Media Quotes of the Week: Andrew Norfolk and Rotherham, freelances on the frontline and old Times as clattering typewriters make comeback

How The Times broke the Rotherham scandal

Andrew Norfolk, who exposed the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal,  in The Times [£]:  "There have been many days during the past four years when I secretly longed for it all to come to an end. It was just too bleak, the details of the crimes too grotesque, too calculated to make one utterly despair of human nature. In those dark days, it was always the girls and their families who kept me going. Some victims understandably broke and sank without trace. Others, remarkably, survived. They went through months and years of self-hating misery but — sometimes with admirable support from specialist projects — have shown extraordinary resilience to build a future for themselves. They decided to trust The Times with their stories and they are the closest this tale will ever come to having heroes or heroines."

The Times [£] in a leader: "When forced by The Times in 2012 to confront its neglect, Rotherham tried to muzzle this newspaper and launch a witch-hunt for whistleblowers."

Peter Oborne ‏@OborneTweets on Twitter: "Andrew Norfolk of the Times, who played such a brave role in uncovering the Rotherham scandal, commands the admiration and gratitude of all."

Hannah Storm of the International News Safety Institute, on the murder of James Foley, quoted in the Observer: "He is not the first freelance journalist to be killed this year, and he will probably not be the last… With a dearth of jobs in newsrooms, and overseas bureaux being cut by major news organisations, many freelances have turned to conflicts to cut their teeth."

Martin Chulov in the Guardian: "Stripped down, pared-back journalism has created opportunities for those who dare, but it has also allowed outlets to hide behind flaky bottom lines as a means of abdicating responsibility. Radio stations, television networks and print outlets continue to outsource their coverage to reporters who often work without basic protection. The price of that dereliction has been paid in the dungeons of north Syria. The meltdown of the Middle East is one of the most important stories of our time, every bit as significant globally as the end of the cold war. Too many outlets have covered it through exploitation."

Michael Wolff on USA Today: "Mail Online, with 180 million unique visitors a month, is not only the world's most-trafficked English-language newspaper website — establishing a powerful mass market connection or, depending on your point of view, a new low in the taste deficit — but quite possibly the first time a traditional print organization has solved the paradox of digital migration."

Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian :"At its inception the world wide web seemed to promise an escape from corporate and governmental powers, an egalitarian free-for-all. Now? It has increasingly become a sophisticated extension of them. The hopes once nurtured by the man who invented the web have been not so much abandoned as betrayed."

John Naughton in the Observer: "'Be careful what you wish for,' runs the adage. 'You might just get it.' In the case of the internet, or, at any rate, the world wide web, this is exactly what happened. We wanted exciting services – email, blogging, social networking, image hosting – that were 'free'. And we got them. What we also got, but hadn't bargained for, was deep, intensive and persistent surveillance of everything we do online."

Michael Cross ‏@michaelcross on Twitter: "I am convinced there is a gap in the market for a newspaper without a bloody picture of Kate Bush on the front page."

The Drum: "Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks and her co-defendants are planning legal action to recover up to £25 million in legal costs from the taxpayer."

Newspaper Society website: "Sir Alan Moses, chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation, has written to publishers to confirm that IPSO will be launched on 8 September. From that date, complainants to IPSO who raise substantive concerns under the Editors’ Code will be referred directly to publications to resolve their complaints, so he stressed the need for publishers to have effective complaints-handling systems in place."

MailOnline: "Men are more than twice as likely as women to be victims of trolling on Twitter, but are the ones most responsible for the bullying, it has been revealed. According to an analysis of more than 2million messages sent to celebrities, politicians and journalists - one in every 20 sent to prominent male figures was abusive compared to only one in 70 for females. Piers Morgan is hit by the most hate-filled messages, with 8.4 per cent of the tweets he receives including derogatory comments."

Piers Morgan @piersmorgan on Twitter: "REVEALED: 91.6% of all tweets to me are not offensive."

The Independent: "To the surprise of Times journalists, a tall speaker on a stand has been erected in the newsroom to pump out typewriter sounds, to increase energy levels and help reporters to hit deadlines. The audio begins with the gentle patter of a single typewriter and slowly builds to a crescendo, with the keys of ranks of machines hammering down as the paper’s print edition is due to go to press."

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