Tabloid press

[Richard]

The Press have been accused of institutional racism, as well as selectively basing coverage on class, gender, age, etcetera, to find victims who they deem deserve attention.
The victims of corporate crime remain mostly invisible. It is still the victims of violent, frequently fatal interpersonal crime that receive the greatest media attention. And even here, research evidence makes abundantly clear that news constructions are highly selective and unrepresentative, tending to focus on particular types of victims suffering particular types of victimisation by particular types of offender .
For class and gender bias witness the case where, In the summer of 2002, two 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, went missing from their home in Soham. Their disappearance attracted international media attention and precipitated the biggest ever manhunt in Britain. In 1996, two boys of similar age, Patrick Warren and David Spencer, went missing from their homes. Their disappearance failed to register much outside the local press.
How might this media selectivity be understood? The answer lies, at least partly, in dominant conceptions of legitimate and ideal victims. Holly and Jessica were archetypal ‘ideal victims’. They were young, bright, photogenic girls from stable and loving middle-class family backgrounds, and each had an exemplary school record. David and Patrick were working-class, they were boys, and they had been brought up on a rough West-Midlands council estate. They had been in trouble at school and one of them, David, had been caught shoplifting. While Holly and Jessica captured the hearts and minds of a nation, Patrick and David did not attract the same media or public interest, and few ever knew about their disappearance.
The then Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, Sir Ian Blair questioned the massive interest in the Press over the Soham murders, saying there are dreadful crimes which do not become the greatest story in Britain. Soham did for that August [2002] period become the greatest story.
Blair was subsequently castigated across a succession of front pages for daring to question the newsworthiness of ideal victims Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. The following morning he made an unreserved ‘on air’ apology on BBC Radio 4 for any offence his comments might have caused the murdered girls’ families.
The Soham intervention was the tipping point in a relentless trial by media that coalesced with a hostile political environment to make the position of the Commissioner –considered too liberal by the UK conservative press and the newly elected Conservative Mayor of London –untenable.
In 2011, Sir Ian Blair became the first Metropolitan Police Commissioner to resign before the end of his term since Sir Charles Warren in 1888 –also in the midst of trial by media –who stepped down for failing to catch Jack the Ripper.
Calling the press ‘institutionally racist’ over the previous Stephen Lawrence killing was an irritation for journalists, and outraged editors, who quickly rebutted the claim with the publication picturing the alleged killers of Stephen Lawrence beneath the headline ‘Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing. if we are wrong, let them sue us.

Sir Ian Blair’s successor, Sir Paul Stephenson, became the second Met Commissioner since 1888 to resign before term, as a result of the phone hacking scandal of 2011.
The phone hacking story broke in 2007 with revelations that journalists at the Sunday tabloid News of the World had worked with private investigators to hack the phones of the royal family, politicians and celebrities.
The story became a full-blown scandal when the Guardian reported that journalists’ hacking activities had extended to ordinary members of the public, and crime victims –including victims of the 7 July 2005 London Bombings and ‘ideal victim’ Milly Dowler.
It was alleged that journalists had hacked Milly Dowler’s phone in 2002, before her body was found, eavesdropped on voicemail messages left by her family and deleted messages from her phone. Deleting messages created space for new ones, giving the family –who never stopped calling –false hope that Milly was still alive, and hampering the police investigation by destroying potential evidence.
Public outcry and the legal repercussions of the phone hacking scandal were so damaging that in 2011 the News of the World’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, closed the 168-year-old newspaper.
The Metropolitan Police Service was implicated in the scandal for failing properly to investigate allegations of hacking, for the possible involvement of police officers in facilitation and cover-up, for not informing victims whose phones had been hacked, and for misleading the public and Parliament about the scale of phone hacking. When it was revealed that the Met had hired the former executive editor of the disgraced News of the World as an advisor, allegations of institutional corruption and cover-up forced Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation.

[cbe]

Another case is the difference in media attention between Ben Needham and Madeleine McCann

[Richard]

The 'free' Press have a lot to answer for and manage to create problems by selectively highlighting crimes that grab the headlines.
These, horrendous as they are, do not address issues that are equally serious elsewhere and they often manage to create further problems in the process.

[ColinL]

Very detailed comment Richard that expanded on my mention of the Daily Mail killers and also Milly Dowler.

I also have to agree with cbe mention of Ben Needham and Madeline McCann. The latter parents reasonably well off able to get access to a variety of influential sources. Ben Needham's mum, single parent in a different league. I was shocked that several years into the McCann disappearance their campaign managed to embarass the Met to allocate several million (I think) to extra investigative work. Ben's mum by comparison has very ittle. Had it been Ben's mum who had left him alone whilst she went out for a meal, her background will have been trawled through with a fine tooth comb. Sadly, I doubt either child will ever be found

[cbe]

The McCann case has become a cause celebre (can't do the accents) mainly due to their professions. Mr MCann's brother was a friend of Gordon Brown and as I understand it Brown pressured the Portuguese into allowing the McCanns to return home much earlier then the Portguese police wanted, especially since Mrs McCann wasn't prepared to answer many of the police questions. A funny business all round, but the lack of interest in the Needham case was and is a disgrace.