Gerry McCann interview at Edinburgh Media Conference August 2007 - BBC

aquila wrote:Opening question from interviewer Nick

'Gerry McCann, why did you want to come here to a conference of television executives?'

GM's reply

'I think the first thing to say Nick is that when I actually agreed to do it we kind of predicted what was going to happen to the degree of coverage and really, the reason I'm here was primarily to tell people that Madeleine is still missing and we're still looking for her and particularly to touch an international audience...what I didn't expect was such an intense coverage of the news story for such a long time.'

Calling Hobs....

Funny how hoped to remind international audience Maddie is missing yet did not like the long period coverage. How does that go hand in hand?

plebgate wrote:As Chatelaine posted - ooops after that interview what happened, they were made suspects.

Poor poor Mr. He contacted the media and then moaned when there was too much coverage. If I had contacted the media about my missing little girl I would want as much coverage as possible every day not just from time to time.

They want media coverage only if the stories are put out by them, period. That was what he meant.

He's not very good at maintaining eye contact when he speaks. The floor must be very interesting to look at!

They both are good at looking away - she looks upwards rolling her eyes at the same time, and he downwards and touching his nose sometimes. What a pair!

From the first question where he lifts his right shoulder before answering is a body language exercise that anyone over a certain age can decipher. Putting all the body language throughout the interview together with the content (or non-content) of what he is saying and observing the rhythm of his speech at certain points makes me believe it doesn't take an expert to know that this is....not normal.

just my opinion of course.

Gerry quotes Alex Woolfall '..... what are your objectives and how is it going to help your search for Madeleine?'

Surely the ONLY objective was to find Madeleine? Therefore that was the objective and optimising the search would have followed the primary motive?

Or did Woolfall know something we don't?


Gerry: ..and ' for people wanting to write things just now because they're in Portugal and there's not very much happening.'

Yes, Gerry, I alway write a lot when nothing's happening and there's nothing to write about, there you have it. Looking like rain just now..

Couldnt bring myself to listen to that interview before, but braved it now...and My God there are plenty little gems in there.
He said something like (not verbatim) " they were not involved, there was no evidence for that, and had they been ....the police would have to make them suspects." Well, he knew that was coming.....
He wanted press to print responsible meaning print only things that come from PJ official spokesperson and nothing else.
He knew damn well the judiciary secrets act prevents the PJ from saying anything yet he shot off his gob anyhow.

Absolutely shocking!

aquila wrote:'what we just want is given the huge saturation particularly in the UK and also Portugal...what we really just want to do...I mean we hope it never gets there but if Madeleine is still missing we just want to remind people from time to time, infrequently now that she is still missing and we're still looking'

"what we really just want to do" - This is his first priority.

"if Madeleine is still missing " - his 2nd priority.

"Remind people from time to time, infrequently" - This is a Future's plan. He knew that Madeleine will be still "missing" in the future. So many of his interviews are all about planning events around how long she will be missing for. It never seemed to dawn on him that Madeleine might be found sometime soon after her "abduction". He knew/knows that she has not been abducted. His only priority is to continue a campaign to raise funds for himself and K. It's very hard to understand why they just didn't "go away" after they were released from their Arguido status. They could have but they didn't. For the 6 years of their daughter's disappearance, they structured a slick campaign, a bombardment of the media, not a reminder "from time to time". Poor Madeleine

Good Post maebee.
Where are his emotions? His little girl is with Paedophiles isnt she? Thats what he told people. His grin shows his heart in that interview.

His pride in himself and his "campaign" shines through, he can't help beaming when he visualises how brilliant he is.

Nothing to do with Madeleine.

He looks seedy in that interview.

Poor little Girl.

Nick: 'Gerry McCann, why did you want to come here to a conference of television executives?'

GM: 'I think the first thing to say Nick is that when I actually agreed to do it we hadn't predicted what was going to happen to the degree of coverage and really, the reason I'm here was primarily to tell people that Madeleine is still missing and we're still looking for her and particularly to touch an international audience...what I didn't expect was such an intense coverage of the news story for such a long time.'

Nick: 'Why do think that is?'

GM: 'I think I, err that there is undoubtedly a huge desire for people to...one want to find Madeleine but to to know what's happening erm...but there clearly is a lot of pressure on people to write things just now because they're in Portugal when there's not very much happening.'

Nick: Do you feel in some ways you've unleashed a monster? in the very early stages you were desperate for publicity and you err, err, courted publicity effectively...now do you feel it's run away from you?

GM: I, I think that's far too simplistic. There was a huge media presence in Praia da Luz on day one before we had really done anything. All we did was to make a conscious decision to interact with the media err and to raise awareness of Madeleine's disappearance and erm I never ever expected and err I don't think it's necessarily beneficial to have constant coverage...er what we just want want is given the huge saturation, particularly in the UK
and also Portugal...what we really just want to do...I mean we hope it
never gets there but if Madeleine is still missing we just want to
remind people from time to time, infrequently now that she is still
missing and we're still looking'.

Nick: 'From the outside it appears that you've been running...candidly,
crudely a very professional campaign with a lot of very experienced
public relations professionals and so on...(Gerry is grinning at this
point) I mean clearly that is accidental but how did that come about?'

GM: 'Well it's not at all, you know we're just err happen to be a fairly ordinary family err some of whom were quite good at err speaking on television. Of course, we had advice at the beginning
from the PR people brought in by Mark Warner, Alex Woolfall who gave us
some excellent advice....you know, what are your objectives and how's
it going to help your search for Madeleine? ...and then due to this
massive media demand on us - not the other way round - not us asking for media
we were advised that we should have a family spokesperson and we asked
the Foreign Office to provide that and they did support us and that was
very, very important to protect us from the media in what has been incredibly difficult emotional circumstances.. and then we, we of course did decide that we needed someone to help advise us err longer term for our campaign and with Madeleine's Fund we decided to appoint a campaign manager...and I have to say appointed someone to plan our strategy sort of medium and long term if it was needed but actually her job has been full-time handling the media. '

Nick: 'Would you like the media then now to go away...what do you want to happen over the coming weeks and months apart obviously from getting Madeleine back?'

GM: 'I think the key thing is that erm what we would ask that the, the story Madeleine's disappearance and investigation is reported responsibly and only newsworthy material being reported. '

Nick: 'So you would like much less coverage.'

GM: 'Absolutely, you know because there has been huge amounts written with no substance.'

Nick: 'How stressful have you found it and has Kate found it?'

GM: 'Madeleine being missing has been incredibly stressful..being under media spotlight erm has added to that and at times, leading up to the 100 days that did reach fever pitch and we felt very much erm badgered and erm unfairly I suppose as well...and err probably something we were prepared for in the first week or two, which didn't actually happen ...to have as it approached the 100 days, we, we weren't prepared for but things have gone back to a degree of normality again and erm some calmness has erm settled in largely as a result of the Portuguese official spokesperson...and that is what I would ask people to look at is what is being said officially, that we are not suspects, that there is no evidence that we're involved in Madeleine's disappearance and if there was that the police would have to declare us as suspects... that's Portuguese law...and compare that to what has been written and covered...the two do not bear comparison'.

aquila, thanks for the transcripts.

If Op. Grange were wise, they should get one member from their team to transcribe all the mccanns interviews, collate them into one big files because they are plenty gold nuggets within.
In fact maybe the TV stations already have the transcripts.
Op Grange should collect them to help build up their case. Every little bit is useful for Court Purposes.