So how many 'sightings' have gone unreported because of Tony Bennett

One of the accusations the McCanns have made against Tony Bennett is that he has caused people not to look for Madeleine.

Well, let's take a statistical view of that, and I assure you that you don't need to be a statistician to see what I am getting at.

How many people in the world do you think are ready or have been ready to report a possible sighting of Madeleine?

I'm going to make a guess that it's in the low hundreds of millions.

Now, how many people in the world actually have reported a possible sighting?

I'm pretty sure that figure is in the low hundreds.

So, to cause even one possible sighting that would have been reported but wasn't because the person no longer believed that Madeleine was alive, I think Tony would have to be responsible for changing about a million people's minds (give or take a few hundred thousand either way).

I know this kind of guess could be refined a lot more but does anyone think that the general argument is so unsound that it needs refining?

Or another question.

Given the couple's failure or refusal to follow up any of the initial sightings in Holland, Belgium and so on, and their insistence instead of jetting off to Rome for a photo shoot -
AND
Having seen Gerry's reaction and response to the question about possible sightings -
AND
Given their squandering of multiple tens of thousands of donated cash on M3, and then on Halligen, and then on Edgar, who have all patently produced nothing except a flourish of "sightings" in Morocco -
AND
Given that The Sun, (and the Olive Press, its only True Disciple) keep producing "sightings" which are so patently made up, invented, fabricated, and ludicrous (good word, ludicrous !)
AND
given the, shall we say, "confusion" over whether Madeleine did or did not have a coloboma, and whether the parents had made much or little of this,and the paucity of proper photographs, even from the start,
AND
given the 17 possible photo fits ranging from a man with no face in PdL, to a Victoria Beckham lookalike in Barcelona
- - - -
How many people would even imagine she could be found, and was therefore worthy of wasting their holiday time looking anyway.

What is astonishing is that some people still do report "sightings'. And are clearly therefore still looking !
With the emphasis on STILL looking. Unlike KM who on her own public admission never even started.

@ Statsman
I "love" statistics. Always said: "give me any number of figures and I'll picture whatever results you want. And made beautiful graphics too ;-)

No offense, though. You're right. Nobody, really nobody stopped looking for Madeleine, because of someone they'd never heard of. Ask about Tony Bennett. They'll say, if it rings a bell at all, it's the American crooner, who died recently.

@PeterMac
One of the most cringing moments in this long and sad saga, was when the pair was interviewed on telly and when asked couldn't remember one single sighting that made them jump and react ... Not one.

Chatelaine: you're thinking of Andy Williams. Both Tony Bennetts are alive!

PeterMac: [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Jean wrote:Chatelaine: you're thinking of Andy Williams. Both Tony Bennetts are alive!
[...]

***
Thank you, jean. It's so difficult to tell the difference between crooners. Is Pat Boone still amongst us ...?

Yes he is, still going strong at 78.

Andy Williams was someone I used to swoon over many years ago so I could always distinguish him from other singers.

Jean wrote:Yes he is, still going strong at 78.

Andy Williams was someone I used to swoon over many years ago so I could always distinguish him from other singers.

***
:-)

PeterMac wrote:Or another question.

Given the couple's failure or refusal to follow up any of the initial sightings in Holland, Belgium and so on, and their insistence instead of jetting off to Rome for a photo shoot -
AND
Having seen Gerry's reaction and response to the question about possible sightings -
AND
Given their squandering of multiple tens of thousands of donated cash on M3, and then on Halligen, and then on Edgar, who have all patently produced nothing except a flourish of "sightings" in Morocco -
AND
Given that The Sun, (and the Olive Press, its only True Disciple) keep producing "sightings" which are so patently made up, invented, fabricated, and ludicrous (good word, ludicrous !)
AND
given the, shall we say, "confusion" over whether Madeleine did or did not have a coloboma, and whether the parents had made much or little of this,and the paucity of proper photographs, even from the start,
AND
given the 17 possible photo fits ranging from a man with no face in PdL, to a Victoria Beckham lookalike in Barcelona
- - - -
How many people would even imagine she could be found, and was therefore worthy of wasting their holiday time looking anyway.

What is astonishing is that some people still do report "sightings'. And are clearly therefore still looking !
With the emphasis on STILL looking. Unlike KM who on her own public admission never even started.

Also given the patent lack of interest of the McCanns when sightings such as in India were widely reported. Madeleine's two unique 'markers' the eye and the scar on her leg were not mentioned, TM were slow to react and the photograph faxed to them was never published.

Most sightings that have been reported lately date back to 2007 - one accusing a German citizen of kidnapping Maddie. The police followed it up, as all the others they followed up it came to nothing.

Why are the McCanns on record stating that she could be dead? Why do they at the same time insist that there is no evidence that she has come to any harm? Certainly since the abduction by a paedophile or paedophile gang 'theory' came from the parents as from the moment she was 'taken'.

PeterMac says:

Having seen Gerry's reaction and response to the question about possible sightings -

What makes this even odder is this statement from the Guardian about the sighting that Kate McCann eventually came out with in the interview.

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesman, said the couple had not been made aware of the details of the reported Dutch sighting, nor been told what action, if any, the Portuguese police took. "It is a disgrace that we have been kept in the dark about the details of this sighting, and perhaps many other sightings, for the last 15 months,"

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Here is the link to the interview in question. it's the second video down the page and It's well worth watching.

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„De politie nam het serieus, is geweest, heeft de beelden bekeken en de kassarol. Maar de beelden waren niet meer bruikbaar. De opnameapparatuur wist het automatisch na enkele dagen. Ik deed de melding ook pas enkele dagen nadat ze was geweest. Het nieuws van de ontvoering had Nederland toen pas bereikt en ik realiseerde dus ook toen pas dat het Maddie kon wezen”, zegt Anna Stam tegen deze krant.

Loosely translated, 'the police took it seriously, had a look at the CCTV images and the till receipts. But the images were no longer of any use as the CCTV deletes images automatically after a few days.
I only alerted the police several days after her visit. The news of the abduction hadn't reached the Netherlands at that time and I didn't realise until then that it could be Maddie. unquote.

On the 8th of August 2008 Anna Stam was flown to London to meet up with the McCanns. The Mirror paid for the trip.

The description of the girl - looked like Maddie except with dark hair - and the conversation she allegedly had with her, a very articulate 4 year old imo - seems highly suspicious to me. She is ticking all the boxes, 'that is not my Mummy that is a stranger - took me from my holiday - etc. '

Attention seeker imo, for a start the news of Maddie's disappearance was in NL and on TV easily by the 4th - I cannot find the exact date on which she went to the police, but it will be in the PJ files. The reason the sighting was recorded is because it was in the PJ files! Passed on to them by the Amsterdam police no doubt.

Anna Stam is also said to have made a drawing of some of the 'unpleasant' looking people who were with the girl.

Question is: if Stam spoke to the McCanns, didn't she give them her drawings? Why didn't the McCanns then get in touch with the Amsterdam Police, or one of their detectives, to follow this up? All we get is a complaint that nothing was done. Which as we can see, was not the case.
The parents told Stam they ran a small circus. So how hard can that be to follow up even 16 (not 18) months later?

Well, I think this shows that, if we didn't know it before, Clarence Mitchell is an outright liar.

What a profession, to be actually recompensed to lie on someone else's behalf.

I wonder who else could be put in that camp ...