January to June 2013
The Guardian in a leader on Margaret Thatcher: "Her legacy is of public division, private selfishness and a cult of
greed, which together shackle far more of the human spirit than they
ever set free."
The Daily Telegraph in a leader: "Despite the widespread tributes on her passing
yesterday, Lady Thatcher, of all people, would not have expected her enemies
to wipe the slate clean in death. To paraphrase the words of St Francis of
Assisi which she quoted on entering Downing Street, she certainly brought
truth where there was error, but to deliver harmony was never her fate."
The Daily Mail in a leader: "She was a giant, beside whom other peacetime politicians of the 20th and 21st centuries look like mere pygmies."
Simon Kelner in the Independent: "Above anything else, Mrs Thatcher implanted the gene of greed in the
British soul. And, in the end, that is the poison of her legacy."
Harry slams press
Prince Harry in an ITV News interview slams the British press: “All
it does is upset me and anger me that people can get away with writing
the stuff they do. My father (Prince Charles) always says don't read it,
everyone says
don't read it, because it's always rubbish. I'm surprised how many in
the UK actually read it.”
Farewell Fergie
Mark Ogden in the Telegraph on Alex Ferguson and the press:
"Many reporters have been
banned, myself included, for a vast number of random reasons. They
have been banned for getting stories wrong and getting them right.
Others
have been exiled for writing books about Ferguson or making oblique
references that have irked him deep within their articles. Yet
Ferguson’s departure will be mourned by those who are employed to report
on United, regardless of the bans, the hairdryers and the flying voice
recorders. One sentence from Ferguson can carry more weight than a
thousand words from
his managerial counterparts – which can be a negative as well as
positive
quality – but being witness to the Ferguson years at United has been a
rare
privilege."
Private Eye on coverage of Alex Ferguson's retirement: "Perhaps
the most spectacular example of Stockholm syndrome was displayed by the
BBC. Having been sent to Coventry by Ferguson for a full seven years
after daring to expose his son Jason's activities as a football agent - a
ban which ended only in 2011 - the corporation found the perfect
pundit to pay tribute to Sir Alex on Radio Five Live. Step-up
long-standing Fergie friend and fellow Labour stalwart Alastair
Campbell, the man whose rabid desire to 'fuck Gilligan' over the BBC's
WMD story in 2003 brought the corporation as close to extinction as it
has ever been."
Snowden snooper scoop
 |
| Guardian Edward Snowden scoop makes four splashes |
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in the Guardian: "I know the media likes to personalise political debates, and I know the government will demonise me."
Matthew Ingram on PaidContent: "The fact that both Greenwald and the
Guardian are to some
extent 'outsiders' may have helped them land what could be one of the
biggest national-security stories since Watergate. And the stories — a
series that Greenwald says has only just begun — will undoubtedly burnish the
Guardian‘s reputation in the U.S., not to mention its web traffic."
Roy Greenslade on his MediaGuardian blog: "The breaking of the Snowden revelations story must surely put
The
Guardian in line for a Pulitzer, making it the first British newspaper
to win the award."
Ben Brogan in the Telegraph on Edward Snowden: "A close reading of his manifesto, with his talk of a
“federation of secret law” ruling the world, CIA hit-squads,
surveillance nets on the verge of activation and his right to act
against a duly constituted, democratically elected government, suggests
he has spent too much time watching Hollywood DVDs on his laptop and
studying conspiracy theory forums on the web. Whether he is naive,
deluded or malicious, he has generated a drama that is more about the
fantastical steps he took to put himself beyond America’s grasp than the
content of the classified information he released."
Boris Johnson in the Telegraph on the NSA allegations: "I think if I were Shami Chakrabarti, or my old chum David Davis, I might get
thoroughly aerated at this point; and I have some sympathy with their
general position. But then I am afraid I also have sympathy with our
security services, and their very powerful need to use the internet to catch
the bad guys – the terrorists, the jihadis, the child porn creeps. There is
a trade-off between freedom and security, as Barack Obama rightly says;
between the citizen’s right to total internet privacy, and the duty of the
state to protect us all from harm."
