McCann

The last day or two in the news theres been a story that a 9 year old girl in West Yorkshire has gone missing. Theres a link to the story here.

Today the UK media has gone into overdrive about Madeline McCann again. The Sun reports that there was a possible sighting of Madeline in France. This story has since been shot down...again.

The Mirror also have the same story as do The Express. And the following quote comes from the Football365 Media Watch today...

In case you hadn't noticed, The Daily Express has featured the 'hunt' for Madeleine McCann reasonably prominently over the past year or so.

And well done to them for giving a story about a missing child so much exposure. They're performing a valuable service.

With those principles in mind, Mediawatch assumed that they would feature the news of another young girl going missing - nine-year-old Shannon Matthews from Dewsbury in Yorkshire - equally prominently.

Apparently not. It's not on the front page, nor page two, three, four, five or six.

You have to dig down to page seven to find any word on the latest disappearance. Apparently stories about a fish with a bit of a funny face, taking an afternoon nap (it's good for you), some spurious nonsense about Diana (natch) and a customary rant against immigrants are more newsworthy.

Any accusations that this policy is simply down to the fact that Shannon Matthews is not a blonde girl from a middle-class family will no doubt be strenuously denied.

For the record, have a guess which missing child does appear on the front page. And, in the interests of fairness, on the front of The Sun and The Daily Mirror.



Now it seems to me like its very convieniant that there happens to be another "sighting" at the same time as this other girls gone missing. Like the quote above says its all down to class. Its not as newsworthy that a child from a middle class family goes missing. So my question is would the media really stoop as low as to pull a story about "Maddie" out of their arses just to remind us all what the important story really is?

Till next time.