The worst of the human psyche electronically unleashed - a reminder

**bb1** Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:11 pm

Over the past few days, the self-proclaimed 'Truthseekers' have plumbed new depths of hatred and obscenity; so here's a timely reminder of what Keir Simmons so memorably said about them.

http://blog.itv.com/news/keirsimmons/2010/11/how-long-must-kate-and-gerry-mccann-suffer/

How long must Kate and Gerry McCann suffer?

Posted by Keir Simmons. 8 November, 2010

More than three years ago Madeleine McCann vanished from an apartment in a Portugese seaside town. Madeleine was three years old and 11 months. She has now been missing for almost as long.
She disappeared on the evening of Thursday May 3rd. I arrived in Praia Da Luz the next day. I felt sure she would be found and that I would be back in the UK before the weekend was over. I now know how wrong I was.
So much is easy with hindsight. I can say today with confidence that the police hunt for Madeleine was utterly inadequate. One of the detectives admitted as much in a newspaper article this weekend. I didn’t once see officers searching apartments in the area.
I look back at the media’s coverage of the events that would unfold with deep disappointment. Good journalists under pressure from London took far too many risks with the truth. Collectively in my honest view, we lost our balance. Some journalists lost the plot.
At the centre of it all this were two parents who had no idea how to handle such pressure. The last time I saw Kate and Gerry McCann was at a news conference around a year ago. They looked as shell shocked as when I first saw them – perhaps more so. The suffering they are enduring is unimaginable.
And yet, there continues to be a group of individuals who use the internet to attack these two poor parents. I hear from them all the time via Twitter. They demand that I investigate this or that “if you don’t you’re not a reporter” one informed me recently. After a report I produced for NBC News over the weekend I was subjected to a torrent of abusive messages – one suspects they are co-ordinating their attacks for best effect.
There was even one sick individual who created a Twitter account pretending to be Madeleine and then ‘tweeted’ about where she was. Thank god, the account was quickly taken down.
These people say they are ‘truth seekers’. They are not. What they write is just nasty, obsessive and vicious. They are not journalists, not even campaigners, they represent the worst of the human psyche electronically unleashed.

People who read this blog will know that I see free speech as fundamental. And that I love Twitter and Facebook because they make free speech available to anyone with a computer. But we now see consistent examples of that free speech used irresponsibly.
So I find myself considering cutting these people off, ‘blocking’ them in the terminology of Twitter. Is that the right thing to do? I think it might be.
After this article they will send me abuse and vitriol over the web. I can deal with that of course. But why should two parents who have suffered so much continue to have this groundless campaign against them? Those involved claim they believe in ‘truth’ yet ignore any evidence that doesn’t fit their conspiracy theory. They claim to love children, yet ignore the effect their ‘campaign’ might have on Kate and Gerry McCann’s twins as they grow up and begin to comprehend such things.
I worry that by allowing them to communicate with me, by effectively engaging with them, I am encouraging them. Perhaps it’s time for me in my own small way to say ‘stop’, I’d like to know what you think. Please send me your views on Twitter (ironically) or Facebook.