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Guilty or Innocent?!

They seem to be implicated in the child's disappearance / murder. From what you have read do you think they are Guilty or Innocent?

To be honest, I really don't know. Either way it's a horrible situation-

- If they've killed her, they deserve everything they get.
- But if they haven't killed her, this seems to be the worst thing the police could put them through!!

From what I've read in some papers, it would appear very suspicous- but I don't like to believe everything I read in the papers.

In all my view is that they are innocent until proven otherwise.

Oh, just to add- that if I were guilty of murder, I doubt I'd bring as much attention to myself as the McCans.

Lizzie wrote:Oh, just to add- that if I were guilty of murder, I doubt I'd bring as much attention to myself as the McCans.

Me neither but maybe that is a really good smoke screen! :D

I agree with Lizzie on this one. It's either the most despicable abuse of the media and the public's generosity since I don't know when (from the McCans) or the Portuguese police are just trying to create a situation that diverts from their total ineptitude.

Either way, someone is acting in a totally deplorable and false manner.

Sadly in all this, the little girl in question seems to be getting completely lost from people's minds.

Innocent until proven guilty.

i think its all quite distasteful: the media blitz, portugese legal system leaks, the suggested parental involvement, the fact we have an internet poll in regard to a small child's life...

Does the poll actually impact on the facts of the matter or only our understanding of them?

Damn, just as I was considering launching a Madaline McAnne poll with several options. This poll's merely asking for an opinion on the parents' involvement, not a plea to her captors to either kill her or let her go.

There's no doubting it's been an absolutely insane time for her parents, and the only good the current media frenzy is doing is keeping the issue in the public consciousness.

People need to be aware about it and need to be talking about it it the pollce and the parents stand any chance of finding her.

In my opinion this is a legitimate news story that's in the public interest. Although I feel deeply sorry for all involved, I do believe it is important that the story is kept in the public eye- and given the fact that the McCanns have employed a 'press secretary', one must assume that this is their view too, and they are also keen to keep the story in the newspapers.

Mike wrote:Does the poll actually impact on the facts of the matter or only our understanding of them?

it makes no difference to anything other than to trivalise a human life down to something as mundame as voting for contestants on the x-factor, and it can't impact on our understanding of the facts because we have no way of knowing what these are - only that the media is trafficing in stories we cannot possibly quantify or confirm.

mr_e wrote:Damn, just as I was considering launching a Madaline McAnne poll with several options. This poll's merely asking for an opinion on the parents' involvement, not a plea to her captors to either kill her or let her go.

yes, its a poll asking if the parents murdered their daughter which is just as disturbing as assuming there are kidknappers waiting to do the same thing. its trivalising madaline's life down to a multiple choice poll which some might say isn't very compasionate to a little girl who's fate remains unknown.

i dont normally have a problem with these things, but for some reason this thread has enflamed my "moral outrage" *shakes fist at effergy of john i keep nailed to the wall* probably because it seems like an ugly extension of the tabloid orgy going on. the media is forever turning the mundame into apocolyse and the tragic into farce, and this isn't far from the same thing.

it's a story that needs to be kept in the public eye [referring to lizzie's message abovei just seen] but where does an internet poll rank in this equation other than as a sideshow?

We're only discussing in a written manner, what people are already talking about. The fact that this is a national 'talking point' has to indicate that it is far from a trivial matter in people's lives.

Fez wrote:it makes no difference to anything other than to trivalise a human life down to something as mundame as voting for contestants on the x-factor

The poll does not trivialise human life, the poll does not do anything of the sort. It is asking if you believe that the parents murdered their baby girl. In fact you could say that the poll itself professes no opinion on the matter at all!

It is good though that you feel strongly about a life and are willing to step out there and give your opinion! :D

Fez, look on the bright side: at least (almost) everyone took the "to be confirmed" option. No judgemental people here.

Personally, my dark sense of humour helps me cope with things like this, as it provides an outlet for certain emotions. Consider it a counterpoint to the empathy I have for her Madaline and her parents, which you unfortunately don't get to see. Humour in the face of everyday brutality, if you will.

How come I get all the stick from you, Fez? And is my effigy inflatable?

Lizzie wrote:We're only discussing in a written manner, what people are already talking about. The fact that this is a national 'talking point' has to indicate that it is far from a trivial matter in people's lives.

i didn't mean talking about it rendered the matter trival but an internet straw poll of opinion did, though that now seems kinda daft as i guess it does neatly summarise things. being ignorant of what facts the portugese police are in possession of i cant judge on the parents...however, i hold little hope madaline is still alive in either case as similar kidnap/murder situations in the past have ended happily. PLEASE PROVE ME WRONG!