A slow motion disaster: Media coverage of Tomlinson death is reminiscent of McCanns in Portugal

The slow motion saga that the media is unfolding before our very eyes is almost reminiscent of the irresponsible and piecemeal way that they covered the disappearance of Madeline McCann.

The first I heard of Mr Timlinson was as an unnamed protester who died at the G20 protests last week. Police battled to save him under a barrage of missiles and bottles from other violent and rowdy protesters.

Then it turned out that he wasn't even there to protest. He was a 50 year old newspaper vendor who had been caught up in the "riots" on his way home from work. He was a great guy according to all his friends and he would be leaving behind a wife and grown up kids.

A couple of days ago it was suggested that he was in fact beaten by police as he tried to get home and then all of a sudden there it was...all caught on camera. He was blatantly beaten...twice it turns out. At this point I was looking forward to writing a scathing article about police brutality and failure of the state (for a change). Immediately after the attack he looked up from the floor in confusion and bewilderment. When he got up to get away, I felt sick as I saw the man stumbling and looking confused, innocent, vulnerable and violated.

In the morning news today it was announced that the police officer caught on camera beating Mr. Tomlinson has come forward and has been suspended until the IPCC can conduct a full enquiry. A bit strange I thought, a bit brave perhaps and in reality absolutely inevitable I suppose. His family who by this time had made double page spreads in most of the national papers had demanded answers and it looked like they were going to get them...with a well deserved lynching.

Then the evening news breaks that Tomlinson had in fact been at the protests for a while and wasn't perhaps on his way home from work at all but for a slightly different reason. He was said to be inebriated. In fact the article also said that he had been estranged from his previously stated loving wife and family for a while and was living in some kind of half-way house for recovering alcoholics. He was wearing a Millwall football top and had been spotted all over the protests at varying times causing trouble and being manhandled by the police as a result. At one point he stood in front of a police vehicle and refused to move when asked and then ordered to do so. The article seemed to suggest that he was in fact there in the spirit of trouble and this is where I really started to wonder what on earth is going on.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if the next story contains a statement from Jacqui Smith in which she announces that he has links to Al Quaida and is in fact Bin Ladden's number two in Europe, or that the policeman who beat him was Sir Fred Goodwin. It's a slow motion mess. We need to leave it alone until the IPCC and other officially appointed and authorised bodies report on findings based on full facts, otherwise what's the bloody point of having them. We might as well decide everything on the limited information and hunches that the media give us. It clearly worked well in the case of the McCanns! didn't it? I think the papers only lost a couple of £million in libel damages if my memory serves me correctly.

Either way, when the smoke and mirrors are taken away, I still struggle with the fact that nothing that came out of the G20 meeting is worth the death of anyone, however innocent and loved or wretched they are. The point is that we shouldn't be in any kind of position whatsoever where people are dying for politics in this country. Too many people died in the last century (as a consequence of economic failure) protecting the freedom and political values that are taken for granted today. If the loss of life at the hands of the authorities whilst exercising ones right to disagree with the government and protest, to get home or simply get drunk is still possible then we're no further forward than we were 100 years ago and that both makes me sad and mad!!!