Media Quotes of the Week: Pressing President Hollande, Newsquest action ballot, Indy sale and the football boss who can't stop telling the truth

Dave Clark ‏@DaveClark_AFP on Twitter: "Much as a I love my confrères, if I ever get involved in a scandal, I'd prefer to be interrogated by 600 French reporters than six Brits."

Hugo Rifkind in The Times [£]: "On the Hollandaise sauce, France appears convulsed by doublethink. According to their quality press, the French are far too restrained and worldly to be interested in this sort of stuff, unlike silly, prurient Anglo-Saxons. And yet, after Closer magazine broke the story, those same restrained and worldly folk bought 600,000 copies in 24 hours."

BBC News director James Harding, quoted in the Guardian: "I am acutely concerned by the pressures facing the local newspaper industry and we at the BBC will do anything to help. But the BBC's primary responsibility must be to serve licence fee payers – and they want and are entitled to the best possible local news services we can deliver."

The Independent: Launched in 1986

Roy Greenslade on his MediaGuardian blog: "It is hard to imagine anyone buying The Independent and therefore places the paper's future existence in jeopardy. The fact that its owner has failed to find a buyer after months of seeking one suggest that its newsprint days are coming to an end. Though the financial losses have been significantly reduced over the past three years - down from more than £20m to just below £9m - the Indy's circulation has fallen to a level that no longer makes the paper a viable proposition."

Robert Jobson ‏@theroyaleditor on Twitter: "I miss #TheNewsOfTheWorld on Sundays - reading about how naughty the rich & famous were brightened my day!"

Peter Preston in the Observer: "And if Hacked Off, in the name of yet another hand-picked judge, Brian Leveson, can't engage in reasoned debate rather than invective, many of us may begin to wonder whether too much hysteria (on both sides) hasn't knocked common sense right off the agenda. Which would be truly absurd."

The NUJ in a statement: "The NUJ has notified Newsquest management in Bradford, York and Darlington that the union will start a ballot for industrial action.The ballot is in response to the threat of compulsory redundancies and the impact on quality and workloads following the transfer of subbing work to Newport, Wales."

 

The Grey Cardigan on TheSpinAlley: "SOME USEFUL digging by industry tweeter @tabloidtroll into the accounts of the Media Standards Trust has revealed that the National Union of Journalists spent £4,000 helping to fund a series of fringe events organised by the Hacked Off organisation at the three political party conferences in 2012. To put that figure in context, it equates to the annual subs of 24 poorly-paid regional newspaper journalists. So were these union members asked if they wanted their money spent supporting an anti-press freedom pressure group run by left-wing activists, bitter academics and failed hacks? Of course not. Don’t be silly."

John Francis, editor of the Hemel Hempstead Gazette on the closure of the paper's office, on HoldTheFrontPage: “Where will our new office be, you might ask. Well, for now at least we haven’t got one – because we just don’t need it. Like many other organisations, we’ve realised that maintaining expensive town centre offices doesn’t make sense any more...Each member of our editorial team has a high-tech box of tricks that allows them to file copy, take pictures or record video, update our website and even send pages to press from wherever they are."

Ian Burrell in the Independent: "Immigration is a dangerous issue in the hands of the media. We have an obligation not to hide from the problems it might cause or the prejudices faced by some who make homes in this country. But it’s easy for news organisations – by their nature sensationalist – to make a difficult situation worse."

 
Jeremy Vine ‏@theJeremyVine on Twitter: "I was once turned down for a job on the Northern Echo"

Peter Barron ‏@EchoPeterBarron  on Twitter: "Jeremy, I'd like to heal these psychological scars by formally offering you a job now."

Greenock Morton FC boss Kenny Sheils on why he won't speak to the press after matches on medical advice, as reported by HoldtheFrontPage: “It’s important I don’t compromise my position as manager of Morton Football Club. There’s a name for it – you can’t help it. If someone asks you a question, you’re emotionally imbalanced at that time and you feel an urge to tell the truth."

[£] = paywall

'A middle class elite killed the News of the World'

The News of the World was politically and culturally demonised as a media institution that required liquidation, claims Tim Crook,  senior lecturer in media law and ethics at the department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Crook, in a paper for the Oxford University conference hosted by Reuters' Institute on 'Journalism Ethics', claims the attack on the News of the World was waged by the "so-called broadsheet, middle class and elitist media institutions."

Crook writes: "The destruction of a 168 year old newspaper that happened to be the United Kingdom’s most successful newspaper in terms of circulation, profits and operating a viable paywall for popular tabloid journalism needs reflection and analysis.

"The agents of its liquidation were the moral panic phenomenon that intriguingly was first philosophically analysed by John Stuart Mill in respect of the tyranny of the majority, amplified by an inaccurate and outrageous allegation that journalists on the paper had hypothetically risked the life of a 13 year old abducted teenager by deleting active evidence in a live police enquiry, combined with the decision of a contemporary media baron, living abroad to close it down for politico-economic expediency.

