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The 'marketing' of the Madeleine McCann tragedy is at last starting to case up, but it has been a remarkable case study of media mobilisation.
The decision by the McCanns to wind down the campaign after a trip to Morocco, and spend some time grieving in private, is the right one. And after more than five weeks of sustained media activity, it is a blessed relief. The stories were getting terribly thin and strained, and the danger of attracting nutters and criminals was increasing.
Last week, things reached a new low when The Times led a page with fearless investigative journalism proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that two Portuguese policemen had had a two-hour lunch and appeared to be enjoying themselves.
More seriously, there was also a call from a mobile phone, registered in Argentina, by someone who claimed to know Madeleine's whereabouts. But hedidn't get back in touch and tin? taller is much more likely to have been a petty criminal sniffing the reward.
So it was definitly time to leg go.
The events of the past five weeks have, however, demonstrated how a small number of people can get a piece of information...