Media Quotes of the Week: From hospital scandal shows why we need local newspapers to can journalists and footballers ever be friends?

How the News covered the story in 2001

Former editor of The News, Portsmouth, Mike Gilson, on HoldTheFrontPage, after the paper was praised in the report into suspicious deaths at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital for highlighting the story from 2001: "What is heartening is that our stories did have the effect of emboldening those inside the system who knew something was wrong to come forward. A salutary lesson in these days when the democratic deficit arising from local journalism’s slow retreat from the frontline is causing real concern. Shortly after our first story, Pauline Spilka, a nursing auxiliary, explained that reading the article had led her to come forward...Of course I don’t claim The News did anything other than what it should have been doing. We did though go at it with a fire in the belly that makes me proud of the team even now. Primarily its shows that a partnership between people in need and public service journalism can get results…no matter how long it takes. We lose that bond at our peril."

Chairman of the George Orwell Journalism Prize judges David Bell on the Observer's Carole Cadwalladr who broke the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook data mining story: “This year’s winner – Carole Cadwalladr – deserves high praise for the quality of her research and for her determination to shed fierce light on a story which seems by no means over yet. Orwell would have loved it.”

Tim Walker @ThatTimWalker on Twitter: "Interesting the journalists getting the biggest stories on newspapers now are all at the Guardian group & all women."

Chris Morley, NUJ northern and midlands senior organiser, in a statement on plans by CN Group's new owner Newsquest to cut four out of five staff photographers on the Cumbria-based newspapers: "Our members at CN Group have been long suffering in terms of falling pay in real terms and an attrition of jobs over a number of years. But what shines out has been a dogged and determined commitment to quality local journalism that has kept the company going in the harshest of conditions – and they should be congratulated on this great achievement. Instead, new corporate master Newsquest has axed staff throughout the business and is about to now scythe through newsroom photographic capacity in a move that undermines this hard-won reputation for journalistic excellence."

Donald Trump @realDonaldTrump on Twitter: “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” written on the back of Melania’s jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!"

Guardian reader's editor Paul Chadwick backing editor Kath Viner's decision to spike a Steve Bell cartoon: "Intended or unintended, I believe that in this cartoon an allusion to the ovens of the concentration camps of the Holocaust is obvious. I don’t regard the image as antisemitic, which is important to state because Bell has been accused of it more than once before. Rather, I see the image as insensitively and counterproductively ill-judged...In this case I believe Bell delivered a clanger, amplified by the publicity his own actions prompted. It made Bell and potential antisemitism the story, and muted his cause, which I take to be a demand that Israel’s allies press it to explain the violent death of an articulate young woman who was just starting to come to attention."

From The Times [£]: "Facebook has always claimed that digital is the future, which makes the decision to create its own print magazine all the more remarkable. The social media giant has quietly launched a British-based quarterly magazine aimed at wealthy executives, in an apparently belated conversion to the power of the printed word. Grow is being distributed free in first and business-class airport lounges with the slogan “Grow Your Business. Grow Your Network. Grow Your Mind.” The tech giant’s executives seem unconcerned, or unaware, that Grow is already the name of a popular cannabis horticulture magazine published in the US, which has its own Facebook page. Facebook, which to escape closer regulation has always denied being a publisher, made no public announcement about the magazine’s launch."

Jen Skerritt  on Bloomberg: "As if the U.S. newspaper business didn’t have enough trouble coping with decades of lost readers and advertising dollars. An escalating trade dispute with Canada is poised to make every edition cost a lot more to publish. Newsprint prices have jumped since October to a three-year high and may keep increasing if, as expected, the administration of President Donald Trump slaps duties on imported paper from Canada next month."

Raheem Sterling on theplayerstribune.com: "If you grew up the same way I grew up, don’t listen to what certain tabloids want to tell you. They just want to steal your joy. They just want to pull you down. I’m telling you right now … England is still a place where a naughty boy who comes from nothing can live his dream."