"There was no consultation with its readership, which in the democratic tradition of free media represents the infrastructure of the operating right of communicating and receiving information. Over two million eight hundred thousand people bought the paper every Sunday; considerably more read it, 200 professional journalists were employed in its production, and its weekly turnover was around three million pounds.

"The anti-News of the World campaigners targeted the paper’s advertisers to cripple and punish it, a notorious tactic used by black-listing organisations during the anti-Communist Cold-War witch hunts to bully US media institutions to cancel the contracts and dismiss reporters, writers, and artists who had been smeared by secret dossier.

"The attack on the News of the World and its largely working class and lower middle class culture of readership has been waged by the so-called broadsheet, middle class and elitist media institutions who have seen fit to morally proselytise its failings as the refuge for what has been described as the prurient, disgusting, tawdry, cheap, pornographic, voyeuristic, exploitative, lust-gorging, dirty, smelly, perverted, indecent, and inferior class of low-life under-class individual."

Crook adds: "What has been so undemocratic about this narrative is that the newspaper never had a chance to consult and converse with its readership about the contextual ‘Hackgate’ scandal, nor rehabilitate itself. It has disappeared in a whoosh of self-destructive combustion where the barbecue lighters have been operated largely by people who have nothing socially and culturally to do with its market and readership.

He concludes: "In reality the News of the World was a great newspaper in the democratic tradition."

Crook says the News of the World can be criticised for being "scandalous, cruel, human dignity exploiting when its reporting conduct and publication moral wrongs and legal infractions are evaluated" but "in the totality of its social operation it provided entertainment, information, enlightenment, escape, catharsis and comfort for people not as lucky and advantaged as the celebrocrats, and politico-economic elite. It was written and designed in style, clarity, precision, skill, and its campaigning delivered compensation and remedies that have been rarely equalled by its equivalents in the ‘broadsheet’ market."

Found: The News of the World's greatest headline

Found in an old copy of Private Eye's Bumper Book of Boobs, what many regard as the News of the World's greatest headline.

Indy on the good and bad of News of the World

The Independent's front page today is headlined "Lies, damned lies and News International" - and says that documents released yesterday show there was "overwhelming" evidence of senior journalists' involvement in phone hacking at the News of the World.

But in a leader it does praise the News of the World for its role in exposing the cricket bet-fixing scandal - claiming it shows proper investigative journalism is a force for good.

It says: "The cache of phone-hacking evidence published yesterday has explosive implications, seeming to confirm both that the practice was endemic at the News of the World and that senior staff may have known it. Meanwhile, just a few miles away, two Pakistan cricketers were found guilty of involvement in a betting scam thanks to their exposure by the paper's top reporter. Thus, the two sides of the now-reviled Sunday title.

"The revelations from the Culture Select Committee documents look damning. An opinion provided by Michael Silverleaf QC in 2008 talks of 'overwhelming evidence' that a number of senior journalists were involved in hacking and of a 'culture of illegal information access'. James Murdoch's always unlikely-sounding claim that he believed phone hacking was conducted by a single 'rogue reporter' looks flimsier than ever.

"With that in mind, the verdict on Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif could not have come at a better time. As the Leveson Inquiry into hacking gets underway, and each new revelation of the scale of the practice stokes public fury at gutter journalism, it is as well to remember that not all News of the World investigations involved targeting the phones of celebrities and murdered teenagers. The cricket spot-fixing story is a much-needed reminder that investigative journalism, done properly, is a force for good."

New York Times stands by NoW investigation

The New York Times' public editor Arthur Brisbane has said the paper's investigation into the News of the World's phone-hacking allegations was based on "strong evidence" after considering a lengthy complaint from the NoW's executive editor Bill Akass.

However, Brisbane said the treatment of Rupert Murdoch and the way the story was presented with a mock tabloid treatment might have led some to believe there was a "hidden agenda."

Akass claimed the NYT’s story was a thinly veiled attack on the News of the World's owner Rupert Murdoch, who now owns The Wall Street Journal, a major rival to the New York Times.

His letter of complaint stated: "As many independent commentators have observed, the New York Times was motivated, at least in part, by the desire to harm a competitor. Why else devote such enormous resources to a relatively obscure story about a British tabloid which yielded so little in terms of new information?

"It is comparable to us spending 5 months investigating the New York Times over its own historical scandals, such as the Jayson Blair case or its exaggerated stories about Iraqi WMD."

Akass also claimed the article was based mainly on anonymous sources, and added: "The New York Times appears to have employed underhand tactics and smears to gain a competitive advantage."

