Media Quotes of the Week: From why the Mirror's Johnson-Arcuri affair revelations matter to what's inside Piers Morgan fighting to get out?

Fleet Street Fox in her Mirror column: "As Jennifer Arcuri finally admits the fling that everyone already suspected, the Mirror's story is being widely ignored by other news outlets. And there are plenty of people who glance at it, see a kiss-and-tell which confirms their opinion, and think 'who cares'. But, as any ex-wife knows, knowing someone has done it before does not mean you are fine with it happening again...It was not in the public interest to get his girlfriend on taxpayer-funded trips she had no right to, he has not declared a relationship with someone who may benefit from it, he's refused to discuss it, and it's only his zipper that's been open thus far."

• George Grylls in The Times [£]: "Boris Johnson conducted himself with honesty and integrity in his alleged relationship with Jennifer Arcuri, his press secretary said yesterday, following new accounts that the two had sex on a sofa in his marital home."

• Hardeep Matharu on Byline Times: "The BBC has told Byline Times that 'stories are chosen due to their editorial merit' and that it 'has covered the issue substantially when there have been newsworthy updates' when asked why it has not reported new revelations by the businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri that she had a four-year-long sexual affair with Boris Johnson."

Boris Johnson speaking at a meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, as reported by The Times [£] : “We need to recognise on the whole that there is a great deal of instinctual metropolitan bias in the BBC newsroom. Let’s hope they learn from what their viewers and listeners want. It’s pretty clear from the whole Brexit experience that the BBC was pretty detached from a lot of its viewers and listeners and I hope they move more into line.”

BBC News reports: "The BBC's Beijing correspondent John Sudworth has left China and moved to Taiwan following pressure and threats from the Chinese authorities. Sudworth, who has won awards for his reporting on the treatment of the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region, left Beijing with his family. The BBC says it is proud of his reporting and he remains its China correspondent."

Matty Edwards of Bristol Cable in the Guardian on the reporting of demonstrations and policing in the city: "After local journalists had risked harm to themselves for the third time in six days to accurately document the events, it was incredibly frustrating to see the national media framing the events in line with Priti Patel and Boris Johnson’s condemnations of the protests as 'violent thuggery'. The national public risks being misled about how events unfolded, imagining scenes similar to the police vans set ablaze last Sunday. In fact, a 10-minute scan of excellent reporting from multiple media sources in Bristol would have given any national journalist a more complete picture of what happened."

Eleanor Mills in a statement on her resignation from the board of the Society of Editors, as reported by Press Gazette: “The chronic lack of diversity in British newspaper newsrooms and the lack of representation of BAME groups in decision-making amounts in my view and those of many others, to structural racism in the media. This is not to accuse individuals of racism but merely to remark that the lack of a broader perspective and representation of non-white views can result in unfairly slanted coverage. Often segments of our media do operate a double standard when it comes to race and I believe it is the duty of the Society of Editors to come out and say so. If there is no agreement even on the scale of the problem we are dealing with then it is hard to have confidence in the decisions of the board going forward to remedy it."

Liz Gerard in Press Gazette: "Ian Murray [Society of Editors executive director] blundered in his response to the Oprah show because he comes from the 'defend the press at all costs' school of thought; the same school that doubles down when asked 'couldn’t you be a little kinder?', insisting: 'We hold the powerful to account and any challenge to the way we behave is a direct assault on democracy itself” – as though being even slightly less horrid to wretched boat people or glamorous celebrities is the first step to totalitarianism."

The Times reports [£]: "The paparazzi agency that was sued by the Duchess of Sussex over a photograph of her son has filed for bankruptcy in America, blaming its troubles partly on the 'unbearably expensive' legal costs of the case. Splash News was sued by Meghan in March last year in Britain over photographs taken in January of her strolling through a park on Vancouver Island with Archie. Emma Curzon, the company’s president, said its financial problems stemmed from the duchess’s case and from a suit brought by a former employee. She also blamed the pandemic for limiting 'the availability of celebrity images' and the willingness of newspapers and magazines to pay for them."

New online news website NationalWorld from JPI media on why it's launched: "NationalWorld is a new national news brand, produced by a team of journalists, editors, video producers and designers who live and work across the UK. We will aim to provide incisive, informed and intelligent coverage of the issues that matter to you. We are part of JPI Media, one of the UK’s leading regional media organisations. As such, we won’t report on the news through a London lens. Instead, we will endeavour to shift the focus to the people, places and perspectives which are still often underreported and unheard in the media."

Dominion Voting Systems, the target of conspiracy theories in the US Presidential election, in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, as reported by CNN: "Fox took a small flame of disinformation and turned it into a forest fire. The truth matters. Lies have consequences...Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process. If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does."

Piers Morgan in the Mail on Sunday on the row over the Harry and Meghan interview that saw him leave Good Morning Britain: "The show's on fire, in every sense. But the flames are now raging uncontrollably towards me. To compound my growing twitchiness, I got a text from my old foe Jeremy Clarkson that read: 'I am completely on your side.' Oh s**t. This must be more serious than I thought. Mid-afternoon, Kevin Lygo, ITV's Director of Television, who I'd spoken to several times since yesterday, rang to say we were now 'on the cliff edge' and either I apologised, or I would have to leave GMB...I called Kevin back, said I wouldn't be apologising, and we agreed I'd leave GMB with immediate effect."

BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker in The Sunday Times Magazine [£]: "Piers [Morgan] and I have had a friendly rivalry, but it has been good for BBC Breakfast and GMB. He likes to throw a few insults around, but underneath all the froth I think there is a decent bloke fighting to get out."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From 'Murder the media' mob attack press in Washington mayhem to new regional paper boss says focus on local content

Tiffany Hsu and Katie Robertson in The New York Times: "Smashed cameras. Threats. The words “Murder the Media” scratched into a door of the Capitol. As Trump supporters rampaged on Wednesday, incited by the president’s false claims of a stolen election, they hit on a secondary target: journalists. Members of the news media who were reporting from the streets and squares of Washington were threatened and surrounded, and their colleagues inside the Capitol were forced to shelter in secure locations for hours."

• A video taken by William Turton, a Bloomberg News reporter, showed a crowd outside the building advancing on a camera crew, yelling, “Get out of here,” and smashing equipment. Paul McLeod, a Buzzfeed News reporter, shared a photo of a noose the group had fashioned out of a camera cord and hung from a tree.

Samantha Jo-Ross on Twitter: "Murder the media" was carved into the U.S. Capitol today. There are no words to express how disturbing this is. A free press that's able to hold those in power accountable is what makes our democracy work. I'm proud to be a journalist & I'm thankful for my colleagues on the Hill."

Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Joel Simon: “We are gravely concerned by today’s attack on American institutions, including the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., where journalists as well as lawmakers are at risk. Journalists and news crews covering these events, which are of paramount public interest, must be able to do so freely and safely, with the support and protection of law enforcement. Intimidation and vandalism have already been carried out by violent protesters and there is a real possibility of escalating attacks on the media."

Mark Kleinman on Sky News: "The latest addition to Britain's array of 24-hour news channels is to begin recruiting more than 100 journalists after completing a £60m fundraising that it claims was significantly oversubscribed. GB News, which aims to launch later this year, said Sir Paul Marshall, a prominent hedge fund manager, and Legatum, a Dubai-based investment group, would become major shareholders in the company."

GB News chairman Andrew Neil, in a press release: "We're thrilled to have such a broad range of high-calibre investors who share our belief that many British people are crying out for a news service that is more diverse and more representative of their values and concerns." 

• The new channel says it will recruit 140 staff - including 120 journalists - and expects to reach 96% of British television households through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, YouView and Freesat.

Robert Peston on Twitter: "GB News is real and significant. It’s backers have deep pockets. It is not hyperbole to expect that it will have an impact on the UK broadcast news landscape, because it has money and a mission."

The Times [£] reports: Nearly half of Britons think that the BBC no longer represents their values amid declining levels of trust in the broadcaster, particularly outside London, research for " suggests.
In the past year a third of the public said that the values of the BBC had become less like theirs amid controversy over its coverage of Brexit and the pandemic. Only 33 per cent now believe that it represents their standpoint."

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruling in the Julian Assange extradition case, as reported by BBC News: "Faced with the conditions of near total isolation without the protective factors which limited his risk at HMP Belmarsh, I am satisfied the procedures described by the US will not prevent Mr Assange from finding a way to commit suicide and for this reason I have decided extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm and I order his discharge."

• NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet commented: "The judge rejected the defence case that the charges against Assange related to actions identical to those undertaken daily by most investigative journalists. In doing so, she leaves open the door for a future US administration to confect a similar indictment against a journalist."

Owen Jones in the Guardian: "It is not to critique the soundness of Baraitser’s legal judgment to argue that this was the right decision, but for the wrong reason. That a British court has ruled that the US prison system is too barbaric to guarantee the safety of Assange tells its own story. But this is about something much bigger than Assange: it’s about journalism, the free press, and most importantly of all, the ability to expose atrocities committed by the world’s last remaining superpower."

The Times [£] in a leader: "If the appeal fails, and his eventual release from custody concludes this long saga, Assange should be deported to his native Australia. He is a discredited figure who has long outstayed his welcome."

 Tim Walker on Twitter: "If the past year has taught us anything, it is that scientists and members of the medical profession are of a damn sight more use than politicians and journalists."

National World chairman David Montgomery after the company acquired the Yorkshire Post and Scotsman publisher JPIMedia for £10.2m, as reported by the Yorkshire Post: “We are very proud to be associated with JPIMedia’s 100 historic brands and recognise the dedication of all the staff who serve their communities in print and online, particularly in current challenging times...On a personal note I have been associated with some JPIMedia titles since I was a student journalist and witnessed over decades how their great and honest reporting has contributed to democratic and societal development - a tradition that National World will continue to champion.”

• In an email to staff, reported by Press Gazette, Montgomery said he wanted: “A journalistic formula that replaces irrelevant or clickbait stories with exclusive content to enhance local lives...National World believes that geographical and creative diversity overseen by local management will better distinguish our products, in both print and online and in video and on mobile. This strategy stands out from the current trend of media businesses pursuing a one-size-fits-all approach.”

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