Media Quotes of the Week: From Prince William blasts paparazzi, beauty and the Beeb and where have all the working class journalists gone?

Prince William on ITV's 'Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy' about the paparazzi: "If you are the Princess of Wales and you're a mother, I don't believe being chased by 30 guys on motorbikes who block your path, who spit at you to get a reaction from you… and make a woman cry in public to get a photograph, I don't believe that is appropriate. I sadly remember most of the time she ever cried about anything was to do with press intrusion. Harry and I, we had to live through that."

Rosamund Urwin in the London Evening Standard on BBC pay: "Scrutinise the list, and the whiff of sexism becomes a stench. The best-paid women — brilliant broadcasters though they are — are mostly beautiful. The men? No lookers in the top seven."

Janice Turner in The Times [£]: "Whenever a newsroom is portrayed on TV or film they make the journalists far too good-looking. We are not by and large an attractive industry. (I mean print medium here: a tighter filter operates in TV.)...It helps to remember that when people say politics is show business for ugly people many of them began as hacks."

Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times [£]: "We are not remunerated purely on the basis of the good we do in society, otherwise I’d get 20 times what Polly Toynbee earns."

Private Eye on that Impress ruling against Byline: "A system cooked up by a cross-party agreement, imposed at enormous public expense and intended as a universal system which would finally give the public confidence in self-regulation by the national press, has ended up with a white elephant overseeing arcane personal squabbles among a tiny, incestuous circle at loggerheads over the very subject of press regulation itself. Trebles all round."

Peter Veron in the Columbia Journalism Review on ex-White house press secretary Sean Spicer: "The temptation is to view Spicer as a tragic, beleaguered figure, placed in an untenable position by a boss who demanded absolute loyalty. Don’t do it. Spicer proved on his first full day in office that he had no qualms about defending an ultimately meaningless falsehood. For six months, he presided over a communications team that actively undermined the work of the press."

The Times [£] in a leader: "It has taken four years for The Times, together with the Oxford Mail, to secure the right to identify a millionaire businessman named in evidence in a landmark child sex grooming trial in which five men were jailed for life. This has been a battle not only to assert the rights of a free press but also to fulfil its duties to the public. It has taken so long because lawyers for the businessman, Tariq Khuja, have argued at the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court that his right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights outweighed any public interest in the fact that he was arrested in connection with this case and mentioned several times at the trial."

Mike Gilson in chapter from a new book Brexit, Trump and the Media, edited by Tor Clark, Neil Fowler and John Mair, serialised on HoldTheFrontPage: "Journalists often joke they got into the trade because they were poor at mathematics but even we can work out that the loss of 8,000 jobs since 2008 and the need to feed multi-platforms at the same time has seriously damaged the ability to properly rather than superficially cover the patch. The democratic deficit caused by journalism’s crisis is not just a neat phrase. It is real and, for me, it played a part in the degradation of debate, whatever side you were on, that we saw in the run up to June 23 last year."

Lewis Goodall, SKY News political correspondent, says analysis of the BBC pay list shows 45% of the Corporation's best paid stars went to private schools: "We're supposed to be the ones who find and tell the stories that matter to our audiences, and for the BBC, all of its licence fee payers. How are we supposed to do that if we are drawn from an increasingly narrow social caste? Maybe, just maybe, if we had more kids in journalism who grew up in tower blocks, we'd have been better at shining a light on the living conditions of some of our fellow citizens, like those who lived and died in Grenfell Tower. Or we would be less disposed to the curse of group think which has led journalists to call it wrong time after time in recent years, whether it be Corbyn, Trump or Brexit."

Newsnight's diplomatic correspondent Mark Urban @MarkUrban01on Twitter: ‏1/Lots of discussion today about opportunities in UK journalism, class and privilege. Some observations from 30+ years in TV & papers...2/ A double whammy of London rents/property prices & falling real wages is a big factor helping those with money to go for entry level jobs...3/ Opportunity has declined steeply - Newsnight day desk had three times as many junior producers in 1980s than now, papers it's even worse..4/ as anyone trying to get a foothold in journalism will tell you,unpaid internships, & exploitative short term contracts are new normal now.