Manager Gareth Southgate after a picture of an England team sheet was published by the media, as reported by BBC Sport: "Obviously any time, if we were to give the opposition the opportunity of having our team it's a disadvantage to us. So of course our media has to decide if they want to help the team or not."

Former England and Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy, on BBC Sport: "Some of the press guys want the best of both. They want to be playing darts and bowling with the lads and getting on and having banter with them but as soon as there is problem they will jump on you and hammer you. Make no mistake, a lot of that going and mixing with the press is fake, you do it because you have to do it as players. You know they [the media] will come for you as soon as they have a bad game."

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Media Quotes of the Week: Editors urged to call out Donald Trump as a Fascist to deviilsh ad tries to lure 'disillusioned hacks' to the PR dark side

Verified account

David Yelland Retweeted Nicholas Burns

Former Sun editor David Yelland @davidyelland on Twitter: "Every serving editor, both sides of pond, each have a hand of history on their shoulder. When the US President locked separated children up and behaved as a Fascist they need to be able to look back and say the called it right. This man is a Fascist. Call him that."

Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump: "Washington Post employees want to go on strike because Bezos isn’t paying them enough. I think a really long strike would be a great idea. Employees would get more money and we would get rid of Fake News for an extended period of time! Is @WaPo a registered lobbyist?"

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop after this year's Paul Foot award went to the Guardian's Amelia Gentleman for her investigation into the Windrush scandal: “Congratulations to Amelia Gentleman for a campaign that was revelatory, important and amazingly effective. This was the Windrush scandal – where a cabinet minister was thrown overboard and the ship of state nearly sank.”

Suzanne Moore in the Guardian on David Dimbleby leaving Question Time: "Who will  replace Dimbleby on Question Time? The nation frets. Who can do this demanding job of pointing to a man in a jumper and then apologising because it is a woman. Well, possibly a woman. Samira Ahmed, Emily Maitlis, Emma Barnett. There are loads of great women broadcasters around at the moment. But surely Question Time went from being unmissable event TV to eminently missable banal and tribal pantomime of spin a long time ago? Too many panelists, too many briefed-up politicians sticking to party lines, and the always spare “alternative” comedian who is neither funny nor clever."

Thomas Markle interviewed on ITV'S Good Morning Britain on why he colluded with a photographer for staged paparazzi photographs before the Royal wedding: "I thought it was improving my look, but that obviously went to hell. I didn't do this for money I did it to change my image. I was presented for a whole year as a hermit hiding out in Mexico, it was a mistake."

Mail target Patience Wheatcroft in the Guardian: "On Brexit, as so many other things, the Mail has a completely closed mind. This saddens me, as I started my Fleet Street career there, on the City pages, under the expert tutelage of Patrick Sergeant, who insisted on thorough analysis of issues and fair interviewing of individuals."

The Times [£] in leader: "Only one in 50 children can tell if a news story is real or fake, according to a survey published yesterday, and other research has found that adults are little better. It is vital, therefore, to preserve sources of information the public can trust. People buy and subscribe to newspapers like The Times because they know, from years of experience, that what appears, in print or online, is not the propaganda of a hostile foreign state, nor the attempt of a fraudster to generate clicks for commercial gain, nor a meme intended as a joke that has got out of hand. It is journalism, as it always has been."

40 minutes ago

Nick Cohen @NickCohen4 on Twitter: "Very much enjoying the long, slow vindication of @carolecadwalla. Many people, including journalists, do not understand that reporting isn't always a wham bam exclusive but months and years of knocking away at the walls, which protect powerful interests."

Lindsey Hilsum @lindseyhilsum on Twitter: "I’m excited too - and a bit nervous. It’s hard to write the biography of a friend who died.... to write with honesty and love about someone whom so many people cared about and who was a role model for many young journalists."

