Friday 13 April 2012

Media Quotes of the Week: From why tabloid hacks are best to being outraged by Ken and Boris


Blogger Fleet Street Fox interviewed in XCITY magazine: "I know broadsheet journalists who are very good reporters, but the reporters on tabloids are better, because they are more mischievous. Other kinds of journalists like to hang out with us because we're witty and great to go to the pub with. Broadsheet hacks are more likely to stand at the back of the press pack and watch, then report on other journalists."

Kelvin MacKenzie in the Daily Mail: "If you are a long-standing Sun journalist, you can expect 15 officers investigating phone hacking to turn up at your house at 5.05am. But if you are a copper abusing a black youngster in the most offensive way possible, then a quiet investigation is all that is required. Could I suggest Mr Hogan-Howe and the Crown Prosecution Service start treating people equally."

AA Gill in the Sunday Times: "Those responsible for The Undateables have withdrawn so much from the karma bank, they’ll be lucky if they’re reincarnated with internal skeletons. The measure and justification of documentaries should be: 'Would this happen if the cameras weren’t here? Is the presence of a film crew the prime motivator for what we’re being shown?' Channel 4 and its motley crew continue to sail the airwaves in its boldest TV experiment — to see how long you can live without shame."

Ex-Western Daily Press editor Terry Manners in Press Gazette: "I will never forget the words of the time-and-motion man who was assigned with a team to cut operational costs in the building. They hurt us all greatly. 'The trouble with you and your team, Terry, is that you are trying to be too professional,' he said. 'You don't need to be. Leave it to the nationals.' Sadly he won."

Channel 4 News' Alex Thomson on investigating the Rangers FC story in Glasgow: “I’d expected the paranoia, insults, spin etc – hey – this is ‘fitba’ after all and I welcome it good, bad and ugly, from fans within and without Glasgow. Indeed I’ve gone out and asked for it. What I didn’t expect were the insults (and in at least one case a direct physical threat) not from fans but from Scottish journalists. Sarajevo, Mogadishu, Kabul, Islamabad, Tripoli, Baghdad…I could bore you with more – in none of these places have I ever got this interesting reaction from local journalists."

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, on plans to combine the editorships of the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post: "These Yorkshire papers have a proud tradition of serving their community. Forty years ago the Yorkshire Evening Post had a staff of 1,350, eight editions and a daily circulation of 230,000. Today there are fewer than 400 and it has two editions a day. Further cuts and attacks on editorial is not the panacea for increased circulation."

The NUJ chapel at The Scotsman Publications on the sudden departure of editor-in-chief John McLellan: "John McLellan is an internationally-respected journalist and editor who is held in the highest esteem by his staff - if not by his bosses. He has given tirelessly to this company over the years in the belief that, whatever strictures may be placed upon us, we should always produce the best possible product for our readers - a belief he has instilled in each and every member of his staff. To see that commitment sacrificed in the name of cost cutting is at once contemptible and demoralising to the staff that John leaves behind. It shows management's utter disregard for the loyalty and dedication that their staff show every day in their efforts to produce quality newspapers and magazines, and sends out a deeply unpleasant message: no matter your experience or your commitment, everything is rated by cost."
Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times: "Which is the more outrageous fact, do you think? That Ken Livingstone, having railed against very wealthy people using loopholes to avoid paying tax, is revealed to be himself a very wealthy person using a loophole to avoid paying tax? Or that Boris Johnson earns a quarter of a million quid a year for writing the same column every week for The Daily Telegraph? Both facts make you flinch and wonder where you’ve gone wrong in life."

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