Bell on Bondage
Cartoonist Steve Bell in a Guardian video on his portrayal of George Osborne: "Why
is George in bondage gear? Well, I was having a bit of a problem
drawing George. The whole point about George's stance is its about
restraint, restraint, restraint, cuts, cuts, whips, whips, straps,
straps, chains, chains...
"
People Nigella scoop
Roy Greenslade on his MediaGuardian blog: "A couple of weeks ago I asked whether there was any point to the continued publication of the
Sunday People.
Ever since – and I know it's not because of what I wrote – the paper
has been coming up with must-read stories. But none was more spectacular
than yesterday's old-fashioned Fleet Street scoop –
the pictures of Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi. Talk
about agenda-setting. The Twittersphere went crazy. News website hits
went off the scale. Every newspaper followed it up. It went round the
world because Nigella is a global brand."
Downfall of Chris Huhne
The Sun in a leader: "Be in no doubt. Were it not for
The Sunday Times, lying Lib Dem toad Chris
Huhne would be sitting bold as brass in the Cabinet today.
Indeed, he might have been Deputy PM. He was a whisker from beating Nick Clegg
to the Lib Dem leadership in 2007. Those urging a Leveson law to muzzle the Press should reflect hard on
yesterday’s sensational events."
Good news vs bad
Charles Moore in the Telegraph accusing the national press of being dominated by bad news compared to the local media: "Local papers and broadcasters are unashamedly on the side of
the areas they serve. Of course they relish scandals, but they also delight
in successes. At flower and dog shows, if local papers are to be believed,
rain always 'fails to dampen the spirits'. National papers only really get
interested when every exhibit is swept away in a tidal wave or, as happened
recently at a dog show in Kent, people start punching one another."
Peter Hirsch posts on Charles Moore's article : "Thank you, Charles. Now perhaps you could just post the link to that dog show in Kent?"
Fox reveals face
Susie Boniface (aka Fleet Street Fox) reveals herself in The Times [£]: "It’s funny, my real name, Susie Boniface, has been in papers for 18 years and
Fleet Street Fox has been around for five minutes, but she’s better known
than I am. Recently someone told me: 'Wow! You’re Fleet Street Fox! If
anyone can be trusted, you can.' Very flattering, but it puts a dent in your self-esteem when your creation is
more popular than you are. Added to which, my — her — story is about to be
read by more strangers than ever. It’s a bit like being married, only she is
someone I can’t divorce."
Harolds Evans on 'arrogant' press
Sir Harold Evans giving the Hugh Cudlipp Lecture: "As depressing as exposure of the dark arts has been, it is deepened
by the cynicism and arrogance of much of the reaction to Leveson,
coming from figures in the press who did nothing to penetrate - indeed
whose inertia assisted - the cover-up conducted into oblivion by News
International, a cover up which would have continued, but for the
skill of Nick Davies and the courage of his editor."
Mair bashes Boris
 |
| Mair and Johnson (Pic: BBC) |
Eddie Mair to Boris Johnson on the Andrew Marr Show: "You're a nasty piece of work, aren't you?"
Liberal-Left lambasted
John Kampfner in the Guardian:
"Many on the liberal-left sense a once-in-a-generation opportunity to
'tame' the unruly papers. They believe a more decent society cannot be
achieved with the media we currently have, so it's time to act. Rather
than seeing free expression as the bedrock of a strong society, they see
it as providing an opportunity for nasty people to bludgeon nasty views
on to a vulnerable public. They cannot tolerate an intolerant press."
Congregation of 'bastards'
 |
| St Bride's Fleet Street |
Fleet Street Fox in her diary: "The
vicar at St. Bride's is the only one I've ever met that looks down
from the pulpit in the certain knowledge that most of his congregation
can be categorized as under the heading 'utter bastards', and doesn't
seem to mind."
