The media's perceptions are not correct in the case of Karen Matthews

The events of this week have been dominated apart from the rumpus over the speaker by the verdict of the court in Leeds and the media's reaction to the conviction of Karen Matthews.

One might remember that during the events when the search for her daughter was in full swing,the media were accused of a kind of social snobbery.The coverage being compared with that of Madeleine McCann who came from a middle class family.

Sharon Matthews,by contrast was the product of a broken home,a mother with children from numerous fathers.The press were quick to judge.

Writing in the Independent this morning Joan Smith says

The Other Britain" – has been exposed by a series of shocking events that culminated last week in guilty verdicts in the trial of Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan.

It has also be jumped on so to speak by the Tory who are using the case to talk up their concept of a broken Britain.

The media have created an image,Smith says

We have been bombarded with unflattering photographs that show her as slumped, overweight and looking more like a woman in her 50s than her actual age of 33. She has never been out to work, and is the mother of seven children by at least five fathers, existing in such a state of ignorance that she described the two children with (probably) the same

and adds that

Not surprisingly, no one has had a good word for Matthews since her conviction

But Smith believes the press is getting it wrong by seemingly tarring whole estates with the same brush,

we need to acknowledge the existence of apparently respectable households where a father can rape his daughters and make them pregnant on 19 occasions; she says whilst recognising that

it has little to do with the fantasy world of the popular press, where feckless women who live in council houses get pregnant just to get a widescreen TV.