The McCanns and spin?

Question

Why was the first person that the McCanns engaged to assist them in their "search for Maddie"a Labour party spin doctor.Why did they feel that the emphasis on their own public image was more important than the actual search itself?

Answer 1

I think the idea was to raise publicity for their missing daughter, not their own public image.

Answer 2

Because they are as guilty as h**l!

I can't believe they got away with blatant child abuse!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

The McCanns left their children unattended while they went out drinking with their friends.

Why is this so rarely mentioned?  Perhaps because they have a highly-paid spin doctor to deflect the media away from it.

Why have they McCanns never been questioned or charged with child neglect?  We often hear of parents who do far less than the McCanns being interrogated and more, eg Fiona MacKeown, whose daughter Scarlett Keeling was raped and murdered in Goa.

Answer 4

Why indeed! Not the actions of innocent loving parents. Most parents would be in such turmoil they would be lucky not to be heavily sedated in hospital. Their actions have been only about themselves and how they are best protected. Why do they need all this protection? because they know they are guilty and like any other parent who abandoned their child would be facing a prison sentence. Madeleine was never their main concern but they have had to keep their sick concerned charade up because the truth and reality is being covered up and the higher Powers will make sure it stays that way........

Edit: I agree about the 'tenth' tapas and the name of that person has been well talked of for some time now, hence a massive scale cover up...... Power and money at it's most evil and utterly sickening..

Answer 5

I'm not sure that's fair, I think it was because they were getting major hassle from the Press and he was very used to handling them. Getting someone who is used to the media was a necessity for them, I don't think they used it to give themselves a better public image. Their daughter's missing and they have no idea where she is or if she's even alive, you don't seriously think anything else goes through their heads every day do you?

Edit: What is it with people and the McCanns? When it all kicked off I admit it irritated me because yes they left her on her own and people were ridiculously over-sentimental about the whole issue. But does anyone think they don't regret what happened? Or that other parents haven't done similar things but been lucky? Or that it really constitutes CHILD ABUSE?? Can people who don't like/agree with them not put that to one side and imagine how bad they feel, and understand how hard it must be for them to keep going? I'd like to know how perfect the people are who are making negative comments, and if they've never made a mistake. Some compassion wouldn't go amiss, instead of bile and rumour mongering.

Who were they supposed to get to assist them in the UK? They were being slammed daily in the Press, on TV - everywhere, at a time when they probably felt like h**l. In that situation they needed a media-savvy person to protect them.

Answer 6

Because they knew they had done wrong and it was a money spinner, and since labour is so good at lying they used him.

clairei, if they had answered the portugese police in the first place they would not have had major hassle.

Not straight away they didn't that first interview was met with silence from the mccann camp, That is probably where most of the suspicion came from because the wino's were all getting their stories straight.

Answer 7

Clarence Mitchell was originally sent to Portugal on behalf of the UK Foreign Office to provide temporary consular assistance to the McCanns with handling the media.  After all, they had no previous experience with the media and a media scrum is a quite terrifying thing for anyone unused to that kind of exposure.  

The Foreign Office would have offered similar assistance to anyone in that situation.  The only reason it seems unusual is that theirs was an unusual case.

Answer 8

The only reason why the McCanns needed to clear their image & quickly was that the frenzied media was baselessly turning them into their "Madeleine's murderers". IF the gullible public believed this spin, they could have been charged for murder & arrested & who then would have searched for their Madeleine???

Edit: Agent Zero: They did answer the Portuguese Police's questions...remember the 14hour interrogation late into a night shortly after May 3??

Edit: Finn & Caleb's Mummy: (What lovely names!) If they were unable to answer certain Qs, surely the Police authorities would have found reason enough to charge them? The Qs they couldn't answer were technicalities that they couldn't commit to for fear of being accused of being liars...imagine the grief...in all their panic & shock, they needed to keep their eyes on what exactly happened & at what time...& how people would react to it...instead of focusing on searching for their Madeleine.

Edit: Um...Shambo...tho' all my friends are dears, they don't fawn.

Answer 9

He wasn't the first person they appointed, he replaced Justine McGuinness