Job ad for a "disillusioned hack" to join  PR company, on HoldTheFrontPage: "Rhizome Media, a PR firm made up mostly of ex-hacks, is looking for an experienced (and probably thoroughly disillusioned) journalist who is happy to sell his or her soul to the devil for the right price. To hell with it, money makes the world go round."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Paul Dacre defended as 'newspaperman of genius' in Guardian letter to there's nothing as ex as an ex-editor

Former Observer and Independent editor Roger Alton in a letter to the Guardian: "Could I correct a couple of points in Polly Toynbee’s extraordinarily mendacious article about the Daily Mail (Bully-in-chief Dacre is off. Good riddance, 8 June). As someone who has knocked around a few newsrooms, let me assure you that there is less “racism, homophobia and philistinism” – to quote Toynbee – at the Daily Mail than at many of the other places I have known. Paul Dacre is a very great man and a newspaperman of genius who has done as much to improve the quality of life in Britain as anybody I can think of. One of my great regrets about his departure is that the scoundrels, rogues and thieves who stalk this pleasant land will soon have a much freer ride than before. They will not be sad that he is going. Ms Toynbee refers to the 1950s: a pleasant decade in my memory, not least because no one had to listen to Polly Toynbee talking nonsense."

Polly Toynbee in the Guardian on Paul Dacre: "Asked for the winning formula of his Daily Mail, Lord Northcliffe replied: 'I give my readers a daily hate.' No one has kept that flame burning more brightly than Paul Dacre, poisoner of the national psyche, bully-in-chief, whose iron whim has terrified prime ministers for a quarter of a century...Like all bullies he targets underdogs, imposing on the country racism, homophobia and philistinism, and shunning complexity and evidence."

Leave backer Arron Banks, appearing before the Media and Culture Committee looking into fake news: "We teased journalists. They are the cleverest, stupidest people on earth."

Carole Cadwalladr, after the Sunday Times and the Observer both splashed on Russian links with Leave campaigners amid claims story was given to the Sunday Times to 'spoil' the Observer scoop, quoted by Press Gazette: “Journalists jealously guard their scoops. However in this instance I thought if this is what it took to get this information out in the public domain, it also had to go in the Sunday Times, I was delighted, really pleased. The objective was to get it into the public domain. Whether that’s in the Observer or the Sunday Times I don’t care that much.”

Les Hinton in the Mail on Sunday on Norman Scott: "I found myself appointed Scott’s ‘minder’ when my newspaper, The Sun, did a deal with him for exclusive interviews. In my media career, I’ve spent time with presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and princes, the Sex Pistols, a couple of Rolling Stones, and a few billionaires but I’ll never forget my days in the depths of Devon with Norman Scott. It was a bleak period for the media — hoodwinked into believing Scott was a freak and a liar.When the Sunday Mirror received a dossier of powerful evidence to support Scott’s claim, the editor sent it to Thorpe and didn’t publish a word. Even in 1976, when the Thorpe-Scott scandal blew up into a national story, the Sunday Times published a front-page lead, headlined: The lies of Norman Scott."

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, interviewed in the Daily Telegraph [£]: "My job is to walk into an editor's office, throw a dead rat full of lice on their desk and say 'this what I want to do for the next three months, it's going to cost you a lot of money, you are going to get sued, you are going to get threats, and you are going to lose customers - but let's go at it!'"

The Committee to Protect Journalists' North America program coordinator Alexandra Ellerbeck in a statement on the seizure of phone and email records from New York Times reporter Ali Watkins by the United States Justice Department: "In order to perform their public accountability function, journalists must be able to protect their confidential sources. Efforts by government that undermine this ability therefore represent a fundamental threat to press freedom. This is why we believe that the government's seizure of Ali Watkins's data sets a dangerous precedent. We fear it could be an opening salvo in an ongoing battle over reporters' ability to protect their sources."

Steve Bird, father of chapel at the Financial Times, backing an NUJ campaign for journalists to take a proper lunch break outside their newsrooms on the longest day of the year next Thursday (June 21): "NUJ activists should follow the example set in Leeds to organise and promote a picnic outside of the office on the longest day of the year. Hopefully, this will provide an extra reason to get out of the office and will draw attention to the central issues of work stress and long hours.

