sadly, unless there are Oscars for those who practice the dark and murky art of spin, the talents of those who created and ran the incredible publicity campaign for Kate and Gerry McCann will go unrecognised, and the ultimate rewards may be a long stretch at Her Majesty's pleasure. Were they the first and were they unique, hell no, the Ramseys did it first and had the funds and connections to sustain it.  But with the McCanns 'new' industries were created, if not expanded, and reputation fixing (Crisis Management) became 'respectable', accepted as the 'norm' with snakeoil flying off the shelves while the humble pie grows mould.  It must irk the 'Dr. Evils' that they cannot publicly claim credit for the schemes that worked, or explain why the major fuck ups were not their fault. That has got to grate.

 

Nobody can deny the genius behind the McCanns propaganda campaign and the speed with which it kicked in.  First of all an 'abduction' was established with a tale of an empty bed, an open window, curtains whooshing.  That was the breaking news story that we all woke up on to the 4th May 2007. The fact that the apartment hadn't been broken into was pipped to the post, the first story is the one that everyone remembers.  And this was swiftly followed by the claimed sighting of a sinister man carrying the inert body of a child off into the night. 
 

Step two, create a monster, a faceless villain, one the public can despise, and if given the opportunity, burn at the stake followed by a street party and lots of back patting.  Don't hate us, hate the monster who stole our child, we are the victims here screamed Kate and Gerry.  While the 'collective you' is looking at us, the abductor is getting away with it - and your kids could be next add their highfalutin friends for good measure. 

Any other suggestion was immediately dismissed as ludicrous, Madeleine was 'taken', she was too small to have opened the window, the safety gates or the patio doors that had conveniently been left unlocked.  The suggestion that her disappearance could have been anything other than abduction angered the parents to such an extent that they established a team of attack dogs made up of lawyers, politicians, spinmeisters and lonely embittered fruitloops to seek out and destroy, using the funds kindly donated to them by sympathetic public.  

Create 'helpless' God fearing victims who will tug on the heart and purse strings of good people around the globe, with particular emphasis on catholics and the especially generous Celts. Thus Kate and Gerry were presented to the world as PLU (People Like Us) clean living, upstanding, morally unquestionable, church going innocents, robbed of their precious child by a faceless monster.  And that was where they struck gold, quite literally, the powers that be always need a 'faceless monster' to strike terror into the hearts of its populace - an enemy of the State. 

Frankenstein's creature steals
blonde cherub

We need someone to hate and blame for all of society's ills, it's not an attractive human trait but it is one that all wannabe tyrants and despots tap into.  Usually it is another nation, but wars are a bit too deadly these days and Muslims and homosexuals just aint cutting it anymore. However, nothing can stir up an angry mob like a childsnatcher.  Fear of child snatchers cross centuries , cultures and class barriers, every child is vulnerable, every child could be our own - especially if the child is well cared for, white, blonde and angelic. Again, not original, see D.W. Griffiths, Birth of a Nation (1915), or Mary Shelly's Frankenstein - blonde 'angels' are often used to demonstrate the 'evils' that lurk within our midst.

When the news of Madeleine's disappearance broke we all grieved with Kate and Gerry.  But grief is a useless emotion, it achieves nothing, we cannot accept that it just 'is', we feel we have to do something about it.  Most people are poleaxed by grief, but some seek vengeance and retribution, and the answer to their grief is 'someone must pay'.

Thus it becomes easy for those with an agenda to lead an angry mob, they plug into people's emotions and people become very emotive when an innocent child is missing.  Logic and reason fly out the window, vengeance belongs to those with the loudest voices - which is why the McCanns needed to be protected and they still do.  Nobody, I hope, wants to see the savagery of mob justice.  It is how the far the protection goes that is the issue.


The case of Missing Madeleine McCann may appear to be unique, but it is far from it.  Whenever police arrive at a crime scene they must be prepared to question everything, especially when the crime committed has already been established by the main players before they arrive.  Jeremy Bamber was in no doubt his sister did it, the Philpotts blamed the ex wife.  

Susan Smith appeals for help
to find her 'missing' toddlers

The list of evil mothers and fathers who have killed their children, then claimed to have been attacked by a stranger or that their children have been taken is endless.  In fact, we have now become accustomed to grieving murderers and shysters leading candlelight vigils, setting up Funds and selling T-shirts. Sadly, it is a trend that is unlikely to end anytime soon, because in the simplistic, twisted minds of the deranged and the desperate, losing a child seems to be a fast track to fame and fortune. 

