PROD 13: The Sun Journalist and the sighting in India

http://mccannnotaccusingjustasking.blogspot.com/2011/09/sun-journalist-sighting-in-india.html


The Sun Journalist & The Sighting In India



Last Thursday evening I received an email from Antonella Lazzeri of The Sun newspaper, asking me to contact her: in her email she specified comments I had made which were anti-McCann, the e-petition, and a picture I had posted on my website some time ago (since deleted) of a little girl smoking.
I needn't have contacted Ms Lazzeri, but my previous experience with tabloid journalists has taught me that if you don't play their game, they don't always respond fairly.
Ms Lazzeri called me, and it was like being interrogated by the Gestapo. Firstly she tore a strip off me about the picture, which I had acquired from a website which also contained a picture of Madeleine wearing full make-up. My first impression was, what kind of parents allow this to happen to a three-year-old girl. Then I was made aware that it was not Madeleine, and I removed it, adding an apology.
Secondly, Ms Lazzeri criticised my petition, which she claimed was wrong. There had been a sighting in India, she said. I cannot remember whether this was covered by The Sun, but as the above link shows, the Leh Police deny the event. Therefore I stick by my own opinion, of which absolutely no one may argue. One party says that the sighting took place, the other that it did not. One of them is not telling the truth, and I am not saying which one because I do not know.
Next, Ms Lazzeri criticised my own criticism of the Find Madeleine Fund. The McCanns, she said, were using the money donated to the Fund, even though an expensive police review is taking place.
Regarding the "If I Get 1 Million Likes" Facebook page, Ms Lazzeri told me that this was none of my business. I beg to differ. The Sun boasts that they had this page shut down. In fact, I reported the matter to the CEOP (case ref: 22482 RA), after the Official Find Madeleine people threatened to take action against me for reporting on this blog that their address and telephone number were linked to the page. Obviously, whoever created the page was responsible for this--yet The Sun appeared to know nothing about this link until I sent them a screenshot, which they conveniently published in their "trolling" article on Saturday.
This article, penned by Brian Flynn and Gary O'Shea, managed to get their facts very wrong about me. To call me a "blogger" is pretty much like me calling them articulate journalists. The piece contained all the usual tabloid trademark phrases: sick, vile, disgusting, shameless, etc. I'm very surprised they didn't manage to squeeze the feature about Gary Glitter on the same page. Neither have I "targeted the McCanns with posts wrongly accusing them of being involved in Maddie's abduction." First of all, you cannot wrongly accuse someone of something when no one knows what actually happened. Secondly, I never accused the McCanns of such a crime--it was one of their supporters, Chicane of JATYK2, who accused ME. And yes, I do have a contact at Scotland Yard. The Sun knows about this, as do the CEOP and Associated Press.
On Saturday, after reading this erroneous statement, I wrote to Ms Lazzeri, whose response was: should I print anything about her that is libellous, she will instruct the paper's lawyers to deal with it, also anything which she constitutes as harassment.
I have no intention of doing so (my Morrissey-style reference to some kind of Jayne Mansfield motorway scenario being not a libelous statement, but a heartfelt wish). I do find it rather hypocritical, though, that in the past Ms Lazzeri has not always been supportive of the McCanns (see Spudgun's Spoutings and other sources)--also, that newspapers such as The Sun do not always behave in what I would call a gentlemanly manner while acquiring their scoops. Mike Tindall being the latest example. Also, I fail to comprehend why, with this current trend of "exposing trolls", The Sun names and shames only the trolls, yet ignores the even more vicious attacks on anyone who dares to question the McCann case--these people post personal details on their forums, and even death-threats, but their actions are promptly ignored. Why?
When you consider how many of our celebrities' lives have been trashed and ruined by their intrusive methods of investigation (and here I am NOT referring to Ms Lazzeri), some of the so-called red-tops do not have a very nice reputation. The News of the World was zapped, and it would be nice to see The Sun taking the same highway. Also, what I found profoundly alarming was the tabloid journalist who told me, when I asked what would happen should the McCanns ever be arrested (again, I am NOT accusing): "We simply would not publish the story."
It makes me wonder what kind of a society we are living in.