McCanned Soup - German Newspaper in Hot Water

“Fury over magazine ‘sick’ ads” – German magazine titanic has lampooned the case, using Madeleine’s image in spoof supermarket adverts. Gerry and Kate McCann call it “sick” and “very hurtful”. The magazine says Madeleine McCann is “getting a bit much for many people”

The Sun, in all it's wonderful, spiel-and-see, trashy values picked up the story of a magazine in Germany that made a few gags about ol' Maddie McCann.

The gag in question was a few mocked up pictures (which you can see a bit in that picture on your left. Yes, that's the one.) of products from a fake company called Find Maddie Corporate. One of the adverts was for a kitchen cleaner and said underneath that it will "remove all traces at the home, even DNA traces." The adverts also said that just because Maddie's face is on the products then you can't just take them for free. Madeline's parents were sickened and The Sun is disgusted. It was so disgusted that it reproduced the images and words fully so the average Joe could be as disgusted as them.

Um...okay...what the hell?

I can understand the German magazine. They were having a laugh with current news - it's called satire for Sun readers who might not be familiar with this term. That's their job and Madeleine McCann is big news. Huge news. Gigantic, supernews! It's sort of sad that it had to be a German newspaper as all they'll get is WW2-abuse and such other things. I mean, you can't just sue every single person or look down on someone as they make a little bit of satire. I'd be in jail for a start! Or executed.

And what exactly gave The Sun the right to actually reproduce the article? It's not any of their damn business if some German satire-lovers are having a laugh at the situation in hand. I don't think they entirely grasp the concept of laughing at the media circus rather than the actual incident. Of course they don't think the fact that the kid got kidnapped (Even if that implies that she is a goat of some description), what they are laughing at is the fact that this one little kid has the media attention of Diana and Paul McCartney put together! It is ridiculous that one child who disappears into the night has all this frenzy around her, like sharks at a drop of blood.

This is not the first time that a child who was abroad has gone missing, nor it will be the last. some reappear, some do not. There are thousands of children who go missing all over the world every day and most never come back, either dead or alive. Think about Darfur, children are regularly abducted to become child soldiers in the rebel army. Think about Eastern Europe were young girls are taken with promises of new lives to become sex slaves in the UK, the US and other Western countries. I, of course, hope that they do find her but they have to gain some perspective in all of this. Why should one little child have so much attention when she disappears but when others do, no-one hears about it?

Even here, two young kids went missing for five days and not a murmur from the national media. Just local. I don't understand that at all. Why are there so many posters around asking for help? I mean, you'll get rewarded with a cool 2.6 million if you even give vague details of where she is. If you were the person who took her, wouldn't you hear that and go "Hey that sounds pretty good money for a kid who isn't even anything special. Hell, lets take the dough and run!" So there is something suspicious about the whole routine. My mother has even gone as far as saying the father has something to do with her disappearance. When I asked why, she just said it was a feeling in her gut.

I know that apparently a paedophile ring marked her out but they must be headed by Dumb and Dumber or The Chuckle Brothers if they still have her. Probably every single person in Western Europe could spot that child a mile away. She'll be the one with bright red ears as they must be burning a hole through reality.

The Sun isn't exactly whiter than white either. They have no responsibility pointing the finger at anyone. Just look at the gibberish they have been printing:

"Murat was reluctant to be filmed." - The Sun, 15th May, Page 4, Paragraph 11

"He told his story and wandered around the scene in front of TV cameras." - The Sun, 15th May, Page 4, Paragraph 14

In the same bloody article they change their minds! How is that possible? Three paragraphs and the story changes!

I'm actually starting to feel really sorry for this Murat guy, not one piece of evidence against him but already he and his personal life is being dragged over the coals. Then you have the politicians who are desperate for some good light wearing yellow ribbons (traditionally used to symbolize the International Suicide Prevention Program and to raise awareness against Testicular Cancer.) as a way of showing their support. Then, even television is not safe. A plotline in the soap opera Eastenders has had to be rewritten as it had a snatched baby in the plot and they feared that it would be too upsetting.

I hope they don't change the name of Dalek Caan just because it sounds like her damn surname.

I think if people want to raise awareness of this topic, then shouldn't they be writing MORE drama and suchlike about child abductions so as we become more aware of how widespread the problem is? But it seems for now most people are content concentrating on cute children who disappear and those on Fleet Street grinning whenever one does so as they can pull out their big roll of "Pervert" synonyms.

I hope that Madeleine is okay and unscathed and is returned home soon and that anyone who likes a good dollop of satire is free to wander the streets without being exiled by Sun readers.