Brisbane, who looked into the complaint, agreed that the story did rely heavily on unnamed sources: "Roughly two-thirds of the attributions relating to The News of the World were to anonymous individuals or groups. And in the thread of the story dealing with the Scotland Yard investigation, more than 80 percent of the attributions were anonymous.

"That said, the story was grounded in very strong evidence. One former News of the World reporter, Sean Hoare, was a direct and named witness. Another former reporter, Matt Driscoll, said he witnessed an editor in possession of a soccer star’s phone records, albeit records that were obtained by means other than phone-hacking.

"In addition, Sharon Marshall was another named source who said she witnessed hacking while a reporter at The News of the World. These accounts, when combined with other evidence that was offered, including the findings of a parliamentary committee earlier this year, accumulated very convincingly.

"So, on substance, I believe The [New York] Times’s account stood on solid ground. It went beyond a rehash with new sources and a comprehensive treatment. The larger question of whether the story was colored by the rivalry with Mr. Murdoch is more a matter of appearances. Here, the ground gets squishy."

After seeking the opinions of some journalism academics, Brisbane concludes: "The [New York] Times, or any news organization covering a rival so prominently, needs to do it as straightforwardly as possible. Incorporating politics, and dressing the piece in a mock tabloid art treatment, leave room for some to perceive a hidden agenda, and perhaps even quiet glee."

NYT executive editor Bill Keller told Brisbane: “It was at least in the back of our minds that because Mr. Murdoch has declared war on The New York Times, a story centered on one of his newspapers had to bend over backwards to be seen as fair. In my view, the process was thorough and scrupulous.”

Brisbane has published the letter of complaint from Akass and the response from Keller.

PCC statement over phone hacking allegations

The Press Complaints Commission has issued a statement following the latest developments in reports of illegal phone message hacking by the News of the World.
It says: "The PCC was informed by the News of the World in June of the existence of the recent allegation of phone message hacking against the reporter. This is currently the subject of legal action, which has prevented the PCC from becoming formally involved at this stage.
"However, once the legal action has been concluded, the Commission will consider the matter further. It was right that the News of the World disclosed the existence of this claim to the PCC, and we will address the issues when it is possible for us to do so. The PCC has made publicly clear on a number of occasions that phone message hacking is deplorable and that view - of course - remains."
Via the Society of Editors

New York Times probes NoW phone hacking

The New York Times has published an in-depth investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World and quotes sources stating that the then editor Andy Coulson was aware of what was going on.
The article claims: "Andy Coulson, the top editor at the time, had imposed a hypercompetitive ethos, even by tabloid standards. One former reporter called it a “do whatever it takes” mentality. The reporter was one of two people who said Coulson was present during discussions about phone hacking. Coulson ultimately resigned but denied any knowledge of hacking."
It also states: "One former editor said Coulson talked freely with colleagues about the dark arts, including hacking. “I’ve been to dozens if not hundreds of meetings with Andy” when the subject came up, said the former editor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The editor added that when Coulson would ask where a story came from, editors would reply, “We’ve pulled the phone records” or “I’ve listened to the phone messages.”
The New York Times adds: "Sean Hoare, a former reporter and onetime close friend of Coulson’s, also recalled discussing hacking. The two men first worked together at The Sun, where, Hoare said, he played tape recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At News of the World, Hoare said he continued to inform Coulson of his pursuits. Coulson “actively encouraged me to do it,” Hoare said."
Contacted by the New York Times, Bill Akass, the managing editor of the News of the World, dismissed “unsubstantiated claims” that misconduct at the paper was widespread and said that rigorous safeguards had been adopted to prevent unethical reporting tactics.
He accused The New York Times of writing about the case because of a rivalry with a competing media company. Presumably a reference to Rupert Murdoch's ownership of the Wall Street Journal.

Howzat! News of the World scoop leads dailies

The News of the World's scoop on the Pakistan cricket team betting scandal is the lead in The Times and Guardian today as well as being followed up by all the major broadcasters.
A victory for the type of red top undercover "sting" journalism often frowned upon by the more serious newspapers and broadcasters.
Stephen Glover writes in the Independent today: "It is fashionable to decry the Murdoch-owned News of the World for being vulgar and hypocritical. The paper undoubtedly took a knock when Mr Justice Eady ruled that it had infringed the privacy of Formula One boss Max Mosley as he indulged in an outlandish orgy.
"But the red-top has carried on with a succession of impressive "stings". Yesterday's story that members of the Pakistan cricket team have allegedly delivered "no-balls" in return for cash payments is its most influential for a long time, and led BBC news bulletins for many hours. It was even sorrowfully mentioned by the vicar at a church service I attended. If true, the story is profoundly depressing to all cricket-lovers, but most will be grateful that the News of the World had the courage and ingenuity to publish it. Is there another newspaper in this country that would have done so?"

• The cricket scandal is also the splash in the Sun and Mirror.