Thursday 13 September 2018

Media Quotes of the Week: From Polly Toynbee's dream job in journalism to how Burt Reynold's bombed the National Enquirer with manure



Polly Toynbee, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on the opportunity she most regrets missing out on: "The Daily Mail has just appointed a new editor. I did so want that job more than any other in journalism...I would've liked the chance to turn it into a Guardian-type paper."


Elon Musk in an email to the Guardian after being asked about smoking a joint during an interview:  Guardian is the most insufferable newspaper on planet Earth”.


Barack Obama, as reported by Business insider"I complained plenty about Fox News, but you never heard me threaten to shut them down, or call them 'enemies of the people'."


Geordie Greig in a speech to Daily Mail journalists, as reported by Jim Waterson in the Guardian: "The new editor, who replaced Paul Dacre after his 26 years in charge, said he wanted the paper to be 'forward-looking and valuing of our traditions' and use 'persistence, ruthless cunning, polite persuasion and relentless drive' in a bid to overtake the Sun to become the best-selling daily newspaper in Britain."


Lancashire Post chief news reporter Brian Ellis @BrianEllis7 on Twitter: "There are now only 17,000 frontline print journalists covering the whole of the UK, around 6,000 fewer than in 2007. Who is going to hold the establishment to account when we've all gone? Support your local papers - it will be a poorer world without them."



Jim Dao on why the New York Times published its controversial anonymous op-ed by a White 
House insider: "In our view, this Op-Ed offered a significant first-person perspective we haven’t presented to our readers before: that of a conservative explaining why they felt that even if working for the Trump administration meant compromising some principles, it ultimately served the country if they could achieve some of the president’s policy objectives while helping resist some of his worst impulses. We’ve certainly read excellent news stories that quoted anonymous officials making similar points and criticizing the president’s temperament and chaotic style. What distinguished this essay from those news articles was that it conveyed this point of view in a fleshed-out, personal way, and we felt strongly that the public should have a chance to evaluate it for themselves. The only way that could happen was for us to publish the essay without a byline."



Sir Alan Moses, Chairman of IPSO, in the press regulator's annual report“Successful press regulation depends on scrutiny of the judgement of editors. The central distinction between the press IPSO regulates and babble on the web, is that the content of it depends on the judgement of editors; it is their responsibility to comply with the Editors’ Code. IPSO’s duty is to hold them to that Code and provide guidance to avoid breaches in the future. IPSO stands at the boundary between protection of the public and freedom of speech; it preserves both bystriking a balance. I am confident and proud of our ability to continue to do so."


Newsquest editorial development director Toby Granville in a message to the company’s staff , as reported by HoldTheFrontPage: “Due to a reader comment on one of our stories during live criminal proceedings, a crown court judge abandoned the trial and ordered a re-trial out of area. Our newspaper has also been reported to the Attorney General. In circumstances like this there could be a prosecution under the Contempt of Court Act as well as statutory power under the Courts Act 2003 that allows the courts to recover wasted costs of re-trial from a third party where the ‘serious conduct’ of that third party affects a case. Therefore (while I’m sure many of you deactivate them already in circumstances like this) the policy going forward must be to not allow comments on stories about live criminal proceedings. Please ensure your staff are aware.”


Burt Reynolds, who has died aged 82,  interviewed by the Observer Magazine in January 2017: "Dumping a helicopter full of horse shit on the National Enquirer made me feel great. They’d been writing crap about me for years so I thought it was only fitting. One Christmas Eve my pilot and I loaded my helicopter with manure from my ranch, flew over the building and watched it cascade down their giant Christmas tree."

  • Correction of the week from Brazilian news magazine Veja"The candidate likes to spend his free time reading Tolstoy, and not watching Toy Story, as originally reported"

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