When Madeleine Mccann disappeared,
in 2007, I had been watching Sky News for a couple of years, in cable TV. I
remember to see Mr.
Martin Brunt reporting about crime – the Soham murders, for example
– and I had the best impression of him, as a professional.
I also was
amazed with the fact that British journalists, one week after landing in Algarve
“Sky sources' are a bit thin on the ground here in the
Algarve. There's no sidling up to a friendly cop for a quick natter
away from the cameras. No slipping off for a cappuccino and an off-the-record
chat...or 'guidance' as we call it. So I really don't know if
the police have any real idea what happened to Madeleine McCann. I
suspect they don't."
But I was quite surprised with the performance of Mr. Martin Brunt, reporting about
Madeleine McCann disappearance in Portugal
Martin
Brunt, version nº 1 (June 17, 2007)
"One paper seems to have good
contacts. The rest of the stuff (news
published by Portuguese Press) is best described as 'culhoes (‘balls”, in
Portuguese)”
Martin
Brunt, version nº 2: (Seprember 15, 2007)
"W've learned to look at what's in the local papers with a little bit
more of respect... Remember, for many weeks, we ignored it, we thought it
was wild speculation, but as time went on, particularly the events of last
weekend, we began to realize that what the local Media were doing was pretty accurately reflecting the tone
and the speed and the direction of the investigation and suddenly we had the McCann’s
named as suspects, so a lot of what the
papers have been writing, as I said, was
a pretty clear and accurate reflection of what police was thinking..." So,
as the Americans use to say, when they are campaigning for election: 'Would you
buy a car from this man?”
First thing I thought was that Mr.
Brunt, a British man used to the misty, cold and always clouded sky, in UK, had
exposed himself to the Portuguese strong sun for too long. Second thing, I
admitted that may be he had not too much sun in his head, but too much beer in his
brain.
But neither of these problems
could last for months, or years. Now, I believe that Mr. Brunt, like many other
British journalists, suffers from a trauma: the Maddie’s Trauma. Whenever they
heard her name, they jump into some kind of 5th dimension,
completely detached from the real world.
(*) This is one the most obscene
words in Portuguese language, used to mention "testicles". The right
spelling is "colhões"...