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Robert Redford backs US press against Trump to Gary Lineker supports sport reporters against angry managers

Robert Redford in the Washington Post: "This year marks the 45th anniversary of the Watergate scandal. Because of my role in the film, some have asked me about the similarities between our situations in 1972 and 2017. There are many. The biggest one is the importance of a free and independent media in defending our democracy. When President Trump speaks of being in a “running war” with the media, calls them “among the most dishonest human beings on Earth” and tweets that they’re the “enemy of the American people,” his language takes the Nixon administration’s false accusations of “shoddy” and “shabby” journalism to new and dangerous heights."

The Times [£]: "The Guardian is 'actively considering' moving back to Manchester in an attempt to save money. Senior executives at Guardian Media Group have held 'top secret' talks about moving the newspaper’s headquarters from north London back to its birthplace in Manchester, The Times has learnt. The newspaper, which began its move to the capital in 1964, has been suffering from falling advertising revenue as retailers turn to Google and Facebook. Last year it made 250 staff redundant and employees have been told that more job cuts are on the way, with the newspaper expecting to make heavy financial losses again this year."

The Daily Mail comments on the possible move North by the Guardian in a leader: "The move might even put its journalists in touch with real people, inspiring them to write articles of interest beyond the Islington echo-chamber of sociology lecturers and the public sector elite. It would certainly be worth paying money to see Polly in a Salford two-up two-down. One word of advice to the great people of Manchester. If the Guardian (which loses £95million a year) really ran the country – instead of telling everyone else how to manage our affairs – we’d all be living in mud huts."

Jeremy Corbyn after being asked by ITV News political correspondent Paul Brand if he would consider standing down as leader of the Labour Party:  “You’re obsessed with this question, utterly obsessed...We have a strong opposition in this country, if you bothered to report what we were doing. It’s your responsibility to make sure the opposition voice is heard as well as the government’s. It’s your failings.”

John Collings, editor of the Plymouth-based Sunday Independent, speaking to HoldTheFrontPage about the closure of the newspaper after more than 200 years: “Sadly, the decision has been made this morning to stop trading the Sunday Independent as of today – unless something totally unforeseen happens in the next day or so. The news has not totally sunk in yet with any of the 20 or so staff, and a host of contributors from Bristol, to Swindon, to Weymouth and all the way down to Land’s End, who we are in the process of contacting."

Brexit backer Aaron Banks interviewed in The Observer: “As businessmen, we sat down with a clean sheet of paper and said, ‘How do we beat these people?’ And then we figured out how the mainstream media works – how they operate – and we turned it back on them.We worked out how to take their outrage, how to take their pain – in your case – and feed it back into the system. You know we spent £12-14m on the campaign? And we calculated what our column inches and TV coverage was worth. It was over £150m .”

Nick Clegg interviewed in the Guardian: claimsBritain was being run by a "curious cabal of old men", namely the power brokers on Britain’s pro-Brexit newspapers – the Telegraph’s Barclay brothers, the Sun’s Rupert Murdoch and the Daily Mail’s Paul Dacre. Describing them as puppet masters, he said they wanted to turn Britain into an offshore economy, calling them a "bunch of old men – not elected by anybody – [with] Theresa May as their hostage."

The Society of Editors in a statement: "The deterioration of media freedom and the use of emergency powers to jail journalists in Turkey is deeply worrying at a time when the country requires a free press more than ever. 180 news outlets have been shut down in the past eight months under laws passed by presidential decree and the Committee to Protect Journalists has stated that Turkey is now the biggest jailer of journalists in the world. This is an accolade unprecedented in Europe and the western world."

MPs in a letter backing BBC coverage of Brexit, as reported by the Guardian: “The BBC rightly guards its independence and should resist attempts at political interference or pressure. We expect the BBC to defend its independence and report impartially, robustly and fearlessly on all issues relating to Brexit and not succumb to any pressure to skew its coverage one way or another.”