 

However, no matter how slick and professional the McCanns' campaign was, many were startled at the speed with which they launched a Fund and set up an online shop. The thing about missing children, is you never know when they might re-appear, yet not one person questioned the long term plans, the wider agenda, the annual 'Madeleine Day', the 'good jobs' abandoned or indeed the need of the parents for millions of pounds of public donations.  Why did the McCanns need childrens' pocket money and pensioners' savings, more than they did?  Why did they need a 'Fighting Fund' - who were they fighting? Ok, they changed it to a 'Search Fund', but why did they need a Search Fund when every police force and psyched up Maddie hunter on the globe were on the lookout for her? 

Gerry and Kate McCann went from not knowing they needed a Fund, to needing one very badly indeed. Legal fees said Uncle Brian as people pushed cash into his hand.  Send money in an envelope to Kate and Gerry, Rothley said Clarence, it will get there.  Who knows how much the McCanns received, they swiftly removed the cashometer from their website and the Fund is the opposite of the promised transparent.  They received millions and they spent millions (on what?), how much was ever going to be enough?  Who profited from the money that poured in, are they profiting still?  The Fund is an integral part of this case, yet it continues unchallenged as if it is the most normal thing in the world for the parents of a missing child to need mountains of cash to carry out their own investigation whilst disregarding all the findings of the police. 

 

The problem with creating monsters, is that they become impossible to control, they take on a life of their own. The McCanns' publicity machine became a monster but also a huge source of income.  News items and seasonal appeals attract potential libel payees and visitors to their website and paypal donate button.  The McCanns had to keep feeding the monster with stories of sightings to reinforce the belief that Madeleine is alive.  All the odds and statistics tell a different story, but so successful was their campaign that it almost became a criminal offence to suggest that Madeleine might be dead. It is certainly a costly one, hundreds of thousands of pounds have been paid into the Madeleine Fund, by UK newspapers and the former Portuguese lead detective is currently awaiting the decision of Lisbon Court on whether all his worldy goods must be passed to the grieving parents. 

I'm ready for my close up
 

It should be remembered however that the McCanns have always had the option of withdrawing from public life, anyone can if they really want to.  All they have to do is sack their publicist and concentrate on their non public careers and families.  Obscurity is freely and widely available, as any Norma Desmond, X-factor contestant or Andrew Ridgely could confirm. Publicity is something you work for and pay for, then when you get it you pretend you don't want it.  Gerry and Kate McCann want to be in the public eye but they don't want the criticism that comes with it. Ergo they want something that isn't even available to the Queen or a deranged Ayatolla leading millions, they want it written into the statues.  Thou shalt not take the name of Gerry and Kate McCann in vain.  Whilst it is good to aim for everything your heart desires, you should occasionally have a reality check, because those working for you on a retainer almost definitely, won't. 




Be careful what you wish for

Like Victor Frankenstein in his workshop of filthy creation, the creators of the missing Madeleine campaign had no idea what they were about to unleash, nor how successful they would be, they wanted a Review and their innocence made official but did they really want a full blown investigation?

For whatever reason the McCanns' campaign has included interacting with and menacing their critics on social media.  For over 7 years the internet has been patrolled by a group of McCann superfans and lawyers seeking out criticism, libel and threats (all stored in the 'dossier' and handed to police). However, the raids and the arrests following the outing of Brenda Leyland, failed to transpire and Jayelles is probably wiping her eyes with cats as she weeps over her filing cabinets and all that hard work wasted.  Far from praise and accolades for good citizenship, the Myths sites went into shutdown removed their 'Hate List' and said 'it wasn't me guv'.  The Myths sites were an integral part of the campaign, kept on the back burner as an ominous threat and deterrent, they were brought into play with the Summers and Swan book and the hoped for final clamp down on McCann critics, but the results were deadly.  The mean and spiteful spirit of the Myths' sites was never going to appeal to a wide audience.  Watching half a dozen criminally insane superfans rip McCann sceptics to shreds has very little appeal  and those who thought they could capture that 'mean spirit' and feed it into the UK mainstream were seriously deluded. The very limited membership of these 'hate sites' should have been a clue.

How will it all end? That remains to be seen, I'll leave the last word with Mr Orwell.  Meanwhile we can only watch in amazement and awe as formerly respected journalists, criminologists, sofa queens and ex police chiefs report 'the truth' and scold those who have the audacity to believe the original Portuguese investigation over the parents and all the nonsense that has been printed since. Lets just hope it doesn't become a criminal offence.