Fish Restaurant Fiasco
A study in Journalism, Propaganda, Spin ... take your pick ...
Please remember as you plod through this that all of these news articles were based on one and only one *fellow diner* at the Carvi restaurant. The *fellow diner* is important! He or she was used by the British Press to significantly manipulate public opinion against the Portuguese police.
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The foreshadowing of what became the Carvi Seafood Restaurant Scandal was one line in an article published in the Daily Telegraph on May 26, 2007.
Reporter Fiona Govan wrote the following at the end of an disparaging article about the Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann:
"Rarely observed at the scene of Madeleine's abduction or available for comment, those leading the investigation have frequently been spotted lunching at the Carvi seafood restaurant in Portimão."
And this, my friends was where it all began!
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The next article about the emerging scandal was written by Caroline Gammell on June 7, 2007. It was a bit more detailed and was the first introduction to *fellow diner*.
According to Gammell:
A *fellow diner* at the Carvi restaurant allegedly saw what looked like a bottle of wine and a bottle of whisky at the table where the Portuguese police officers sat for about two hours. The "diner" said that about 2 pm the officers asked for the TV news to be switched on and that the officers watched the news.Note that in this version of the Carvi Seafood Restaurant Scandal, there was nothing written about how the policemen reacted to the TV news.
Cue Philomena McCann, who said:
'If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be absolute uproar. 'But we have to let them to get on with their work because that's all we have to rely on. 'It is a different country and we have to accept the way that they do things and that it is a different culture where they have lunches and siestas but we hope the work is made up at other times.''On the very next day, June 8, 2007, the story sprouted wings, took off flying and has never landed.
June 8, 2007 articles follow:
The Evening Standard introduced its readers to the Carvi Seafood Restaurant Scandal.
Ed Harris wrote an article that provided what was destined to become the media mantra... Portuguese police ...wine...whisky...two hour lunch...etc.
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The Daily Star may have the honor of being the first news agency to use the term "bender" regarding the Carvi Seafood Restaurant Scandal and the disgraceful manner in which the Portuguese police were behaving that day.
Before discussing the content of the Daily Star article itself, just looking at the headline...let's define "bender"
- revelry in drinking
- a merry drinking party
- a drinking spree
- an alcoholic binge
OK. That's done.
In the Star's version of the Carvi Seafood Restaurant Scandal, the Portuguese police go on a bender, crack jokes during a boozy lunch and laugh as they knock back wine and whisky while the TV broadcasts video of the McCanns in Berlin.
Also, Dr. Goncalo Amaral was actually
SLUMPED in his chair "STARING AT A BOTTLE OF JOHNNIE WALKER BLACK LABEL WHISKY" !!! (Why didn't *fellow diner* mention this from the start???).Sousa actually
BURST into a FIT of laughter when the diners warned them that British journalists would be SHOCKED!!!
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Lucy Hagen handled the June 8th report about the Carvi Seafood Restaurant Scandal for The Sun.
Hagen wrote that the detectives were boozing while Maddie's ANGUISHED parents were in Berlin and that *fellow diner* said that one of the detectives was slumped in his chair. (Gosh, I have a feeling this wasn't intended to imply he had bad posture...)
Interestingly, Hagen reported that *fellow diner* was taken to a police station, held for four hours and had his camera confiscated.
(Wouldn't it be helpful if we could determine who the heck *fellow diner* really was? A reporter, by some chance? Someone known by or affiliated with the McCanns? Ah well, we'll just have to accept these reports as factual since we've no way of proving *fellow diner* was planted by the McCann team...)
Philomena is again quoted "If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be absolute uproar." (One wonders about this, given the lack of uproar heard from the family in regard to the consumption of wine by the McCanns on May 3, 2007, while their young children were alone in the apartment, but whatever uproar suits you, Phil.)
Moving on...let's finish this up, shall we?
Times reporters David Brown and Thomas Caton wrote that:
not only had the senior Portuguese officers been seen frequently going out for lunch at the Carvi restaurant, but they REGULARLY took two hour lunches at the Carvi Seafood restaurant.Further details were added to *fellow diner*'s observations. The Carvi Seafood Restaurant Scandal now exposed the outrage of:
the Portuguese police officers LAUGHING among themselves while the TV was broadcasting news of the McCanns press conference in Berlin.Not only that but
"As her parents completed 13 gruelling interviews and meetings with politicians in Berlin on Wednesday, two of the leading officers in the case were seen enjoying a leisurely lunch." (The contrast between the commitment of the McCanns to the commitment of the inspectors couldn't be made clearer, could it???)Brown/Caton repeated the earlier allegation that *fellow diner* saw what looked like a bottle of whisky alongside the bottle of wine.
(Please remember that *fellow diner* never claimed certainty - "what looks like" is not necessarily a bottle of whisky. In other words, looking like a bottle of whisky does not a bottle of whisky make, as Shakespeare might have said if he had been a bad writer; which he was not.)
There is no proof the other bottle was whisky, and in fact, as you will see in this article, the reference to whisky may actually have been based on something said TO the officers about Johnnie Walker
The party shared a bottle of white wine and there was what appeared to be a bottle of whisky on the table during the lunch, which lasted almost two hours.
The *fellow diner* said: "Someone on another table seemed to know them and joked about them having two-hour lunches and knocking back Johnnie Walker Black (Label)."
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Summary:
Someone we shall call *fellow diner* spent over two hours in the Carvi Restaurant observing officers from the Portuguese police at lunch. *Fellow diner* claimed to have witnessed four detectives sharing a bottle of wine and what "looked like" a bottle of whisky. Then again, *fellow diner* may have just overheard someone teasing the officers about Johnnie Walker whisky. It's a bit unclear.
*Fellow diner* must have had some connection to reporters in the area, because either *fellow diner* was interviewed by each of the reporters above - or they embellished the original tale. One would hope it was the former as everyone knows the British reporters are, after all, professionals.
Philomena McCann was contacted and responded. Olegario Sousa was contacted and basically told the media that what the investigators did on their own time was none of their business.
*Fellow diner* was detained by the PJ and a camera was confiscated.
*Fellow diner* apparently never came forward to complain about the "arrest" or the confiscation of the camera, at least there are no published reports of it happening.
One must wonder - was *fellow diner* a tourist with a camera? If so, what right did the PJ have to confiscate it?
Or was *fellow diner* perhaps someone connected to either the McCanns themselves, their private detectives or the press?
Whatever the truth might be about the Carvi Restaurant Scandal, it long ago stopped mattering to reporters.
All one has to do is read the subsequent articles published over the last three years to see how this one incident, blown out of all proportion, enabled the reputation of the Portuguese investigators working diligently to find the truth about Madeleine's fate to be destroyed by the British press.
And this, my friends is what I call Spin.
If you don't believe me, take a look at this: Goncalo Amaral - Boozer
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