Friday 14 August 2015

Media Quotes of the Week: From Boris says middle class families are dominating journalism to why was the media silent on Kids Company?



Boris Johnson, quoted in the Telegraph: "You see it in every study, from Alan Milburn’s findings to the work of the Sutton Trust, professional middle class jobs dominated by families who have had professional middle class jobs. Top universities dominated by families who have been at top universities. You see it in the law and in journalism and in Parliament."


From The Times [£] Corrections column: "Karol Wojtyla was referred to in Saturday’s Credo column as 'the first non-Catholic pope for 450 years'. This should, of course, have read 'non-Italian'. We apologise for the error."

Alastair Campbell on his blog: "One of the worst aspects of the so-called Corbynmania is that it is obscuring the solid decent abilities of the other candidates, who are each one of them better than most of the media will acknowledge, and far better equipped for the hard graft of detailed policy-making that has a chance of actually happening, so that we can make more of the kind of change Alan Johnson wrote about. The right-wing press has a dream template for this contest, ‘loony left’ (sic) v mediocre careerists (sic)."


Nicholas Watt in the Guardian on Jeremy Corbyn: "His unspun approach – and clear lack of any media training in his television appearances – appears to be cutting through to new voters who are tired of the soundbites and perfect presentations of established figures."


The Guardian backs Yvette Cooper in an editorial: "The right leader is the person who can bring both Jeremy Corbyn and Liz Kendall together in one big, progressive tent, offering enough moral common ground to transcend deep disagreements on policy. It is a formidably difficult task, but there are very many in Britain who desperately need someone to pull it off. The person best placed to do that is Yvette Cooper."

Nick Cohen ‏@NickCohen4 on Twitter: "It will sound bizarre, if you don't know my tribe, but a Guardian leader rejecting Corbyn is really rather brave."

The Mirror backs Andy Burnham in a leader: "We believe Andy Burnham is the leader who will unite his party and deliver for the people who need Labour most. He combines proven experience with passion and principle. The boy from an ordinary working class background who went to Cambridge, he understands the everyday issues facing Mirror readers."


Private Eye Magazine ‏@PrivateEyeNews on Twitter: "228,264 average copies sold per issue makes us the highest selling news and current affairs mag. Thank you all for buying/subscribing!"

Matthew Parris in The Times [£]: "Cards on the table first. If Ted Heath was a child abuser, I’m an aardvark. Media coverage has been a discredit to journalism. This was never a story. No serious evidence was ever advanced."

Daily Mail in a leader: "It's time for our privacy-obsessed judges – remember Justice Eady exonerated the depraved Formula One chief Max Mosley after he was involved in a German-soldier themed orgy – to stop imposing their own bien pensant values, and start putting freedom of expression and the transparency of justice ahead of the 'human rights' of wealthy celebrities to keep their infidelity hidden."


Johnston Press chief executive Ashley Highfield, in the Telegraph, on possible takeovers of local press groups: “The recent fall in our share price has made us crisper on what we’d be prepared to pay for things. All the mood music is there. Our lawyers have looked at a number of different combinations as a desk exercise and you could get it done. You might have to sell one or two things but for the most part there is not much overlap.”

Neil Thackray ‏@neilthackray  on Twitter: "Local media merger may delay but wont halt slide. A good answer 2 wrong question. The problem is strategy not scale."


Miles Goslett on The Spectator blog"Until February 2015, when The Spectator published my article on Kids Company, not a single bad word about it or its chief executive Camila Batmanghelidjh had appeared in the mainstream media. This may seem surprising now, as the scale of the scandal surrounding the now-defunct charity unfolds, but for the best part of 20 years it was treated by journalists and politicians with a reverence which I believe it had not merited for a long time."

[£]=paywall

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