Findings of a study into decline of local press in the US, reported by the Guardian: "When a local newspaper closes, the cost of government increases. That’s the conclusion of new survey from Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, which draws a direct line between loss of the watchful eyes of local newspapers and a decline in government efficiency."

Dominic Ponsford in Press Gazette: "Reading the Daily Mail is for me a little like eating foie gras.  There is some guilt about the suffering that has gone into its production, but you cannot deny that it somehow adds to the richness of the flavour."

David Yelland @davidyelland ‏on Twitter: "Putting remainer Geordie Greig in at the Daily Mail isn’t just big news it is revolutionary. This changes everything for Brexit and the consequences could be historic."

Paul Dacre in The Spectator [£]: “Support for Brexit is in the DNA of both the Daily Mail and, more pertinently, its readers. Any move to reverse this would be editorial and commercial suicide.”

Roy Greenslade in the Guardian: "At times, such as the front-page attacks on judges and Gina Miller, Dacre appeared to have lost all reason. How, one was given to saying, can Rothermere live with this stuff? Why is he keeping him in the chair? Now it is all too late. Greig will certainly pursue a less strident line, but the damage has been done. Dacre, the grand old Duke of York, marched his army up to the top of the Brexit hill, and they are still there, firing Mail-manufactured missiles at the so-called Remoaners. Greig cannot march them down again. He cannot turn back the clock. Although Brexit will be seen as Dacre’s legacy, see it instead as Rothermere’s. The last of Britain’s press barons has let his country down."

Matt Kelly @mk1969 on Twitter: "Logistics of the Mail changes make it seem likely that Dacre was pushed. No way he’d be happy with Greig as successor and no way would he be happy with him reporting to Rothermere He’s been totally bypassed in 24 hours. Some legacy!...and as @campbellclaret once told me; there’s nothing as ex as an ex-editor."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From barbs and bouquets for Dacre to sons of murdered journalist say she was 'harassed' by London libel lawyers

Lord Rotheremere on Paul Dacre, who is resigning as editor of the Daily Mail after 26 years to become chairman of Associated Newspapers before his 70th birthday in November: “Paul is, quite simply, the greatest Fleet Street editor of his generation not only for his huge circulation successes on both the Mail and Standard but also for the sheer power of his many campaigns, investigations and crusades that have held power to account, given a voice to the voiceless and often set the political agenda through six prime ministerships. He has done this while working tirelessly to defend press freedom to the benefit of our whole industry."

Alastair Campbell @campbellclaret on Twitter: "Dacre retires to spend more time with his EU grants on his Scottish estate and bronzing his corpulent frame in his fourth home in the British Virgin Islands. Worst of British values posing as the best. Malign influence on media culture. Good riddance xx"

David Wooding @DavidWooding on Twitter: "End of an era as Paul Dacre announced he is stepping down after 26 years as Daily Mail editor - few have been as successful AND lasted so long in a top role."

Andrew Adonis @Andrew_Adonis on Twitter: "Paul Dacre became Mail editor in 1992, as Maastricht rebellion starting. He overnight turned it into a vitriolic hard right Brexit rag. His proprietor Lord Rothermere is more balanced, so likely it will tilt towards centre & we are now past peak ‘media’ Brexit."

Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound on Twitter: "Thing is, people, when he got it right, Paul Dacre was a bloody genius. And he got it right more often than most of you would like. My 2p. *plans to spend the next 24 hours off Twitter*"

Paul Dacre in a message praising the Mail team, as reported by Press Gazette: “Whether it has been justice for Stephen Lawrence and the Omagh bomb victims, plastic in supermarkets and in the seas, dignity for the elderly, thwarting Labour’s plans for supercasinos, or putting sepsis and prostate cancer on the map, we have shown that newspapers make a difference...It’s this team that’s spearheaded the battle for freedom of expression against those who seek to impose statutory regulation of the press. This battle is on-going and I plan to continue playing as great a part in it as ever."

