Of course, it's terrible that Madeleine McCann remains missing over a week after she disappeared. And we'd all like to see her returned to her family as soon as possible.
But let's not forget that Alan Johnston is also still missing. And he's been missing a lot longer than Madeleine. For some reason you don't hear about celebrities offering huge rewards for information on his whereabouts. Perhaps that only happens for photogenic children.
It was Maddy's birthday yesterday. She was four. So today's tabloids have photos of her all over their front pages. It'll be Alan's birthday on Thursday. He'll be forty-five. Who wants to bet that any of Friday's tabloids will all have him on the front page?
I'm not saying that people shouldn't be doing all they can to find Maddy. I'm just saying that perhaps certain newpaper editors are letting emotions cloud their judgement.
Update: Oh look. I'm not the only person who thinks along these lines. I should read my Bloglines feeds before composing blog entries.
Of *course* newspaper editors aren't going to let emotion decide what they report on. They're going to decide on *what* *sells* *papers*.
Pictures of mission four year olds sell newspapers. Allowing people to buy the newspaper that is "supporting" the family (and therefore by proxy, allowing members of the public to feel like they're supporting the family) sells newspapers.
It's all about the sales Dave! I can't believe I'm going to say this, but you're not being cynical enough!
Mark is completely correct of course. It has nothing to do with the editors' emotions. It's all to do with the editors' cynical manipulation of their readers emotions.
If only their readers emotions weren't so easily manipulated.
I apologise for the lack of cynicism in this post. My standards are slipping. It won't happen again.
You can't really compare these cases, in my view. Alan Johnson deliberately went somewhere he knew to be dangerous and did things that some people might perceive to not be in their best interests (ie reporting on what was going on). A small girl going missing is a completely different set of circumstances. Also, if Alan Johnson wasn't a media man himself, I doubt that the media would have given him as much coverage as they have.