Thursday 21 November 2019

Media Quotes of the Week: From Prince Andrew's 'car crash' interview to clobbering Corbyn while giving Johnson an easy ride plus intro of the week



Emily Maitlis in The Times [£] on the preparations for her interview with Prince Andrew: "We have finished laying out our pitch. An awkward moment of silence falls. And the duke tells us he must 'seek approval from higher up'. It dawns on us then that he means the Queen herself. At 8am the next day we have a message telling us to call his office. The Queen, it seems, is on board."

Tim Shipman on Twitter: "When I hear a politician saying 'I have no recollection,' I know I'm 100% OK to write the story because that always means 'I don't like it, but I can't deny it.' EVERY TIME. It's the accepted nod, wink form of words for 'I'm bang to rights'. Is the Duke badly advised or stupid?"

David Yelland on Twitter: "There has hardly been an ill-judged interview as Prince Andrew’s with @maitlis - who did a superb job - he left too many questions unanswered and now can’t avoid US authorities. Extraordinary."

Caitlan Moran on Twitter: "Everyone is - quite rightly - going on about how precise, brilliant and deadly @maitlis was interviewing Prince Andrew. But the thing I was most impressed by was her ability to not start laughing."


Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips after a Mirror reporter was banned from the Conservative's battle bus: "Mirror readers have every right to know what the Conservatives have in store for them should Boris Johnson win the election. Our journalists have every right to scrutinise the Conservatives on our readers' behalf. Blocking us from doing our job is deeply worrying for freedom of journalism and the protection of the truth."


HoldTheFrontPage reports: "Reach plc is launching seven digital-only news titles and creating 46 jobs as it expands further into its rivals’ territories. The regional publisher has announced the launch of the new titles to be launched under its ‘Live’ brand, which will cover Sunderland, County Durham, Sheffield, North Yorkshire, Bradford, Newport and Bolton. Reach will hire 46 journalists to work across the titles, some of which will be run as standalone sites and some of which will form sub-brands within larger existing sites."


Byline Investigates reports: "MEGHAN Markle has accused the Mail newspaper titles of waging a three-year fake news campaign against her – and lying about its publication of a highly private letter she wrote her father, Byline Investigates can exclusively report. Court papers, newly filed in the Duchess of Sussex’s High Court action against Associated Newspapers, set out an extensive list of 'false' and 'absurd' stories that commentators say raise serious questions about the honesty of the Mail papers’ journalism. Among them, are articles stating Prince Harry and Meghan bought a £5,000 copper bath, spent £500,000 on soundproofing, and even built an entire new wing of their home - and charged it to taxpayers - when in fact, the documents explain, this was all 'completely untrue'."

A Mail on Sunday spokesman quoted in The Times [£]: “As we have said before, we will be defending this case with the utmost vigour. There is nothing in this document which changes that position.”


Barney Ronay in the Guardian on financial pressures facing football magazine When Saturday Comes"One reason for a squeeze on current cash flows is WSC has stopped taking gambling adverts. They just couldn’t keep doing it in good faith while writing about the issues. Gambling companies are the main print advertisers."


New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet in the Guardian: “It’s the Guardian, it’s the New York Times, the Washington Post. It’s the papers that were supposed to be the dinosaurs that are breaking the big stories.”


Tim Montgomerie on Twitter: "At the last election the big newspapers only really attacked Labour at the eleventh hour - after Corbyn’s poll took everyone by surprise. This time? It’s been full on from the off."


Gary Younge in the Guardian"Corbyn has proved a lightning rod. His election as Labour leader has laid bare what was only partially visible during the attacks on Miliband and Brown. Failing to accept him as the legitimate leader of the opposition, the rightwing press fear his premiership as they have feared no other Labour leader before."






Peter Oborne in the Guardian: "A big reason for Johnson’s easy ride is partisanship from the parts of the media determined to get him elected. I have talked to senior BBC executives, and they tell me they personally think it’s wrong to expose lies told by a British prime minister because it undermines trust in British politics. Is that a reason for giving Johnson free rein to make any false claim he wants? Others take the view that all politicians lie, and just shrug their shoulders. But it’s not true that all politicians lie. Treating all politicians as liars gives a licence for the total collapse of integrity of British politics, a collapse that habitual liars such as Johnson are delighted to exploit. The British media is not holding him to account for his repeated falsehoods. It’s time we journalists did our job, and started to regain our self-respect."


  • Intro of the Week from Tom Whipple in The Times [£]: "It may be the first time that vegans have asked to see more meat and two veg. Male students from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) have withdrawn a picture from a naked calendar after an animal rights group was angered by the way the vets protected their modesty — with sheep. In the image, taken in a sheep shed, the ovine merkins were “tipped” in front of them, a position in which they are held up by their forelimbs."
[£]=paywall



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