Gary Lineker‏@GaryLineker  on Twitter on Sunderland manager David Moyes telling a BBC reporter she might get a slap: "Moyes incident highlights a tendency for some managers to treat interviewers with utter disdain. Pressured job. Well rewarded. Inexcusable."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From judges back Daily Mail to tweet and be damned in the libel courts

Judges of the British Press Awards naming the Daily Mail Newspaper of the Year: “In the seismic year of Brexit, the battle for No.10 and campaigning journalism, the winner had its finger on the pulse of the national conversation. Not only did it shape both the agenda and the narrative it reflected the temper of a large part of the country in a year of political upheaval. It was a must-read across the political and public spectrum and its strong and provocative voice never wavered."

Ian McEwan, quoted in the Guardian, on pro-Brexit politicians: “Their militant wing, the tabloid press, has started to look into the lives of the judges who rule that Brexit could result in the loss of human rights to see whether they’re homosexual or something. It’s reminiscent of Robespierre and the terror of the French revolution. The air in my country is very foul.”

Polly Toynbee in the Guardian on Brexit: "The 'framers', as usual, will be the Mail, the Sun, Express and Telegraph, pouncing on any compromise, blaming foreigners who, not unreasonably, say a Brexit deal must be worse than Britain staying in. Monday’s Daily Mail, ahead of the Lords’ reprised debate, issued a typically thuggish threat across its front page: “Cover-up over ‘dodgy’ payouts to peers.” Vote the wrong way, and we’ll dig out your attendance expenses. That’s how it will be every step of the way with these true 'enemies of the people'. Theresa May, who apparently never knowingly opposes the will of the Mail, will surely give way every time. Indeed, it might save a lot of time if she simply asked Paul Dacre and Rupert Murdoch what, if any, compromises they will stomach to get a deal, and do what they say."

The Brighton Argus NUJ chapel in a statement: “As journalists we are used to facing the unexpected every day, but at present this extends beyond our roles, and we have grave concern for the future of the paper and the security of our jobs. Over the past few months members of the editorial team have faced an unprecedented amount of change – with no clear future plan in sight. The team has shrunk in the last year because of cuts made by the company and because departing staff are not being replaced...The management's decisions appear unplanned, inconsistent and made without consideration for the welfare of staff who are committed to their jobs."

Matt Dathan‏@matt_dathan on Twitter: "Asked for his reaction to this morning's newspaper headlines, Hammond responds: "I love Sun sub-editors - they're brilliant, aren't they?"

Donald J. Trump‏@realDonaldTrump on Twitter: "It is amazing how rude much of the media is to my very hard working representatives. Be nice, you will do much better!"

Owen Jones on Facebook: "I'm going to take a break from social media except to post articles and videos and the occasional events. This isn't flouncing off. It's just it has come to point where it is a) totally unproductive and b) frankly just completely and utterly depressing."

Piers Morgan‏@piersmorgan on Twitter: "Nothing more risible than media types making pompous statements about quitting Twitter.
 a) Nobody cares.

b) They always come back.

Mark Lewis who acted for Jack Monroe in her successful libel action over a tweet by Katie Hopkins, as reported by Press Gazette: “Hopkins has had to pay out of her own pocket a six-figure sum in damages and costs for a tweet that should have been deleted within minutes as soon as she was told it was wrong. On this occasion, the cost of renting that gob was particularly high. Hopkins claimed that Twitter was just the wild west where anything goes. The judge has shown that there is no such thing as a Twitter outlaw.”

Brendan O'Neill on Spiked: "The Twitterati is celebrating the court judgement because they hate Hopkins. The fools. It doesn’t matter what you think of Hopkins – you should be concerned that England has some of the worst libel laws in the world and that they have now been deployed to punish someone for making a mistake in a tweet."

Jack Monroe@MxJackMonroe on Twitter:

More

"Lol all the people wanging on about free speech re this case. 

"Sorry" would have been free speech. 

Like literally, free. 

Literally. FREE."

David Banks @DBanksy on Twitter: "I carry no torch for Katie Hopkins, but to face a legal bill of £300k+ for two tweets is an obscenity..."