h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't want to start a huge debate, argument or flame war

But how come that thread was hidden/modded/yikesed?

In what way was that something that broke the house rules?

I'm guessing for the same reason that a group on another website I post on which asked "Why all the attention for [said elephant]?" was regularly filled with abuse for us "evil cold harted ppl who obviusly side wit teh pedofiles [sic]".

You can't have a sensible conversation about media martyrs!

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I like the portable Tapas bar idea, az. Would the jamón hang from the umbrella?

Isn't this simply a case of one particular media (medium?) limiting it's liability? *I saw on a BBC site...*? Perhaps that plus the equivalent of it's *before the courts* kind of thing.

FUI- P, I referrenced az for your idea simply because I've been to more Tapas bars with her and Noggin than with you.

and apparently I type *U* instead of *Y* when I type too fast.

No worries!

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Oh sorry, that was you Psycorp, that I was agreeing with, not Sho. Though I'm sure Sho and I pretty much agree too.

And zoomer, please take that jamon on wheels outta here - most distracting!

az

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I didn't say that they were liars, thanks for clearing that up az.

To be honest I find it painful in the extreme and have only read the bearest details, right at the beginning of this.

Now I just change channels, turn the page or hit the back button.

The interesting things for me here are:

1) the lack of comment about leaving the kids alone

b) the fact that they can afford not to go back to work, somehow, and haven't lost their jobs (if it had been me, I would have been replaced about a week after my holiday had been used up)

iii) that this is still huge international news (covered again in our Sunday free-sheet this week) while other, possibly worse, things go on unremarked

Distances and times may change from interview to interview - the mother might claim first it was 200 yards, then the father 100 yards because he doesn't perceive distances the same way (and anyway they might not have a very clear head after their daughter vanished ), then after measuring it turns out it was 70 yards, then some reporter decides to write 150 yards because he heard both testimonies but not the result of measurements and decides to put a mean value. Or the parents mentioned 'no more than 150 or 200 yards' and one reporter wrote 150, the other 200. Or....

What I'm pointing at is, it's quite hard to judge knowing only news reports (or, in my case, hootoo postings ), all the more since these people being just people, might make contradictory statements bona fide because of pressure, grief, etc.

oh and I think we could take this discussion to the other thread? I don't know about anyone else but having two covering the same ground is confusing me.

I only started this because the moderation of the first thread happened while I was posting, and it completely confused me.

Someone should refer to this thread the next time you lot get all hot under the collar about how "judgemental" the media are. Funny how the this incident has made so many people find their inner Daily Mail.

FFIW, I think the parents have expertly manipulated the media to their own purposes but that of finding their daughter - not to make money or bathe in publicity (unless anyone's got any evidence to the contrary).

And, yes, I think they were irresponsible but the stories making out that they left their kids alone and then vanished for a few hours miles away without checking on them that some people are insinuating or that they are "liars" or should have their kids taken away from them are fairly depressing.

It's fine to criticise the usual gutless way the media are following this story (refusing to acknowledge obvious flaws in parenting etc) but the sheer nastiness its brought-out in some people leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

c'mon
nobody has suggested here that they have their other kids taken away, nor that they were a few miles away. (in fact the furthest they have ever been claimed to have been away is 200m)

All anyone is saying is that it is strange when a white, (upper)middle-class family are given shedloads of sympathy.

And others wouldn't be extended that courtesy.

And, FWIW, once again I say: i feel desperately sorry that they are in this position for one stupid error of judgement.

"c'mon
nobody has suggested here that they have their other kids taken away, nor that they were a few miles away. (in fact the furthest they have ever been claimed to have been away is 200m)"

No, but I've heard these things either said or insinuated and not necessarily here. There does seem to be a large number of people who seem to think the McCann's "had it coming" if not outright deserved it. I'm not necessarily talking about people on here but some of these attitudes I've noticed elsewhere are cropping up here. What really bothers me is the underlying nastiness and the fact that it's coming from people (in the main) who like to pretend they're above all that and tut at it when they see it in the tabloids being aimed at asylum-seekers and the like.

"All anyone is saying is that it is strange when a white, (upper)middle-class family are given shedloads of sympathy."

Is it strange? I think it's extremely ordinary. Unfair, yes, but very much how these things usually turn out.

"And others wouldn't be extended that courtesy."

Maybe they would and maybe they wouldn't.

"And, FWIW, once again I say: i feel desperately sorry that they are in this position for one stupid error of judgement."

Good. I wish more people were so level-headed about this.

>>then some reporter decides to write 150 yards because he heard both testimonies but not the result of measurements and decides to put a mean value. <<


Toy Box certainly has a point here. My sister was once interviewed for a newspaper and she was horrified to read in that said newspaper what she was quoted to have said. We really should know better than to believe everything the media writes.

Note that the moderation has now been lifted.

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I was not abusive at all to the parents. Factually, honest, yes.

The one thing I did say that when the mother said the butterfly that landed on her 5mins before she met the Pope was a sign from God. The only sign I would want from God would be a huge arrow pointing to where my daughter was.