Sexism in the City newspaper office
Cathy Newman in the Telegraph: "Some of the most glaring instances of
sexism directed at me took place in newspaper offices or at the hands of
newspaper executives. When I worked for the
Financial Times, I
confronted a senior executive about the fact that a man who was
significantly junior to me was getting paid a lot more. The executive
asked
me what I needed the money for, since I didn’t have a mortgage or a
family. I laughed it off and made sure I got a pay rise. Slightly more
intimidating
was the time, ironically at a political party conference, when a man
who was
then the editor of a national newspaper started propositioning me in
the
bar, despite knowing I was in a long-term relationship, and despite my
making it patently clear that I wasn’t interested."
Loveson Inquiry
 |
| Santorini |
The Mail in a leader on the affair of Leveson lawyers David Sherborne and Carine Patry Hoskins: "When
the affair began is unclear. They say it didn't start until after
Leveson reported last November, but admit they went on holiday to the
romantic Greek island of Santorini last August. They claim - with a
straight face - their relationship was then still platonic. But even if
there was no pillow talk, it beggars belief they wouldn't have discussed
Leveson over the odd glass of Retsina."
Guardianistas vs Mail
Zoe Williams in the Guardian: "The
Daily Mail
reminds me a little bit of climate change: you think you've got the
measure of just how bad it is, but every time you look it's taken
another appalling leap forward. Yesterday, following the conviction of
the Philpotts for the manslaughter of their six children, it called Mick
Philpott the "
vile product of welfare UK".
The cynicism, the lack of respect for the dead, the dehumanising
terminology (he "bred" the children, it says); the front page alone told
us all we need to know."
Daily Mail in a leader:
"As the debate over welfare reform rages on, one mystery increasingly
perplexes and infuriates the Guardianistas of the well-heeled,
middle-class Left. Why, they ask over the Chablis, do the working-class
poor so stubbornly refuse to share their enlightened belief in the
wonders of the welfare state? To their bemusement, poll after poll has
shown that three-quarters of voters (including most Labour supporters)
want benefits reined in, with the clamour for cuts at its loudest among
workers at the bottom end of the pay scale."
Caitlin Moran on her family values
Caitlin Moran in The Times [£]: "My father raised eight children on welfare benefits, and didn’t kill any of
us. I feel I should say that this week. I feel I need to firmly point to a large
family raised on public handouts who were normal, and gentle, and never set
fire to their house during a personal vendetta against a former lover."
Murder in Woolwich
Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger in the Guardian on the paper's front page on the Woolwich murder (above): "This was an extraordinary, perhaps unprecedented, event. In broad
daylight on a British street a man was hacked to death allegedly by
someone who then essentially gave a press conference, using Islamist
justifications. It was, by any standards, a unique news picture – but in
a new media context in which the killer's message had already been
distributed around the world virtually in real time."
Guardian readers' editor Chris Elliott in his Open door column on the same front page: "It was right to use the picture and the video, as both were crucial to
an understanding of the event. It's not the first time shocking images
have been run on the front page. However, the effect of the quote
embedded in the photograph meant the message was unmediated."
Twitter explodes
Ben Brogan about Twitter on his Telegraph blog: "Politically, the micro-blogging site has become a weapon of mass
destruction. Where Alastair Campbell complained about the drumbeat of
the 24-hour news channels, Mr Cameron must contend with the
minute-by-minute verdict of social media, where his performances and
policies are scrutinised, judged and discarded instantly. Where
journalists used to meet in the bar, they now exchange gags and gossip
on Twitter. It is a political accelerant."
When interviews go bad...
Michael Hann on the Guardian's Music Blog on interviewing drummer Ginger Baker (top) in front of a live audience: "I've had peculiar interviews before. I once sat on the floor in the
dressing rooms at Spurs' training ground to talk to Sol Campbell, while
John Scales stood just to my right, listening in. He was naked. His
penis kept dangling in and out of my eyeline at disconcertingly close
range. But I've never had any interview experience quite so unsettling
as half an hour with Ginger Baker in front of a couple of hundred
people. It's not something I want to repeat."
Janice Turner in The Times: "I’m not sure where it started to go wrong with Rhys Ifans. A truly awful
interview can catch you like a cloudburst in August. How quickly his answers
escalated through disdain to disgust then mad-eyed vibrating hostility until
he announced 'I am bored with you' and stalked out, leaving his publicist
hand-wringing and ashen."
