Quotes of the Week: From something nasty in the NoW woodshed to magical new media elves

Roy Greenslade on his MediaGuardian blog: "There is something nasty in the News of the World woodshed and it is time that it was rooted out before the press gets what it doesn't want - a privacy law and/or the Mosley amendment. The paper's public interest defences for what it does are usually wafer thin. Its press freedom stance, in which it claims that the public has "a right to know" about celebrity hypocrisy, also cannot be taken seriously. What the News of the World does is publish material that appeals to public prurience in order to maximise its sale. It acts with apparent impunity, taking ever greater risks with press freedom. But for what lasting good?"

Daily Telegraph deputy political editor Robert Winnett: "Andy Coulson, is unlikely to face a new police investigation into his alleged knowledge of phone-hacking when he edited the News of the World. The Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service do not believe that any relevant new 'evidence' has emerged despite Labour calls for the investigation to be reopened, The Daily Telegraph has learnt. Mr Coulson is expected to meet detectives to discuss the latest allegations to 'put the matter to bed, once and for all', said a Whitehall source. The meeting is expected to take place within the next few weeks."

Dan Sabbagh on Twitter: "Extraordinary. Why does it take one overlong, inconclusive piece in the New York Times to lead to calls for statutory regulation..."

Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times on political blogger Guido Fawkes (aka Paul Staines): "Mr Staines is Bloggsville incarnate — the very essence of that vast network of talentless and embittered individuals tapping away at their keyboards in the intellectual vacuum of cyberspace, only occasionally leaving their computer screens to heat up a Tesco microwave-ready mini filled garlic and coriander nan bread with Indian dip selection (mango chutney, pickle, cucumber raita ©) before returning to spew out some more unsubstantiated bile. This is anti-journalism, and nobody takes any notice of it — except, of course, the mainstream media and the government."

Peter Preston in the Observer defends Guido Fawkes: "Let's not set up a phoney fall Guy here. Guido Fawkes belongs to a proud British pamphleteering (and now blogging) tradition that goes back as far as Thomas Nashe. He is Pope's "child of dirt that stinks and stings". He's a scribbler with a terminal and a net. And he is not to blame for any of this."

Northern Echo editor Peter Barron on columnist Mike Amos on HoldtheFrontPage: "The attraction of Mike is a combination of a unique style of writing coupled with his unparalleled ability to get stories that nobody else gets anywhere near. He is the best off-diary journalist, I would argue, in all my time with newspapers. You don't give him jobs, he just goes out."

Mark Ellen remembers a new MD at EMAP suggesting how Q could make more cash out of record reviews: "So five-star reviews have enormous value...Why don't we sell them then? If people want five stars, they can pay for them."

US based b2b editor and writer Jenni Spinner: “New media is produced by magical elves that work for free.”

• Old Quote of the Week:

Andy Coulson interviewed by Press Gazette in 2005: "I don't think tabloid journalists have been top of anyone's popularity list. But as an industry we spend more of our time beating ourselves up about it than we probably have at any time before. All we ever seem to do is criticise ourselves, and crticise the way we do our job. Yet I've got nothing to be ashamed of, and this goes for everyone on the NoW, in what we do for a living. The readers are the judges, that's the most important thing. And I think we should be proud of what we do."