Friday 14 October 2011

Media Quotes of the Week: From proof Cameron is certifiable to giving the Guardian's Ball a kicking


Kelvin MacKenzie, in the
Evening Standard: "Cameron had clearly gone quite potty. And the final proof that he was certifiable was his hiring of my friend Andy Coulson. I remember telling anybody who would listen that if I were Brown, every time Cameron stood up in the Commons he should arrange for mobile phones to ring on his side of the House."

Max Hastings in The Word on phone hacking: "The only thing that was genuinely surprising to me was that people like David Cameron should have known better. They were stupid enough to think that these wild animals were actually people he could do business with, or even employ, or make friends with. And some of us said at the time , you are crazy to get into bed with some these very, very dodgy people, who've done very dodgy things."

Clare Hollingworth, the Daily Telegraph foreign correspondent who was 100 this week, on what she would do if offered any foreign assignment: “I should look through the papers and say, 'Where’s the most dangerous place to go’, because it always makes a good story.”

Daily Mail
editor Paul Dacre at the Leveson inquiry:
"Several of our quality papers are losing awesome amounts of money. More worrying, Britain's proud provincial and local press – currently subject to closures, mergers and swingeing cuts – is arguably facing the severest challenges. This diminishes our democracy. Courts go uncovered. Councils aren't held to account. And the corrupt go unchallenged. That is a democratic deficit that in itself is worthy of an inquiry."

Ex-Daily Star reporter Richard Peppiatt speaking to the Leveson inquiry: "Capitalism is trampling on journalism. Cold calculation are made: It makes no commercial sense to have your reporters spend a week investigating a genuine, public interest story when they can fill ten times that space cannibalising from rivals and newswires."

Northern Echo editor Peter Barron pays tribute to award winning journalist Mike Amos who has retired after 46 year with the paper: "He was never editor but he did more for the paper than anyone who ever sat in the editor's chair."

Independent editor Chris Blackurst on scrapping The Viewspaper in the paper's revamp: "The Viewspaper has gone. We thought long and hard about this. Viewspaper was created to draw attention to the unrivalled quality of The Independent's commentators. We continue to take pride in this quality. But since taking over three months ago, I've become aware that The Viewspaper could be something of a ghetto, to be taken out and read later – but in truth, put on one side and, during a busy day, all too often forgotten."

Guardian journalist Nick Davies to a Lords' committee on the rise of the PR industry: "They are winning the information war. The liars are winning."

Paul Lewis, a former journalist at Newsquest's US parent Gannett, on the claim that retiring CEO Craig Dubow's priority had been to serve the consumer: "How did Mr. Dubow and Gannett serve the consumer? They laid off journalists. They cut the pay of those who remained, while demanding that they work longer hours. They closed news bureaus. They slashed newsroom budgets. As revenue fell, and stock prices tanked, and product quality deteriorated, they rewarded themselves huge pay raises and bonuses. This is the sort of stuff that causes people to occupy Wall Street and main streets in cities across the country."

Press Complaints Commission chair Baroness Buscombe snaps at Guardian journalist James Ball after he asks a question about her lecture at City University: "I'm worried that the Guardian, as usual, will misquote me."

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