The Guardian reports the PR advisor for the McCann's stepping down.
It seems likely that Phil Hall, former editor of News of the World and Hello! magazine, will be hired to handle the negative publicity the couple are now receiving.
I have an issue with this. Where is the money coming from? The parents aren't poor, but certainly not in a position to hire a PR advisor from their own finances. My assumption would be that this money is coming from the 'Find Madeleine' fund.
I've read as many reports as I can and it's clearly stated that the fund will not pay for any legal expenses (they've recently been given suspect status by Portuguese police) to defend themselves. There is absolutely no sign that though this fund wont pay for their reputation. And really, do they still need a PR advisor?
A PR advisor may have been necessary in the early days when the couple were in Portugal trying to find their daughter. But now this sort of PR has been replaced by more of a crisis media style PR to handle the negative publicity, it's wrong that money to find their daughter might be used to defend themselves from a bad reputation. That's what the courts will determine.
13 September 2007
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From what I understand the fund has been paying the fees of PR advice... though it is unclear who was paying the slary of Clarence Mitchell, a request un the Freedom of Information act disclosed that Tax payers had paid £6,230.90 in expenses. So it perhaps safe to assume that the tax payer was also paying his wages.
But it has never been explained why the McCann's need so much PR and legal advice and have never employed a private detective.
But for the sake of sanity, it is best not to try to find deatails about the fund or quite possibly funds.
But my guess is that this change of advisers is what the Daily Mail was refering to when it quoted a source as saying the McCann's believe they are losing support and feel they need to launch a new PR offensive.
That's probably a correct assumption on the last point.
What's really fascinating now is how Richard Branson has donated £100,000 to pay their PR and legal expenses. I'm really flabbergasted about the better ways this money could be spent.
At the end of the day I believe that public judgement will hang upon whether the McCanns are convicted or not.
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