July to December 2013
 |
| Two titles at war: Guardian top; Mail bottom |
MI5 chief Andrew Parker, as reported by the Independent, claims Edward Snowden's leaks on surveillance by security services gave terrorists: "The gift to evade us and strike at will'
Daily Mail headline over leader on the Guardian: 'The paper that helps Britain's enemies'
The Guardian in a leader: "The
Mail's leading article must be read in the context of a fervent
discussion about press regulation in which it is leading the charge for
journalists to be both free and trusted. But yesterday's editorial
argues the opposite. It is a statement of anti-journalism: editors, it
says, cannot be trusted. They must defer to the state."
Simon Jenkins in the Guardian: "In a
Guardian
basement, officials from GCHQ gazed with satisfaction on a pile of
mangled hard drives like so many book burners sent by the Spanish
Inquisition."
David Carr in the New York Times: "If the revelations about the N.S.A. surveillance were broken by
Time,
CNN or
The New York Times, executives there would already be
building
new shelves to hold all the Pulitzer Prizes and Peabodies they expected.
Same with the 2010 WikiLeaks video of the Apache helicopter attack.
Instead, the journalists and organizations who did that work find
themselves under attack, not just from a government bent on keeping its
secrets, but from friendly fire by fellow journalists. What are we
thinking?"
MPs quiz Rusbridger
 |
| Rusbridger: 'Patriotic about a free press' |
Alan Rusbridger asked if he loved this country by Home Affairs Committte chair Keith Vaz, as reported by the Guardian: "I'm
slightly surprised to be asked the question. But,
yes, we are patriots and one of the things we are patriotic about is
the nature of democracy, the nature of a free press and the fact that
one can in this country discuss and report these things."
Dan Hodges on his Telegraph politics blog:
"When politicians are summoning newspaper editors before them to
question their patriotism then we’ve got a problem. It’s fashionable to
complain of 'McCarthyism' whenever someone is
challenged on just about anything these days. But what has just happened
is the very definition of McCarthyism."
Carl Bernstein in an open letter to Alan Rusbridger: "As we learned in the United States during our experience with the
Pentagon Papers and Watergate, it is essential that no prior
governmental restraints or intimidation be imposed on a truly free
press; otherwise, in such darkness, we encourage the risk of our
democracies falling prey to despotism and demagoguery and even
criminality by our elected leaders and government officials."
Ed goes for Mail over attack on dad
 |
| Mail attack on Ralph Miliband |
Ed Miliband in the Daily Mail: "Journalists
need to hold politicians like me to account — none of us should be
given an easy ride — and I look forward to a robust 19 months between
now and the General Election. But what appeared in the
Daily Mail
on Saturday was of a different order all together. I know they say ‘you
can’t libel the dead’, but you can smear them. Fierce debate about
politics does not justify character assassination of my father,
questioning the patriotism of a man who risked his life for our country
in World War II, or publishing a picture of his gravestone with a
tasteless pun about him being a ‘grave socialist’. The
Daily Mail sometimes
claims it stands for the best of British values of decency. But
something has really gone wrong when it attacks the family of a
politician — any politician — in this way."
Paul Dacre in the Guardian responds to the storm over the Mail's Ralph Miliband feature: "The hysteria that followed is symptomatic of the post-Leveson age in
which any newspaper which dares to take on the left in the interests of
its readers risks being howled down by the Twitter mob who the BBC
absurdly thinks represent the views of real Britain."
Ed Miliband on the Fleet Street press at a private dinner for Labour donors, according to the Financial Times:
"We've got to be willing to call these people out. They are less
powerful than people ever thought and they are less powerful now than
they were."
Press charter plan rejected
Miller speaking in Parliament, as reported by BBC News: "The committee of the Privy Council is unable to
recommend the press's proposal for a royal charter be granted. Whilst there are areas where it is acceptable, it is unable
to comply with some important Leveson principles and government policy."
Press industry statement condemns politicians' Royal Charter: "This proposed Royal Charter has
already been universally rejected by the industry and it is even more
regrettable that the industry will have no opportunity to take part in
the discussions between the political parties over possible amendments."
