Madeleine McCann - Ode to the British media. Wee, sleek't, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie

My previous posts on the tragedy of Madeleine McCann, have mostly been addressed to the McCanns themselves in the form of "open letters" and questions that would have been asked by the media in any country in the world - except it seems in Britain.

This post however is not addressed to Saint Gerry McCann, full-time CEO of Madeleine McCann Enterprises and part-time father, but to the British media.

Any reference to Britain, the British, England or the English, refers solely to the media - not the people. After all, I was born in Britain and educated in a British Establishment school and worked in the British travel industry.

Some of you in the media may recall Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, the notorious and evil "Moors Murderers". You may have even covered the story, while those who were too young to have done so, couldn't possibly be unaware of the horror that unfolded at the trial - a tape recording of one of the victims - a little girl screaming and calling for her mother. A tape so harrowing, that before it was played the judge asked all females to leave the courtroom. The nation's heart broke and Hindley and Brady were rightly vilified by the public and by the media.

Fast forward to 2007. Based on what has been said and based on what is officially being presented as fact, (even though very little if anything, has been confirmed by independent sources) it is more than likely that at some stage another little British girl would have screamed and called for her mother. Madeleine McCann.

Whatever has happened to this little girl, happened - or is still happening - because her parents knowingly put her in a position of danger. On numerous occasions, two well educated people whose careers involve others placing their lives in their hands, deliberately dismissed the danger involved in their selfish actions.

Yet you ignore all this. You wrap the parents in cotton wool, treat them as though they are royalty and even hold them up as examples of fine parenting.

Why? What have they actually done to help the child they betrayed? Have they sold their five-bedroomed house to help finance the search? Have they moved from the comfort of overseas resorts and European cities to go look for their child - even when there are reported sightings?

No. No. No.

They smile and smirk and produce crocodile tears on cue. They belittle, criticise and pass blame. They have showed no grief, no emotion, no torment.

What became of that well publicised, "time off to grieve"? How much bloody time did they spend grieving? because it seems to me that most of the "time-off" period was spent planning St Gerry's next trip for the next stage of the McCann Grand Plan.

Gerry McCann flits here and there like an out of control megalomaniac, organising ridiculous money making schemes that have made the McCanns the laughing stock of the world. I don't care if the world laughs at these two grubs. What I do care about is that interest in the fate of their daughter is waning because of their actions. People groan and say "Oh no, not that again".

Tonight's news in Sydney, (which is normally very good at covering major overseas new stories) allocated about 30 seconds to the reported sightings, and one sentence to the "balloon release". When Holly and Jessica disappeared in Soham, UK, a few years back, the media here provided regular news, updates and newsflashes.

Why the difference in coverage and apparent lack of interest? I can tell you in four words. Gerry and Kate McCann.

You would be hard pressed to find anyone here who would shed one tear for the couple. I know it is sad that Madeleine's plight should "lack interest" because of the actions of these two - but that is the sad reality and sad result of an increasingly insincere awareness campaign.

Yet you in the British media who are in a position to do something, sit there smugly and do nothing. You piously pass judgement on those who dare to say what many people think. Why am I getting literally hundreds of emails thanking me for speaking out, because they themselves are too scared to talk?

In any other country all the contradictions, lies and deliberate misinformation, would have had the press hounding the McCanns - in the same way the Australian media hounded Lindy Chamberlain after her baby Azaria vanished.

Don't any of you in the British media have any guts? Are you all Wee, sleek't, cow'rin, tim'rous beasties, afraid to speak out against the Establishment? What are you waiting for - John Wayne to come and hold your hand?

Is this the new British media spirit? When the going gets tough - say nothing? The British media Bulldog has become the Three Wise Monkeys - hearing nothing, seeing, nothing and saying nothing.

Why are you not questioning what happened? We only have the word of the McCanns as to what happened, and their stories change more often than Paris Hilton's bed mates.

Have you been gagged? Have you been approached by an Establishment lackie with an Oxbridge degree in Boating and Badminton, and been told, "listen chaps, don't be too hard on the McCanns. They are good people, come from good stock. Members of the golf club don't you know. Professional people."

Has some Media guru whose ability gives the impression that the Blue Peter team made him out of a Fairy Liquid bottle and sticky-back plastic, told you to keep your collective mouths and word processors quiet?

When the English rugger team next comes to Sydney, what would you like me to do? Shall I stand up and sing, "Land of Hope and Glory" or would "Land of Shut Up and Say Nothing" be more appropriate?

Listen to the screaming of a little girl, feel her fear - then ask yourself if you can really continue to protect and pamper the very people who put her in that position.

I doubt if anyone in the British media is reading this, and if they are, they are no doubt sitting there with patronising laughs, dismissing these comments as the work of "a semi-literate Colonial who has no knowledge of structure or format - what can he do?"

Well maybe you are right. I just sit down and write. But despite threats and warnings I am doing - and hopefully encouraging others to do - what you don't appear to have the willingness or balls to do.

If you continue to turn a deaf ear to the fear and cries of a little girl, you are betraying yourselves, you are betraying your profession and you are betraying the British public. But it doesn't end there.

You are also betraying the principal of justice for all and you are betraying those who donate to the McCann fund or buy the ever increasing range of merchandise, (now wristbands can be bought on McCanns website and reportedly soon, a CD of the family's favourite songs).

But most importantly, your silence is betraying a little girl already betrayed by those who she loved and trusted.

* Wee, sleek't, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie from a poem by Robbie Burns