Many thanks to Winnower for compiling this shocking and sickening list in 2010 of adjectives that the British Press have used to describe Gonçalo Amaral and/or the Portuguese Police.
- 53 articles: "boozy" or "boozer" (Examples)
- 418 articles: "disgraced, disgraceful, disgrace" (Examples)
- 440 articles: "outrage, outrageous" etc.
- 37 articles: "bungling"
- 23 articles: "Keystone cops" (or Kops) (or Keystone cretins) ("Keystone"
cops has been used by English speaking people to describe bumbling or
inept cops; based on old movies of the Keystone Cops. Extremely
insulting articles.)
- 42 articles: "Goncalo Amaral" and "lunch" (includes all the "boozy lunch" "two hour lunch" etc. Many accuse him of "boozy three hour lunches" etc. Why is it newsworthy that a man eats lunch?)
- 45 articles: "inept"
- 220 articles: "sacked" or "fired" (Note: Amaral was TRANSFERRED off the Maddie case and then chose to quit.)
- 49 articles: "hampered" "hampering" "hindered" "hindering" (the investigation);
- 43 articles: "outburst" (regarding his statement re: McCanns and the British police)
- 43 articles: "shameful" "shame" "shamed"
- 14 articles: "evil"
- 146 articles: "torture" "tortured" "attacked" (re: Leonor Cipriano)
Other terms used to describe
Goncalo Amaral and/or his colleagues
Goncalo Amaral and/or his colleagues
- "Oh, up yours, senor" (Title of column in the Daily Mirror by Tony Parsons - about which the Press Complaints Commission received 485 complaints.)
- sweaty oafish
- Inspector Clueless
- corpulent figure in an ill-fitting jacket
- fat, sweaty cop
- out of his depth
- liar
- lazy
- failed police chief
- giant ego
- manufacturing a case
- dishing dirt
- making stuff up
- feeding smears to the press
- spends hundreds of pounds per week at Carvi fish restaurant
- witch hunt
- stupendously stupid
- fragile macho pride
- swaggering plods
- lumbering yokels
- clueless
- corrupt
- biased
- Portuguese tormentors
- leaked information to the media
- vital evidence was ditched
- crucial documents were ignored
- weeks were wasted
- a shambles from the outset
- ignored sightings
- worked only four hours a day
- dirty tricks
- scarily amateur police investigation
- flawed inquiry
- beleaguered police
- evil suggestions (re: the McCanns)
- bizarre allegations
- vile slurs
- just want a convenient confession, true or false
- career in tatters
- abysmally mishandled Portuguese police investigation
- "Amaral
was the main reason Kate and Gerry were named as suspects, despite
there not being a shred of evidence that the couple were involved" (Blogger
note: Cadaver dog alerts to McCann items only, Gaspar statement, Smith
family sighting, refusal to answer police questions or return to
Portugal for reconstruction, changes to statements re: the night Maddie
disappeared, etc.)
- "Life on Mars" police (refers to a British television program, extremely insulting articles)
- "It was bad enough for the McCanns that their child was snatched. It was worse luck still for it to happen in a backwater policed by incompetents." (In other words, Portugal is a backwater country and it's police force is incompetent.)
- spectacularly stupid, cruel Portuguese police”
- pigs
- filth
- fitting up her parents
- it is the Portuguese police who are the clowns
- Cruel, stupid, spiteful clowns
- bunch of clueless amateurs
- turned their rage on the McCanns
Portuguese citizens
- leering bumpkins
- sardine munchers (This began when Tony Parsons said about the Portuguese Ambassador to Britain "If you can't say something constructive about the disappearance of little Madeleine, then you just keep your stupid, sardine-munching mouth shut.")
- "... a scathing attack by Sir Richard Branson on the Portuguese media...'The Portuguese press have behaved abysmally, fed inaccurate stories by the Portuguese police, which all turned out to be a load of garbage,' he told The Observer" 30 Sept. 2007
******
The most recent example of the outrageous treatment of Dr. Amaral is the BBC broadcast claiming he had said "F*** the McCanns". Native Portuguese claim that Amaral actually said "'Não, força aos McCanns" "Ask the McCanns" in response to a reporter's questions. (GONCALO AMARAL DOES NOT SPEAK ENGLISH - a fact widely reported.)
UPDATE:
ECU Ruling: East Midlands Today, BBC1 (East Midlands),
12 January 2011
Publication date: 30 May 2011
Complaint
The programme included a brief exchange between a reporter and
Gonçalo Amaral (a former policeman who had worked on the
disappearance of Madeleine McCann and had since written a book on
the case). One word in the exchange was bleeped, and the report gave
the impression that this was because Sr Amaral had used offensive
language about the MrCanns. A viewer complained that this was
inaccurate and unfair to Sr Amaral.
Outcome
The reporter’s belief, reinforced by others on the programme team
who viewed the recording, was that Sr Amaral had indeed used an
English phrase which included an offensive term applied to the
McCanns. On further examination, however, it became clear that Sr
Amaral had been speaking Portuguese, and that an inoffensive phrase
had been misconstrued. Upheld
Further action
The Editor of the programme has discussed the outcome with the
producer and reporter involved. In future, the team plans to use
interpreters if clips from interviews are unclear.
BBC Complaints
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/content/ecu/ecu_eastmidlandstoday120111
http://newsoutlines.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/adjectives-used-by-british-press-to.html
