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McCanns lose public vote of no confidence

By John Hirst

McCanns lose public vote of no confidence

The McCannsfiles website is reporting that the McCanns are suing the former director and a journalist of the extinct weekly Portuguese newspaper "Tal&Qual" (T&Q) for defamation. "Kate and Gerry McCann believe that the publication of the headline "PJ believes that the parents killed Maddie" put public opinion, world-wide, against them".

However, the Tal&Qual article appeared on 24 August 2007 and 15 days later the PJ made both the McCanns suspects in the disappearance of Madeleine. The report in T&Q was in quotes and referred to what the PJ believed as opposed to what the journalist and director believed. In my view, providing that the story is reliably sourced, then there is no defamation of the McCanns character.

Furthermore, Associated Press reported this story on 18 May 2007 and at the same time this poll was conducted under the heading related content. As you can see from the result below, 3 months before the T&Q story was published, public opinion worldwide was already against the McCanns. Therefore, the T&Q story cannot be responsible for turning public opinion against the McCanns.

Live Vote
Is it acceptable that Madeleine McCann and her siblings were left alone? * 7437 responses
No, no matter how safe her parents assumed the community to be, three children that young should not be left unattended.
92%
Yes, her parents say they checked in on the kids every half hour. Critics may be coming from a different cultural perspective on child rearing.
8%

I would say that it was the McCanns own conduct of child neglect which turned public opinion worldwide against them. Perhaps, it is time that the McCanns had a reality check? Freedom of speech is too strong to disappear just like Madeleine. We will not be silenced just because we do not agree with the version of events as described by the McCanns. The available evidence does not support the McCanns, and neither does the majority of public opinion.

Clarence Mitchell is paid to sell the McCanns story. We choose not to buy it.

UPDATE: It may well be that T&Q is not the real target. It could be a McCann tactic to discover who in the PJ leaked the information to T&Q.

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).