Now, Mr and Mrs McCann, start suing bloggers!

On the whole, but with certain exceptions, I rather like the blogging fraternity but what always irritates me is their naive assumption that some how they are not part of the real world.  Thus, many of them have it in their thick but empty heads that they are immune, or above, the laws of libel, and if they're not, they jolly well should be because, er, like, blogging's really, really important, innit?  Well, no, it's not, actually.

Tonight two major newspapers have printed large front-page apologies to the McCanns for stories they wrote implying that they, the McCanns, were responsible for their daughter's death and for hiding her body.  Their lawyers obviously spelled out the grisly truth that any attempt to defend this action in a court would result in crippling financial damages, so they have simply surrendered, paid a hefty amount to the Madeleine fund and been forced to print their apologies in big type on their front pages.  Others may have to follow suit. 

Now I hope the McCanns will take on some of the filthy blog sites that far from implying their guilt, made, and constantly repeated, direct accusations to that end.  I hope their lawyers will now turn their sights in the direction of 'Blogdom' and rip into these disgusting, vicious bloggers whose ignorance is only exceeded by their stupidity.  They need look no further than a certain murderer whose release from jail was an insult to the memory of the elderly lady whose head he bashed in with an axe and who then joked about her having a headache.  I refuse to link to him but I will certainly be more than happy to provide details to the McCann's lawyers, along with the names of certain other sites, if they ever contact me.  In fact, thinking about it, I might well contact them!

Comments

[JuliaM]

"Now I hope the McCanns will take on some of the filthy blog sites that far from implying their guilt, made, and constantly repeated, direct accusations to that end."

I very much doubt it. Mr Desmond's empire has deep, deep pockets. Joe Average Blogger very much less so.

[David Duff]

Yes, you're right, Julia, but IPSs are a soft target through which litigants can reach bloggers. No money in it but one solicitor's letter is usually enough for the IPS to close down a blog.

[Clairwil]

I hope they're not aware of a certain axe murderer's remarks. Not for his sake but theirs. That really would be pissing all over insult to injury then doing a jig.

That said if they are, let them sue not for the money but for the moral victory.

Failing that could the rest of us not sue him for lost lunches, emotional distress and unwanted pro-death penalty opinions creeping into ones head?

[David Duff]

"unwanted pro-death penalty opinions creeping into ones head"

Don't fight it!

[Elmer Quigley Gooseburger]

Duff, you amateur apologist.

While those two grotesques, masquerading as "caring parents" and "medical professionals" might have successfully cowed Express Newspapers into throwing some money at them, it is quite clear (albeit for reason(s) that cannot currently be determined) that their arses are subject of a cover-up.

After all, it's not as if there is any lack of substantial evidence against one or both of them, hmmmm?

Please feel free to forward my details to Gerry too, you unmitigated sneak...

EQG (a filthy blogger)

[David Duff]

Having just got up and stumbled up here to the top of Duff Towers and read your belch above, Mr. Gooseburger, I yawned and was about to delete the whole smelly thing when I thought, no, let it stand as a monument to your ignorance, envy, cruelty and less than half-witted stupidity.

To describe Mr and Mrs McCann as "grotesques" says more about *you*, Mr Gooseburger, than anything else you could tell us. The McCanns, whose lives have been opened to inspection by the media, are of above average intelligence, successful medical professionals, moderately well-off, happily married and respectable in the very best sense of that word. The malicious envy that dribbles out of you, Mr Gooseburger, like the snot out of a coke-sniffing druggie, provides me with a hint that *your* life does not stand comparison.

Your description of Express newspapers being "cowed" indicates another aspect of your ignorance. You obviously do not know any very wealthy men like Mr Desmond the owner of the Express Group. I don't know him either, but I have been aquainted with rich men and they all have one outstanding characteristic; whilst personally they can often be generous, when it come to business they will go to any lengths to protect their interests. My *guess* is that Mr Desmond is not a particularly nice man because not only is he hugely rich but he made, and continues to make, most of his money as a pornographer. Such a man is never going to be "cowed" by anyone. The only reason he parted with half a million plus paying for everyone's legal costs (another half million?) is because his lawyers told him that if he went to court it would cost him *several* million!

Then we come to your link to Martin Brunt's report for Sky News. It has since transpired that all that excitement over so-called DNA links in the second car emmanated from hints and whispers from the local police whose chief has been removed from the job and who faces charges for misbehaviour in a different but similar case. Mr Gooseburger, you make it embarrassingly obvious that you are not a thoughtful or reflective man but have you not wondered why, if there was indeed a *full DNA match* found in the second car, the police and indeed the papers have not been in full hue and cry over it instead of the silence that has reigned since the initial excitement last summer? Obviously you have not wondered, so let me help you, it's because there never was a full match and such traces as were found came off the parents and the siblings and perhaps some of Maddie's clothes and toys *after* her disappearance.

