Thursday 21 February 2019

Media Quotes of the Week: From digital giants rapped in 'fake news' report to has Private Eye found the ultimate digital business model?



Damian Collins MP, chair of the DCMS Committee following the publication of its investigation into disinformation and fake news: “Democracy is at risk from the malicious and relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised ‘dark adverts’ from unidentifiable sources, delivered through the major social media platforms we use everyday. Much of this is directed from agencies working in foreign countries, including Russia. The big tech companies are failing in the duty of care they owe to their users to act against harmful content, and to respect their data privacy rights."

Collins also claimed"Much of the evidence we have scrutinised during our inquiry has focused on the business practices of Facebook; before, during and after the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal. We believe that in its evidence to the Committee Facebook has often deliberately sought to frustrate our work, by giving incomplete, disingenuous and at times misleading answers to our questions."

Collins strongly criticised Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg“Even if Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t believe he is accountable to the UK Parliament, he is to the billions of Facebook users across the world. Evidence uncovered by my Committee shows he still has questions to answer yet he’s continued to duck them, refusing to respond to our invitations directly or sending representatives who don’t have the right information. Mark Zuckerberg continually fails to show the levels of leadership and personal responsibility that should be expected from someone who sits at the top of one of the world’s biggest companies."


Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour in the Guardian: “Today’s audience – not just Vogue’s audience, every audience – wants journalism to take a stand. People want to know what you believe in and what you stand for. In this time of fake news, when there is so much disregard for truth and value and for supporting those less fortunate than oneself, we have a moral obligation to stand up for what’s right.”



Alan Rusbridger @arusbridger on Twitter on front page of The Times using watermarks on its iPad edition: "Unwelcome trend; intrusive watermarking of important news photos, presumably to preserve their market value."

Telegraph political editor @gordonrayner Gordon Rayner on Twitter responds to Rusbridger: "Important news stories are only unearthed with investment and risk by media organisations. Why on earth should they then give away the hard-earned results of that endeavour to their rivals Alan? Competition breeds excellence, which benefits everyone."

Rusbridger replies on Twitter: "Not saying anyone should give away anything Gordon. Maybe it’s all inevitable - but we’re surely allowed to feel a little sad that future Don McCullins may have branded watermarks slapped in the middle of their brilliant images."
BuzzFeedUK investigations correspondent Jane Bradley @jane__bradley on Twitter: "When I got the first photo of ISIS ‘Beatle’ Alexander Kotey, we naively didn’t place our watermark prominently enough and countless newsrooms just cropped out the BuzzFeed credit. Scoops like this one take risk & resources and deserve recognition."


Chris Morley, Newsquest NUJ national coordinator, in a statement as the union put in a pay claim on St Valentine's Day: “Newsquest chapels up and down the country have used the fact that it is Valentine’s Day today to fire an arrow of passion from Cupid’s bow to local management to lodge their annual pay claims. They want to show how much burning desire there is among NUJ members to start the recovery from the severe neglect of their pay by the company over many years.... The annual pay for new news apprentices at Newsquest is just £7,250 while the boardroom remuneration bill runs to millions."



Michael Barbaro @mikiebarb on Twitter: "Having been repeatedly warned that this invocation endangers reporters — and is manifestly untrue — the president just keeps saying it anyway."


Owen Jones in the Guardian"The media is also desperately unrepresentative of those it exists to serve, partly because of the decline of local newspapers, which offered a way in for aspiring non-privileged journalists; and partly because of the prevalence of unpaid internships and expensive postgraduate journalism degrees, two routes into the profession which are financially prohibitive options for most."


BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones  @ruskin147 tweeting about Private Eye reporting a print circulation of  233,869 copies: "Private Eye has found the ultimate digital business model - not having a digital presence."

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