Matt Kelly @mk1969 on Twitter on Owen Jones: "White priveleged Oxbridge-graduate Guardian columnist railing against how hard-done the left is in mainstream media. he couldn’t lace the boots of some of the great left wing journalists i’ve had the privilege of working with. but none of them could match his talent for whining."
Manchester Evening News investigations editor Jennifer Williams @JenWilliamsMEN on Twitter: "Feel free to argue with me, Owen Jones, about where my public interest journalism comes from, which mogul is telling me and my colleagues across the country what to do and how to do it and how my relative poshness is a factor...Because actually here’s the thing: you earn your living writing polemic, which is fine, that’s a thing. But I earn my living doing public interest journalism. I know more about it. And if I sound angry it’s because I am. I’m absolutely f***ing sick of this.”
News editor at @ChronicleLive in Newcastle Sophie Barley @SophieBarley on Twitter: "You clearly have no insight into the world of journalism. You get to the top by being f****** good at what you do, never stopping, working all hours for the job you love and most imprtantly - passion. It has jack all to do with education."
Richard Horsman on his blog: "In regional news, over forty years, I've known very few posh folk. A few have passed through newsrooms, using them as stepping stones to something else, but the huge majority of local and regional journalists are fiercely dedicated to what they do within the communities they serve. They are united by an outlook of apolitical cynicism, a love of storytelling and an instinct to spot the quote at fifty paces. They enjoy highlighting injustices and the absurd, and especially challenging authority. They do all this for very little money over stupid hours in places the "elite" only set foot in at election times, or to write opinion pieces about depravation."
The Financial Times in a leader on Jeremy Corbyn's proposed media reforms: "Mr Corbyn’s criticisms are not all misplaced. The British media has a low trust rating, it lacks diversity and the phone hacking scandal was a disgrace. Yet it is hard to avoid the conclusion that these are the pretexts for action. His own media sympathies do not breed confidence. A commitment to a free and honest media would be more convincing were he not so enamoured of Iran’s Press TV, Russia’s RT and the communist-leaning Morning Star. There is room for a serious debate about improving UK media. But the Labour leader’s motives are all too clear. His remedies are less about freeing the press than taming it."
The Sun in a leader: "Jeremy Corbyn's sole motive in “changing the media” is to silence a hostile Press. The giveaway was when he attacked broadcasters yesterday for following up Sun stories. “Just because it’s on the front page of The Sun or Mail doesn’t automatically make it news,” he whined. Could this be because recent front pages have exposed Labour’s racism? That IS news, as page one stories in the two biggest daily papers tend to be. Britain already has the world’s most vibrant media. Corbyn is feigning some high-minded interest in improving it. But the last thing he wants is it holding a future Labour Government to account. He detests scrutiny, as his tantrums sparked by tricky questions prove."
Mick Hume on Spiked: "Corbyn is exploiting public concerns about the big tech firms’ behaviour as a shield behind which to pursue Labour’s own media-bashing plans. Look at what his woolly words mean. Corbyn wants to invest taxes in more ‘public-interest journalism’ – which appears to be an unquestionable Good Thing. The question it should always raise, however, is – who is going to decide exactly what the ‘public interest’ means? Government ministers? Judges? Jeremy Corbyn’s press office?"
Sarah Baxter in the Sunday Times [£]: "I wouldn’t trust Corbyn’s intentions towards the media under any circumstances. This is a Labour politician whose organ of choice for disseminating his views before he became leader was Russia Today — now RT, the propaganda channel for Putin — and Press TV, Iran’s mouthpiece. Boris Johnson made his biggest diplomatic blunder as foreign secretary when he wrongly suggested that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe — now spending time outside jail with her young daughter for the first time in two years — was “teaching people journalism”, so we know what the Iranians think of a free press."
NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet in a statement on Corbyn's speech: “As a trade union we would agree on the importance of empowering journalists to act ethically, increasing diversity and equality in the media, tackling the concentration of media ownership and power, and enabling media workers to have a louder voice in their own workplaces and on decision-making boards. The NUJ is not affiliated to any political party but it is important that politicians recognise the vital role of independent public interest journalism, and the grave price that some journalists have paid with their lives for speaking truth to power. We hope this speech is just the start of a more detailed discussion about how to bring change to the media that benefits journalists, journalism and society as a whole.”
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