Maria Miller, as reported by the Guardian, speaking to MPs on the culture,
media and sport select committee: "[Hacked Off's presence] became quite a destructive force in the
perception of the press, I think it made some
lasting damage. We had managed to get to a stage where we were on the
verge of agreement. Some of the interventions over [that] weekend
created a great deal of bad will."
David Cameron in an interview with Fraser Nelson of the Spectator:
"I believe there’s a great opportunity here to put this difficult and
painful issue to bed. If the press set up their regulator I hope, in
time, they will make that regulator compliant with – will be able to
then seek recognition under – the charter recognition body. If that then
happens, we’ll have in place a system that I think will settle this
issue because we would have achieved what Leveson wanted which is
independent self-regulation by the press, but not marking its own
homework, having itself checked, and only having the body checked as it
were by the charter."
Telegraph warning over Royal Charter
The Daily Telegraph in a leader: "The
Guardian’s recent investigation into
state spying is exactly the kind of reporting that could spark a moral panic
among politicians and give them cause to limit what the press can publish.
If Parliament can find the numbers to impose a royal charter upon the
industry, it can also find the numbers necessary to censor it."
Twitter better than Beeb
Editor Mark Thomas on Trinity Mirror's decision to close the Liverpool Post, as reported by HoldTheFrontPage: “It has been a privilege to edit the
Liverpool Post
for the last
seven years. This is without doubt the saddest day of my career. I am
very proud of all the journalists who have worked alongside me on the
Liverpool Post. This is no reflection on them."
Reporter 'worst job' in 2013
Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com. which ranked newspaper reporter as worst job in 2013, as reported by the World Street Journal: “What probably pushed it [newspaper reporter] to the bottom is that several things
got worse – job prospects decreased, the average salary continued to
fall, and work hours continued to rise. Those factors also make the job
more stressful.”
Hacking: Read all about it
The Grey Cardigan on The Spin Alley:
"I’M ALL for open justice, but it does strike me as a trifle odd that
when members of the press are put on trial for hacking private voicemail
messages, those messages are then read out in public and subsequently
reported in the very same press. How does that work then? "
Bullying media bosses
Vincent
Peyrègne, CEO of WAN-IFRA, the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and
news publishers, which is sending a delegation to the UK in January: “A press freedom mission to the United Kingdom is unprecedented and we cannot
underestimate our concern for what is happening. It is rather difficult for the United Kingdom to lecture Sri Lanka and others
about their press freedom record, when its own actions result in such
widespread international condemnation.”
Humphrys on John Cole
John Humphrys on the BBC's former political editor John Cole, in the Guardian: "I
reported back to my then-bosses that, although I thought he was an
absolutely brilliant political journalist and the nicest person in the
world, I didn't think we should employ him as the on-air political
editor because people would simply find it too difficult to understand
his accent. Mercifully they ignored my advice completely. Of all the
massive errors of judgment I've made, that was probably my biggest. He
turned out to be a great star."
Another new look for Indy
Publisher Evgeny Lebedev on the Independent's latest redesign: "This newspaper has a proud record of innovation. It was the first
broadsheet title to go compact, after which many others, including
The Times, followed. In the past four years, my family took its sister title, the
London Evening Standard, free, returned it to profit, and launched this newspaper’s very successful spin-off,
i, which comfortably outsells
The Guardian.
That tradition of innovation makes me glad to see our masthead made
vertical. Together with other changes you can see today, I believe this
redesign revives the elegance and sophistication of the paper’s first
editions."
Times' three-year investigation into grooming
 |
| Andrew Norfolk: 'Lucky to work for Times' |
Andrew Norfolk, The Times' journalist who investigated the Asian gangs who groom young girls, speaking at City University:
"I feel so lucky at a time of staff and budget cuts that a newspaper
gave me three years to work on a story. It was a major commitment by
The Times."
It's a nib
Chris Huhne in the Guardian: "The
News of the World sparked the end of my marriage, but another
Murdoch title, the
Sunday Times, then groomed my ex-wife until she told
them about the speeding points."
