Rachel O'Reilly, Madeline McCann, Kevin Doyle and Katy French

What's the connection kids?

In a discussion recently with one of my classes, we got talking about the blatant cynicism of the media - primarily we were talking about the tabloid media but the broadsheets came in for it aswell.

It all began with a conversation about Joe O'Reilly's conviction for the murder of his wife and the highly debatable "standards" displayed by the Irish media in relation to the case. I remember reading an article in the Tribune a couple of months ago which stated that the sales figures for a particular paper - the Herald lets not beat about the bush here - rocketed every time Rachel O'Reilly's face was printed on the cover.

The Herald (naturally) maintained that all they were doing was seeking to keep Ms O'Reilly's face and her memory alive in the public consciousness so the Gardai wouldn't be allowed forget about her and so the murderer would be brought to justice.

The fact that sales for the paper spiked every time her time her image was featured was obviously just an incidental benefit. Of course they never noticed.

And then you have Madeline McCann - whatever you think about the McCann's efforts to keep their daughter's face in the media spotlight the fact remains that surely, as with the O'Reilly case, this one was a no-brainer for the British and Irish media. In terms of cynical exploitation it doesn't get any better.

The whole case takes on a sort of chicken and egg quality - did the media only become obsessed with the case because of the public interest or did the public fixation only arise because of the media's obsessive approach to the case? (Rhetorical question)

I saw a headline recently on one of the sunday tabloids which (along with the obligatory photo) simply read "We Know She's Alive!" followed by an article where the paper lazily rehashed the McCann's claims that they believed that their child was still alive

Again - I'm sure that the guaranteed jump in sales figures for the respective papers bore no correlation whatsoever to the editorial decisons to run yet another photograph of the child on their papers.

As if

And finally onto Kevin Doyle and Katy French. As far as I could see, for the last three days every single tabloid and the Independent (which lets be honest is a tabloid by any other name) have run photos of Ms French. What interested me today was the photograph on the front of the Examiner - some young fella who I wouldn't recognise from adam.

It turns out that the kid on the front of the Examiner was one of the lads from Waterford who had been rushed to hospital after a 21st birthday party two weeks ago. He died at 12.30 this morning.

Cocaine has been linked to his death as it has been to Ms French's current condition.

He got one photo - she's had god knows how many and I'm sure there'll be more tomorrow.

But I'm sure it's nothing to do with the sales figures.

God forbid