(no subject)
Oh, ITV News, how do I love thee.
"NEW news" about Madeleine McCann, which has so far taken up about a quarter of the program, states that an ex-pat living nearby and a couple of other people have been taken to the police station to give a statement. The police have also been having a look around his house. Please note that he hasn't actually been arrested, despite photographs, physical descriptions, and a potted life history being enthusiastically parrotted out of my shiny telly-box.
Hark! Is that a nod to the lawyers I just heard? "It's important to note that the three people giving statements have not been arrested". Unfortunately that is a solitary sentence which comes limping in behind an interview with the journalist who reported the main target of the headline. The interview ran approximately thus:
There was a vague physical description followed by a rather pointed observation that the man had a problem with one eye. Possibly a twitch or a squint. Well yes. We all know that our criminals have slightly disconcerting or relatively uncommon physical conditions. Just take Silas the albino monk from The Da Vinci Code - as one reviewer noted "having a creepy looking villain saves all that boring character description". But while marking him out as a potential criminal we all know that amblyopia does not a child abductor make and so we ask said journalist for more information.
"But why did you report him?" Something about him felt Wrong, she confided.
"Wrong?" Yes.
Do you know what seemed wrong to this journalist? She who is part of the contingent - nay platoon - of journalists and reporters camped on the abduction site's doorstep writing down all movements of everyone and desperate for that exclusive scoop (whether joyous or macabre) - each champing at the police line in case it moves a nanometre and allows any exclusive rush of new-to-report air... What struck this woman as "wrong" was the man in question's keenness to be involved (mainly by helping translate statements from English to Portuguese).
Excuse me for fearing that reporting this man to the police for being involved carries the aroma of professional jealousy when phrased so. After all, has David Beckham not been making charismatic television appearances telling us all to help where we can?
Then we return to the studio for more pontification and speculation. In a way this man seems to be as good as convicted despite the mandatory sentence or two saying he hasn't actually been accused or charged by the police. Phew, I'd be relieved about that if I were him. I have no idea if he's guilty or not. I mean there's usually a certain amount of Occam's Razor involved in crimes as far as my knowledge of them goes but then it's not up to me to make that judgement. I would also like to think that it's not up to ITV News either but that seems to be more my opinion than theirs.
But anyway, I'm sure we can all take a valuable lesson from all of this:
By all means wear yellow for Madeleine. Share her parents' pain. Send balloons. Pledge money. Just don't offer your fluent English and Portuguese skills to the investigating police if they require help with translations. And invest in corrective cosmetic surgery.
"NEW news" about Madeleine McCann, which has so far taken up about a quarter of the program, states that an ex-pat living nearby and a couple of other people have been taken to the police station to give a statement. The police have also been having a look around his house. Please note that he hasn't actually been arrested, despite photographs, physical descriptions, and a potted life history being enthusiastically parrotted out of my shiny telly-box.
Hark! Is that a nod to the lawyers I just heard? "It's important to note that the three people giving statements have not been arrested". Unfortunately that is a solitary sentence which comes limping in behind an interview with the journalist who reported the main target of the headline. The interview ran approximately thus:
There was a vague physical description followed by a rather pointed observation that the man had a problem with one eye. Possibly a twitch or a squint. Well yes. We all know that our criminals have slightly disconcerting or relatively uncommon physical conditions. Just take Silas the albino monk from The Da Vinci Code - as one reviewer noted "having a creepy looking villain saves all that boring character description". But while marking him out as a potential criminal we all know that amblyopia does not a child abductor make and so we ask said journalist for more information.
"But why did you report him?" Something about him felt Wrong, she confided.
"Wrong?" Yes.
Do you know what seemed wrong to this journalist? She who is part of the contingent - nay platoon - of journalists and reporters camped on the abduction site's doorstep writing down all movements of everyone and desperate for that exclusive scoop (whether joyous or macabre) - each champing at the police line in case it moves a nanometre and allows any exclusive rush of new-to-report air... What struck this woman as "wrong" was the man in question's keenness to be involved (mainly by helping translate statements from English to Portuguese).
Excuse me for fearing that reporting this man to the police for being involved carries the aroma of professional jealousy when phrased so. After all, has David Beckham not been making charismatic television appearances telling us all to help where we can?
Then we return to the studio for more pontification and speculation. In a way this man seems to be as good as convicted despite the mandatory sentence or two saying he hasn't actually been accused or charged by the police. Phew, I'd be relieved about that if I were him. I have no idea if he's guilty or not. I mean there's usually a certain amount of Occam's Razor involved in crimes as far as my knowledge of them goes but then it's not up to me to make that judgement. I would also like to think that it's not up to ITV News either but that seems to be more my opinion than theirs.
But anyway, I'm sure we can all take a valuable lesson from all of this:
By all means wear yellow for Madeleine. Share her parents' pain. Send balloons. Pledge money. Just don't offer your fluent English and Portuguese skills to the investigating police if they require help with translations. And invest in corrective cosmetic surgery.