Lord Rothermere on appointing Geordie Greig, the Mail on Sunday editor, to succeed Dacre at the Daily Mail, quoted by the Guardian: “Geordie has been an outstanding editor of the Mail on Sunday, and I am delighted that he will continue the high-quality journalism that Paul has made a hallmark of the Daily Mail for more than 25 years.”

Leeds Live reporter Stephanie Finnegan, who has faced threats and abuse after getting reporting restrictions lifted in the Tommy Robinson contempt case, as reported by HoldTheFrontPage: “I’ve received threats to harm me and members of my family, both physically and sexually. I’ve also gotten an overwhelming amount of support, including from the co-author of McNae’s, [Twitter account] the Secret Barrister and [Daily Mirror associate editor] Kevin Maguire as well as interviews on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC Asian Network, which I think takes precedence over the abuse."

Manchester Evening News political editor Jennifer Williams @JenWilliamsMEN on Twitter: "Northern newspaper front pages this morning. Am told there was a degree of panic about this yesterday when it dawned on govt we were all doing it #OneNorth"

David Corn on Mother Jones on the Trump Russia investigation: "In this ongoing fight, it is Trump and his bumper stickers versus a media presenting a wide variety of disparate disclosures that come and go quickly in a hyperchaotic information ecosystem, often absent full context. No wonder then that a recent poll found that 59 percent of Americans said Mueller has uncovered no crimes. In fact, he has secured 17 criminal indictments and obtained five guilty pleas. Accurate news reporting alone does not always carry the day."

Former Ham&High editor Emily Banks after it was revealed the paper will no longer have its own editor, as reported by Press Gazette: “It is a historic newspaper and the pride of Archant’s London portfolio. It’s had such a great reputation for so many years and now it doesn’t even have its own editor or its own news team.”

Grant Feller in the Guardian on Evening Standard editor George Osborne: "As an industry, journalism has never been more vital to society. Yet because of the scourge of fake news it is also one of the least trusted. Osborne’s editorship can only dent that level of trust further. There are many talented journalists who work on the Evening Standard and the paper’s columnists are some of the best-connected writers around. But they will never again be able to write about individuals who are conflicted by multiple interests without knowing, deep down, that their boss is one of the most conflicted of all."

Former cabinet minister  Jonathan Aitken, who was jailed for lying on oath in a libel trial against the Guardian, in the Sunday Times [£] on becoming a prison chaplain:  “I’m every bit as excited as I was on my first day on the East Anglian Daily Times as the assistant tennis and funerals correspondent.”

Les Hinton Retweeted Les Hinto

Les Hinton Retweeted Les Hinton

Les Hinton @leshinton on Twitter: "The Liverpool Echo was my first link to the glamour of newspapers. My uncle was a cleaner there and brought home huge black-and-white news photos he took from the trash cans @LivEchonews #Bootle #Liverpool #Merseyside...My gran loved the Liverpool Echo. She tore up squares of the Daily Mirror for loo paper in the outhouse, but NEVER @LivEchonews."

Juliette Garside in the Guardian: "A British law firm has been accused by the family of the murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia of harassment, intimidation and an attempt to “cripple” her financially by threatening to sue her in the UK. When Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in October 2017, she was fighting 47 civil and criminal defamation lawsuits from an array of business people and politicians, brought by multiple law firms. In the months before her death, the anti-corruption journalist received letters from the London office of the blue-chip firm Mishcon de Reya, which specialises in bringing defamation cases. Mishcon had been hired to defend the reputation of a client doing business in Malta. 'The firm sought to cripple her financially with libel action in UK courts,' Caruana Galizia’s three sons claim in a letter to the writers’ campaign group English PEN...It has triggered a debate at English PEN, which in December appointed Mishcon’s deputy chairman, Anthony Julius, to its board of trustees."

PEN in a statement: "We are aware that libel threats remain a problem for investigative journalists, particularly those operating independently and who may not have access to the legal advice available at larger media companies. We are therefore consulting with journalists – particularly those operating independently – on how the current law operates in practice."
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