A test for the PCC
This could be an interesting test of the strength of the PCC. Whereas Robert Murat and Kate & Gerry McCann received hefty payments after seeking redress through the courts rather than the Press Complaints Commission, now there's another figure in the whole sorry saga attempting redress, not through legal means but through the Pathetically Craven Commission.
Debbie Butler of the Madeleine Foundation was accused of being 'The McCann's stalker' by the Sunday Express's front page last week
and was labelled a 'sicko' in a Daily Star article about her activities. Now the best way to decide about the Madeleine Foundation is to have a look at the website and judge for yourself. I am not for a moment going to say I agree with everything on there; but on the other hand there are legitimate questions that are posed about the little girl's disappearance, and I think it's fair enough that they should be asked.
Of course the allegations against Butler are nowhere near as serious as those against Kate & Gerry or indeed Robert Murat. But nonetheless it might be interesting to compare and contrast the cases. Specifically, how seriously will the Express take a complaint through the PCC, as opposed to one through notable libel lawyers? Particularly in the light of the fact that even when they got a stern ticking-off from the PCC over the Sunday Express-Dunblane atrocity, they did absolutely nothing about it whatsoever, despite the fact the PCC said they hadn't done enough.
This sentence of the complaint caught my eye:
Debbie's ex-husband asked why they had printed such a bad picture of Debbie in the 'Sunday Express' and why they had apparently chosen the worst one. The answer from the journalist, verbatim, was: "The editor told me he wanted her portrayed as a hard cow".
Ah yes, there's the Fourth Estate in all its glory for us, right there.
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Hello. I'm a Bristol-based writer and soon-to-be-redundant journalist. You can read more about me and the Enemies site here, or follow me on Twitter. Email me if you like - antonvowl at live dot co dot uk
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August 21st, 2009 - 16:04
A hard cow? Niiiiice.
I wonder if they have a scaled wallchart with Princess Di at one end with 'Angel' written by her and Karen Matthews/Maxine Carr at the other with 'Devils Whore' by their pictures. Hard Cow being a few steps up.
August 21st, 2009 - 16:46
I can't help but wonder how many people would have heard of this woman and her foundation before the Express and the Star decided to attack her. Even some of their readers will have enough nous to be able to type 'madeleine foundation' into Google and read the results, so I do wonder what they were hoping to achieve by it.
August 21st, 2009 - 20:39
Chris – Princess Diana is only on that end since she died. I happen to know (a friend of my sister's did the touch-up) that the Sun airbrushed cellulite onto a picture of her legs to make up an entire story. The press are dreadful. I realised the other day that I had written 13 blog items critical of them in just three months. That's one a week.
August 21st, 2009 - 20:53
Sorry Anton, when it comes to disgusting libels such as the Dunblane story, you've played a blinder. Not on this occasion.
Whatever you think about the McCanns' decision to leave their kids alone (most of us wouldn't, they screwed up, but by God they've been punished for it)I think you'll agree that the 'evidence' that they killed their daughter and conspired with the 'tapas 7' to cover it up, is non-existent.
Dawn Butler, partner in crime of the publicity mad solicitor Tony Bennett, runs a 'nudge nudge wink wink' campaign intimating that the McCanns murdered their daughter. Her reasoning is that because most murdered children are killed by their parents, then statistics prove that the McCanns murdered Madeline. I don't need to talk to you about the misuse of statistics by the press.
Butler's obsessive campaign has apparently involved a two-pronged complaint to the GMC seeking to have the McCanns struck off. The grounds for the complaint are (a) either they are shameless child murderers which renders them unfit to practice or (b) they are innocent parents of a murdered child and so devastated and irreparably damaged by this they are unfit to practice. I don't think I can express my feelings on this and remain printable, but suffice to say it goes beyond 'hard cow'.
Yes, the Sunday Express running with this made my irony-o-meter explode, but please don't portray Butler as the victim here as she's a nasty vicious loon who deserves to be called out.
August 23rd, 2009 - 17:31
Surely everyone should be treated fairly by the press? I don't think the McCanns should be struck off and I don't endorse that viewpoint. I don't think they murdered their child, but then again the evidence the child was abducted is as scant as that suggesting she was killed. The truth is, we don't know. I just don't think people should be called 'sickos' and 'stalkers' unless they really are. And particularly because while the McCanns have expensive lawyers to defend their good name, this person does not.