Again, Mr Gooseburger, you display yet another area of woeful ignorance (how *do* you get dressed in the morning?), this time in basic biology. You see, Mr Gooseburger, when people die they begin to decompose and the smell, particularly in a hot country, would stop traffic at a hundred paces! You are suggesting that Maddie's body, smelling with the sort of pungent odour that would have grown men gagging, was hidden and then moved 5 weeks later! Moreover, you are suggesting that this was done not by one parent which might be conceivable given the vagaries of human nature, but by *two* conspiring parents - both the father and the *mother* of the child - who were at all times in the full glare of publicity and who yet managed all this without giving the slightest hint of emotion.

Finally, Mr Gooseburger (how old are you, by the way?), in your pig-like ignorance and stupidity, you trample down without a thought (well, how could it be otherwise?) one of the most cherished rights we all possess - to be presumed innocent *until* proven guilty. Like the retarded oaf that you are, you grunt and mumble that the McCanns killed their kid because, well, like, it's obvious, innit. Well, no, Mr Gooseburger, it is not at all obvious, and even if it was, I would still give them the benefit of the doubt until a jury decides otherwise.

Now, why don't you go off and play with your friend, the axe murderer - you deserve each other!

[Tatyana]

*leaking the pencil*: oaf...pig-like stupidity...dribbling malicious envy...

if for nothing else, I'll come back here time and again for English lessons.

Saw a documentary on McCanns and the whole sorry business about 2 months ago; was particularly wounded by the locale of the events. In my memory Portugal (and Algarve in particular) is the place closest to earthy paradise... I'm embarrassed for the locals.

[David Duff]

Thank you, Tatyana, and please feel free to ask if any of my somewhat baroque English expressions confuse you.

As for the McCanns, they undoubtedly made a mistake leaving the children alone even if they were within sight of the appartment but, God almighty, have they paid for it, in fact, they will never stop paying. As you say, the Algarve is a lovely, sunny, peaceful haven, they were on holiday, and they were lulled into a false sense of security. There but for the grace of God ...!

[Tatyana]

And thank you for not noticing my glaring spelling mistakes ("leaking" for "licking"? how does she manages to survive?)

I remember when watching the documentary and the footage of the local police interviewing and arresting, then releasing, then arresting again (if the memory serves me) the parents, I thought of the similar visuals of the local police on Aruba, anxious to do something, anything, to produce some impression of activity - just to get rid of those foreigners who demand justice. And it's always easier to blame the victims - they are helpless with grief, they are weak (otherwise they wouldn't be a victim of the crime, isn't it?). Whereas if we start doing any actual work, you know - investigating - we might stumble across some inconvenient truth - local power figure, a wealthy relative, or simply a career criminal who might hurt us... Who knows what might happen.

[David Duff]

Well, the problem is that policemen, like most of us, are creatures of habit. Experience, real-life experience, tells them that in a 'domestic' crime always look very hard at the immediate family. I admit that when this case first hit the headlines I immediately thought that the parents need to be checked, particularly the father because mostly it is fathers who kill children. But as things developed, the impossibilities of the parents acting in concert grew and the lack of any forensic evidence, especially a body, simply provided no support for such a theory. I think now it will only be the discovery of a body (an unlikely outcome) that will move this case any further forward.

[Clairwil]

'Well, the problem is that policemen, like most of us, are creatures of habit. Experience, real-life experience, tells them that in a 'domestic' crime always look very hard at the immediate family.'

I've never had a problem with the police investigating the McCann's as far as I'm aware that would be pretty routine if distressing for the the family.

It's the amateur detectives with no more access to the facts than we have pronouncing them guilty without trial.

What's ironic is that so much of it is driven by class hatred when Gerry McCann is of Glaswegian working class stock. The son of a joiner and a factory worker. The youngest of five children. State school educated at a school that I used to think only existed to give the folk at my school somewhere to look down on. Whatever perks he's got out of being middle class he's earned.

[Tatyana]

Clairwil - even if he didn't earn his money or position, even if he and his wife were unpleasant snobbish er (DD, insert an appropriate excellent British slur here, please!]the detectives and public opinion should not form opinion of their guilt (or the lack of it) on a whim, w/o hard evidence. Isn't the whole purpose of existence of justice system, removed from street vengeance and prejudice?

[Clairwil]

Tatyana, I quite agree. I just enjoy pointing out these little ironies.

[Elmer Quigley Gooseburger]

Then we come to your link to Martin Brunt's report for Sky News. It has since transpired that all that excitement over so-called DNA links in the second car emmanated from hints and whispers

Tsk. Source, please?