AIBU to wonder why the Olympics seem to be more important that a missing 12yr old girl ?

[Fourfingerkitkat]

Ok, so I know team GB are doing great in the Olympics but come on for f**ks sake ITV....we've had about 4 Olympic stories before Tia Sharp has been mentioned ! Am I the only one that thinks a little missing girl is more important than the Olympic bloody games !?

The area is very multicultural, and as someone else has pointed out too, lots of people wearing those tshirts could catch someones eye who does not watch the news, and may not speak english, but would recognise the photograph. I would say any sort of publicity would help. Children dont generally watch the news, but they may see the tshirt and say "oh mum, I saw her on friday, she was in such a place".. anything could be a lead to finding her.

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/09/tia-sharp-police-angered-shannon?newsfeed=true

It was me who mentioned t shirt thing and people not speaking language etc.

Its the shannon mathews case that has stayed in peoples minds,I am not sure we saw T shirts before that... and as the above article suggests - its not something a few people on here have thought....

Now I have thought about it though, and from what you say squeaky about lots of places there to get them done it does appear perfectly obvious and normal.

I've no bloody idea what's going on but wanted to say a few things to respond to a few things:

T shirts: If something like this happened to a friend of mine, and I wanted to do something- anything - then I know I could get this sorted inside a couple of hours. It may not be rational, sensible or likely to do any good, but it would make me feel like I was helping and I'm absolutely certain I would do it. Within half a day.

Link to Shannon Matthews: I think someone in comms in the police is hitting their head against a desk right now. Someone has almost certainly made a massive PR problem for themselves by making the comment that 'shannon matthews police are involved'. As it obviously suggests that a similar situation has happened. Many of the PP's have made that assumption. There are a hundred reasons why they'd have involved these sorts of police teams, most of which do not point towards a similar outcome. Frankly this is a massive media relations fuck up. There is no way a decent press team would have allowed the sort of headlines that got into the press to happen (regardless of whether they think there's a link or not). The last thing they will want to do right now is close off avenues of enquiry or jeopardise future legal proceedings and this sort of headline potentially does both.

News: Will never be prioritised in the way you like. Sorry. And do remember that national news is (allegedly) national news. A story about a girl in the 'Croydon area' is of no interest to people in 80% of the country and 80% of the country would have no choice at all of providing any useful information. Madeleine McCann was a big story firstly because of her age and then because of a massively funded PR drive behind the story. Similar stories have dropped rapidly out of the headlines because they've had not had the same degree of influence behind the story. (Note, this is no criticisim of the McCann's or other families, just a personal observation of the facts).

'no choice at all' should read 'no chance at all'. Apologies.

I would say it is just a more common way now to publicise something quickly. Tshirt printing is a lot quicker and easier due to digital processing than it would have been a few years ago, just like it is normal now for a facebook group to be set up almost immediately too.

I am guessing obviously, but as soon as someone in the family goes missing, everyone thinks of what they can do to get maximum publicity as quickly as possible to get the message out to loads of people who may know something. With facebook and twitter, help can be given almost straight away.

There are hundreds of missing 12 year olds every year, but the olympics only happens once every 4 years

RubyFakeNails - wish there was a "like" button for that last comment of yours !

I agree with everything Ruby said.

Hadn't read the thread in full. Fuck me, some of you are such malicious bitches. I think you should all keep your nosey beaks out, you zero evidentiary support for your claims and seeing as none of you are clearly on the investigating team I doubt its your speciality. Her family are going through what I imagine must be the most horrendous experience of their lives, they are vulnerable and clearly distraught. You're sat here bitching about t-shirts and press interviews, I hope good forbid if anything happens to my children I can stick to the accepted script for you judgmental harpies.

Well said Ruby

Well said Ruby.
Back to the op, the running order of news items is a tough decision but seeing as 2 billion people around the world watched Usain Bolt win the 100m and the huge interest in the Olympics generally I guess the news editors feel there's little choice other than to run the Olympic news first. It is after all a momental, never to be repeated event which has been massively sucessful.
I hope Tia is found soon x

I should also add that I am [shocked] that somebody has posted that they believe there is some sort of contractual deal struck between the Olympic organisers and news programmes. All I can say is where the fuck do some people get their ideas from

I know thebestisyettocome....in that case I probably am being unreasonable...The only thing I could think of when I sat down at 10 last night to watch the news though was "I wonder if they've found that wee girl yet..."

As the MM case showed, even massive amounts of publicity don't really make much difference wrt finding a missing person.
Hope she turns up safe & well.

Sadly the people on here (including me) who were pointing the finger at the family were sadly right. I know people should not asume things but quite often they are right, there was something about this case from the start (the fact they found nothing to show the public on cctv). RIP Tia .

The cadaver dogs were in this morning - I don't know if that has hit the news yet.

It's worse than that, Jumping.

As far as I know, the body that was found has not been confirmed as being the girls.

I know the chances of it being so are high, but still, conspiracies are useless.

And it is the step grandfather they are after, not her mother or grandmother which was suggested on this thread that they wasn't acting right, and questioning the t shirts etc. Leave the detective work to the police.

I think the way the police have handled the whole case will come into question.

Sorry Shullbit but people are always going to guess and judge (thats just the way it is).

I just feel its a bit odd that the house was not the first place they looked? it was the last place she was seen surely thats where you begin your search?

Anyway, my thoughts are with Tia and the other people who this has effected (the people who care for her), i'm sure in the next day or 2 we will know what the police have found and how Tia died.

ahh :-( I hadn't been through the news channels yet.

V sad news :-(

The strange thing is that in this case and the Sharon Matthews case, the victims family goes to the media and makes a splash out of it. I think red flags now come up when family members alert the media to a missing child.

Yabu - I have seen a news update on this poor child every day (including the latest one about a shift to a murder enquiry ) so I am not sure why you are complaining