Friday, 2 March 2012

Quotes of the Week: From corrupted officials to asking why not a Leveson inquiry for lawyers?



Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers at the Leveson Inquiry:
"The current assessment of the evidence is that it reveals a network of corrupted officials. There appears to have been a culture at the Sun of illegal payments and systems created to facilitate those payments."

Rupert Murdoch in a statement:"As I've made very clear, we have vowed to do everything we can to get to the bottom of prior wrongdoings in order to set us on the right path for the future. That process is well underway. The practices Sue Akers described at the Leveson inquiry are ones of the past, and no longer exist at the Sun. We have already emerged a stronger company."

Nick Davies at Leveson:
"To close down all off-the-record sources is like saying I got food poisoning last night I am never going to eat again."

Ex-News of the World journalist Neville Thurlbeck on his blog reviews the Sun on
Sunday: "What we won’t be getting are investigations clearly. And the rest of Fleet Street won’t be waiting up late and holding its breath for revelations which will set the news agenda alight for the rest of the week. But this is surely the type of tabloid paper we will be getting post Leveson, so in that respect it is setting the agenda other tabloids will follow.... The News of the World is history. It’s not coming back. The king is dead. Long live the queen."

Kelvin MacKenzie quoted in the Independent on the Sun on Sunday: "This is not trying to be the News of the World with the Sun logo on it. Personally, I like sleaze on a Sunday, so I feel slightly robbed."
New Sun on Sunday columnist Toby Young in the Spectator: "Not only am I an admirer of Murdoch, but I've been a fan of the Currant Bun ever since I turned up at a highbrow literary party in 1985 with a copy sticking out of my back pocket. I was immediately identified as an enemy of the liberal left progressive elite and everything they hold dear — which is exactly the way I like it. (Go on Private Eye, stick me in Order of the Brown Nose. See if I care.)"

UBM chief executive David Levin in the Daily Telegraph: "In my generation some of the brightest people amongst my colleagues chose to be journalists, and that is a fantastic endorsement of all the best values of journalism. But those same people are talking to me now, saying I don't want my kids to do that because it's not structurally safe."

The Leicester Mercury NUJ chapel in an open letter to their boss - publisher David Simms - protesting at more job cuts: "We are being run by a man - you, Mr Simms - who recently told journalists here that you did not read a daily newspaper. You also said that you did not like sport - one of the main drivers of the Mercury’s sales. Neither statement inspired confidence, and now our fears have been abundantly justified."

Simon Jenkins in the Guardian: "
The past five years have taken their toll on Britain's professions. Bankers, politicians and now journalists have been well and truly turned over. But they are not alone among those in whom the public placed its trust. There are accountants who failed to warn against credit crunch bankruptcies. There are generals facing postmortems on recent wars. There will be doctors who enrich themselves from the future health service. The British establishment is good at looking after its own. But when the walls are breached and the fighting starts, we soon see bodies floating gently downstream. I look forward to the Leveson inquiry into lawyers."

  • Headline of the Week: The Guardian: 'Did David Cameron ride Rebekah Brooks's police horse?'

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