Thursday 24 July 2014

Media Quotes of the Week: Regret over Ukraine air disaster coverage to sub editor struck by lightning




 Sky News spokeswoman, quoted by the Guardian:  "Today whilst presenting from the site of the MH17 air crash Colin Brazier reflected on the human tragedy of the event and showed audiences the content of one of the victims' bags. Colin immediately recognised that this was inappropriate and said so on air. Both Colin and Sky News apologise profusely for any offence caused."

Sky News' Colin Brazier in the Guardian: "I stood above a pile of belongings, pointing to items strewn across the ground. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a pink drinking flask. It looked familiar. My six-year-old daughter, Kitty, has one just like it.I bent down and, what my Twitter critics cannot hear - because of the sound quality of internet replays of the broadcast - is that I had lost it. It is a cardinal sin of broadcasting, in my book anyway, to start blubbing on-air. I fought for some self-control, not thinking all that clearly as I did so. Too late, I realised that I was crossing a line. I thought aloud: "we shouldn't be doing this … this is a mistake", an instant apology that was only selectively quoted by those determined to see what I did as a powerful example of journalistic vulturism."


Russia Today London correspondent Sara Firth to Press Gazette on why she had quit over coverage of the plane shot down in Ukraine: "When the story broke you get the kick in your stomach when you’re going to get the facts and it’s this huge story. And I walked into the newsroom and they were running an eye-witness account of God-knows who the person was blaming the Ukrainian government, and it is such a volatile situation. I said [in a previous interview], if I was asked to burn the facts and not tell the truth I’d be a goner, and so I’m gone… it’s the level of disrespect for the facts that really bugs me."


Matthew Price ‏@BBCMatthewPrice on Twitter on BBC News shots of relatives of passengers killed in the Ukrainian air disaster: "We left out much from the relatives we could have used, deliberately. We picked our pictures with care. And I hope my words gave context."


Tulisa, quoted by BBC News, on Sun on Sunday's Mazher Mahmood, after the collapse of her trial on drug charges: "Mahmood has now been exposed by my lawyers openly lying to the judge and jury. These lies were told to stop crucial evidence going before the jury."



Peter Jukes on Rebekah Brooks in the New Statesman: "Over the eight months I spent watching Brooks at the Old Bailey it felt as if the whole courtroom had become her friend. She nearly always smiled and said 'hi' to journalists, whether from the Guardian or the Times. I found myself wishing her happy birthday towards the end of the trial."


David Ho, editor for mobile, tablets and emerging technology at the Wall Street Journal, speaking at News:Rewired, as reported by Adam Tinworth on his blog: "Mobile is not the future. Mobile is here. If you're just now welcoming it into your journalism, you're playing catch-up. This is not to depress us, but to convey urgency. You keep hearing 'mobile, social, video', because it's a safe answer. He's a non-safe answer: Newspapers will outlast websites."


Express NUJ chapel: "This chapel does not see why hardworking journalists should subsidise Britain's greediest billionaire. It rejects Richard Desmond's damaging and flawed proposals to cut a third of editorial posts across Express Newspapers. We say these historic titles deserve better than the man who has mismanaged their decline and, time and time again, asked his staff to pay the price with pay freezes and with their jobs."


Andy Cooper ‏@arrazandy on Twitter: "Is it just me who'd like Louis Van Gaal's NEXT job to be editorial director of a regional media company?"

Edward Snowden 
alan rusbridger @arusbridger on Twitter: "Snowden to journalists: If the government thinks you’re the single point of failure, they’ll kill you.”


Hearst magazines chief executive Duncan Edwards in the Guardian: "We are moving from months to moments in our editorial thinking.”


Jay Rayner ‏@jayrayner1 on Twitter: 'Piss poor journalism from @Bwood_times. Misspells my name;gets book title wrong;says I spoke direct to them. I didn't."


The Grey Cardigan on TheSpinAlley: "His arms are wrapped around his knees and he is rocking back and forth while gently wailing. He is wearing a cardigan and by his side is a half-empty bottle of plastic cider. Every couple of minutes he stops rocking, looks up, and shouts skywards: 'THERE IS NO ‘E’ IN LIGHTNING!' I instantly realise that he is a sub-editor who has spent too long on Twitter over the weekend."

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