No mention of Madeleine McCann on the early evening news. Do you think think its right to scale down coverage?

[lyrabelacqua]

Today is the first day I can remember recently with no news at all on the Madeleine McCann investigation. I've also heard that news organisations are looking at scaling back the level of coverage but no-one wants to be first because they might be perceived as heartless. what do you think?

Whether it's right or wrong, if there's nothing to say, it's inevitable.

jajas, it would be a happy ending if she was found, I do appreciate the psychological damage that her abduction would have caused to her, but she is young enough to recover and to live her life, with the counselling/psychotherapy, whatever it takes.

Still hoping against hope that the Portuguese police are working away to solve this and that there "different" approach it proven to work.

Absolutely. You have to stay positive.

Wannabe Madeleine's not more important, the media are being manipulated. Do you think that if you had the money and were in a similar situation(god forbid), you would sit back and go home and cry instead of trying to remain positive and do somethign constructive?

I have to say, I agree that Sky news does report every mindnumbing detail with every story they cover. I can't stand it, it makes me want to chuck things at the telly - so I don't watch it.

expat, they've arrested someone now over that little girl Olivia.
On the Madeleine thing, it's not a simple as saying there's nothing on the news because nothing has happened.
If the media want to keep something in the news they will, whether there have been any new developments or not. If a story is considered newsworthy, they will always find something to say. How many times have you heard the words 'Police are continuing to search for...' or similar, where nothing new has happened but the story is considered worthy of pursuing anyway.
When I started this thread, it just struck me that every night for a month there had been a long report on Madeleine, with live links to reporters in Portugal, then suddenly overnight, nothing.

It is that simple, actually, speaking as someone who's worked first as a press officer (where your job is to 'make news') and then as a journalist. However strong the pressure on the journalists and researchers to come up with something, sooner or later it runs dry. I ran the press office for one of Diana's charities, and just a week of keeping things going was - it was obvious - an enormous strain on the hacks, who kept ringing us again and again with much the same demands.

You can only milk a nothing-happening situation for a certain length of time. It's been milked. Nothing continues to happen. Nothing happened with Ben Needham, and that story died down. It had to. There was no news.

I have to disagree Motherinferior and I speak as a national journalist myself.

How? They've done the 'police are continuing to search for...' reports. They've interviewed anyone remotely relevant. They've covered the McCanns' visits to the Pope, pleas to Brown, and so on. There is no news.

Meanwhile, other things continue to happen around the world which are news. You're saying that a by definition limited amount of news coverage should continue to devote a proportion to this non-story, indefinitely?

There have been the features on how the McCanns are coping; on what they're doing to generate publicity; on 'team McCann'. There is nothing new to say. And it looks, sadly, as if there won't be.

The publicity has achieved its objective, surely, of making us all aware what Madeleine looks like? She was headline news here in Germany, too. Anyone who doesnt know about the story now, probably just doesnt watch the news!

I'm not saying the news coverage should continue indefinitely, I was just making the point that the fact that nothing significant has happened doesn't automatically mean no story gets written.
If a news editor tells a reporter to get a story, the reporter gets the story or faces the wrath of the newsdesk.
I do agree that the story probably has gone as far as it can for now, until something significant happens, like a new lead or suspect.

My dh is a national newspaper journalist and he says there is literally nothing to report. No info, nothing as the police are saying nothing. His paper is, though, doing a good job of trying to run pictures of Madeleine on a daily basis under any pretext.

Same here, Mog. We've got a reporter out in Praia De Luz and she is filing daily copy.

I don't think it is weird to scale down the coverage, if there is nothing to report progress-wise, there is nothing to report.

Just HOW can she have vanished into thin air? Just can't comprehend it. Poor poor them all.

Lyra - are you on a tabloid or a broadsheet. I think tabloids come into their own in this area.

None of the above (which leaves agency, broadcaster etc. can't give too much away )
DP is on a tabloid. What's your dh on?

Btw, I'm not trying to be mysterious, just dont want to be recognisable in case my editor's wife is a mumnetter. I'd never be able to complain about work again!

Dh is on a tabloid - editorial side but like you don't want to give too much away .

Oooh, might be the same one as mine!

I think it's worth remembering that the McCanns are desperate - desperate - to keep the story on the news agenda, and have often made that clear, in numerous statements. Once the story slips off the UK news agenda, it will be very hard to get it back on there, and very difficult to get it onto international news agendae, including in the countries to which Madeleine may have been taken.

There's still a chance that Madeleine is still alive. This is not the same as the mawkishness over Princess Di, who was dead, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. She may still be alive, and keeping this story in the newspapers can only be of help to her. In addition, the running of this story can only IMO help other missing children, including Ben Needham, who is once again being written about. If he's alive, this can only help him.

Any journalist who helps keep the story in the papers is doing a worthwhile job IMO. When I'm in the gym, I always switch to Sky News when the McCann story comes on; and I feel far, far better about Sky News than I ever did before they showed such support for the McCanns.

There are also lots of feature angles I'd like to see pursued - can't understand why they're not being - eg, following up the line about international paedophile rings specifically targetting the Algarve. Which other resorts/countries do they target? Shouldn't we be told? Also, quite frankly, more about how on earth the McCann parents are keeping going. I would be in a state of collapse.

Lyra - get him to drop mumsnet into convo with his colleagues and we'll see .

gorgonzola, i agree that there are lots of people out there still interested in this story who don't want to see it drop off the agenda. i think it will now be a case of reporting if something happens, rather than just for the sake of it.
If shes found, believe me it will be front page headlines for weeks.

Well, I for one hope its not dropped. I want that little lass found - good news or not. Her parents, family, friends, nursery friends etc etc etc etc, want closure on this. I am still praying that she is alive and she will be released. My heart breaks to think what she might have gone through (should they have taken her life), or IS going through.

My mind is awash with emotion for this case. But Im glad to see that it has opened a flood gate to world of Peodo's and child abduction in general. A world I was alien to tbh. Im not sure I did want to know it existed, but it does. And now as a (half!) decent member of society, I hope I can do my bit, how ever little. Even if its lighting a virtual candle, sending money to an appropriate charity for that cause, saying a prayer..... it has to be better than tutting, shaking my head and doing nothing.

Keep bumping ladies, I want to know news, if of course there is any. xx