The Telegraph in a leader on Chris Huhne's Guardian column: "A more self-delusional and morally contemptible article would be hard to
imagine. Many people have swapped speeding points, he wrote, as if this made
any difference to his breaking the law. Moreover, he claimed that a
newspaper investigation into his affair with another woman “sparked the end
of my marriage”. It seems not to have occurred to him that his adultery was
responsible for that."
Losing the local
Chris Oakley warns in the updated edition of What Do We Mean By Local? of a "Kafkaesque nightmare vision – citizens with no local pub, no
local post office, no local newspaper, no knowledge, no informed opinion
on anything that should matter to them or their families. Times are
always changing, but if good men and women - and good journalists - can
do nothing then change can destroy rather than create progress."
Bezos buys Wash Post
Donald Graham on the sale of the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon: "Our revenues had declined seven years in a row. We had innovated, and
to my critical eye our innovations had been quite successful in audience
and in quality, but they hadn’t made up for the revenue decline. Our
answer had to be cost cuts, and we knew there was a limit to that. We
were certain the paper would survive under our ownership, but we wanted
it to do more than that. We wanted it to succeed."
James Fallows on The Atlantic website on the sale of the Washington Post: "I think I'll remember where I was when I first heard the news -- via
Twitter! -- and I am sure it will be one of those
episode-that-encapsulates-an-era occurrences.
Newsweek's demise, a long time coming, was a minor temblor by comparison; this is a genuine earthquake."
Sunday Times victory over gang boss
The Sunday Times [£] in a leader about David Hunt after he lost a libel case against the newspaper: "Mr Hunt, in the judgment of Mr Justice Simon who tried his libel complaint,
has been involved in fraud, prostitution, money laundering and “extreme
violence”. Previously confidential documents produced at the trial revealed
that the police and other crime-fighting agencies have been well aware of
his activities for many years. Yet it has taken extremely brave witnesses,
including a persistent investigative reporter, Michael Gillard, to bring
these facts before the public. It has been a high stakes legal battle. This newspaper has needed deep pockets
to fill the vacuum left by those who should have taken on Mr Hunt long ago.
We have not shied from the task, just as in the past we took on the
distributors of thalidomide and the quarter-master general of the
Provisional IRA. This is what we do."
Murdoch meeting leak
Rupert Murdoch in a meeting with Sun journalists, leaked to Exaro and broadcast by Channel 4 News: "The idea that the cops then started coming after you, kick you out of
bed, and your families, at six in the morning, is unbelievable. But why are the police behaving in this way? It's the biggest
inquiry ever, over next to nothing."
Lawson defends Lawson
Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times [£] on the way columnists attacked his sister, Nigella, during the fraud trial of her assistants: "Naturally I understand that for newspaper
columnists, desperate to meet yet another deadline, human tragedy provides
the ideal opportunity for a piece of hastily improvised moralising; but that
self-righteousness depends (if the sensitive reader is not to feel
nauseated) on some sort of relation to the truth."
Piers Morgan goes into bat
Piers Morgan @piersmorgan on Twitter: "I'd
swap every job I've had, and every penny/dime I've earned, to play
cricket for England. Where's the pride? The sense of honour?
#Ashes"
Jumping Jack Hack
Mick Jagger interviewed by John Humphrys on the Today programme: "There're
a million things that you would have loved to have done, a politician, a
journalist. I thought of being a journalist once."
Our Subs Are Missing
Gameoldgirl on the Sub Scribe blog: "When did subs stop being journalists? And why do executives everywhere
now refer to them as the production department? The production
department used to be where the type was made and put into pages,
whether in hot metal or bits of sticky paper. Then it was the area where
a clutch of people would chase for pages and send them via computer to
the printers. Now it refers to the subs. They are no longer thinking, talented
journalists, masters of language, mistresses of design, but
'producers', conveyor-belt handlers of copy, fit only to write a
Google-friendly heading and to do the bidding of whoever happens to be
sitting on the newsdesk. Never mind how experienced the sub or how green
the news editor."
