The Express and the McCanns (cont.)

Thursday's Express leads with - surprise, surprise - Madeleine McCann:

Yes, it's that Express favourite 'fury' again.

The McCanns are in Portugal trying to stop a police chief having an injunction against his book on the case overturned. Their 'fury' is explained by the Express:

Gerry McCann angrily dismissed Portuguese detectives’ claims that his daughter Madeleine is dead as he arrived at court today.

Senior officers involved in the case told a hearing in Lisbon yesterday of their belief that Maddy died in her family’s holiday flat and that her parents faked her abduction.

Hmm. But wasn't that allegation also repeated on the front of a certain newspaper yesterday?


Ah yes. That's the one.

Of course the sub-head does clarify it, slightly, but if the Express really wanted to make that clear, they could have put the whole headline in quote marks and not just one word.

And, the article by Nick Fagge doesn't really begin in a way that makes the claim sound so 'amazing':

Madeleine McCann died in her family’s holiday apartment as the result of a tragic accident and her parents concealed her body, a police chief told a court in Portugal yesterday. Kate and Gerry McCann neglected their children and lied to detectives investigating Madeleine’s disappearance, a senior government lawyer also claimed.

So there is the Express repeating a claim one day, then reporting on the McCanns' 'fury' about that claim the next. It's exactly what they did in 2007 when Madeleine went missing, and means they keep the story running, while pretending such are claims nothing to do with them.

And the Express has been good at changing its mind on this case from one day to the next. Take this front page from 9 October 2007:

And the very next day:

But given the front page apologies on all of Richard Desmond's newspapers (Express, Star and their Sunday editions), plus the substantial pay-outs to the McCanns, Robert Murat and the Tapas Seven you would think they might stop running such stupid, hysterical front pages on this story and be a bit more careful.