Media Quotes of the Week: From the Daily Mail is a changin' to the media has always been disliked but Trump's turned it into a political philosophy

James O'Brien @mrjamesob on Twitter: "The Mail has moved so quickly towards the light under its new editor that Littlejohn's unhinged rantings already stick out like a sore thumb. Remarkable to watch. Wish they were selling tickets to Dacre's daily perusal of the paper."

David Yelland @davidyelland on Twitter: "Geordie Greig is changing the Daily Mail very fast. Kudos to him. It is smarter, softer..."

Henry Mance in the Financial Times: "Mr Greig is the reformer on the inside, the man who knows the system has to change. He’s the Mikhail Gorbachev of the tabloid world. It’s glasnost on Derry Street. It makes you think. Given the right editor, could any Fleet Street title change its spots? Could the Telegraph, for example, decide not to cover the Duke of Shropshire’s niece’s 18th birthday party? Could The Guardian reveal that Christmas is an unproblematic celebration of family values? ...As for the Financial Times, you’ll know the revolution has come when you receive the first ever How To Spend It: Lidl Edition."

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Emily Thornberry @EmilyThornberry on Twitter: "This, from @DailyMailUK and not a sneering word in sight!!!>>"

Fleet Street Fox on the demise of Katie Hopkins: "Even with training, she would never have made much of a journo. She has a thick skin and bloody-mindedness, but seems to lack empathy, accuracy, self-doubt or persuasiveness. She is a curiosity, but doesn't have any. The first rule of journalism is 'never become the story'. Not just because it's professionally embarrassing, but because all copy finishes the same way - with the word 'ends'."

Roy Greenslade, who was a consultant on BBC TV drama Press, about complaints from journalists it's unrealistic, in the Guardian: "Amid the nit-picking, I wonder how a piece of populist drama about newspapers could avoid cliches and stereotypes. And dare I point out that it ill-behoves journalists who have lived off cliches and stereotypes, to complain about them representing their trade."

The Sunday Times [£] in a leader on new claims that MI6 believed Michael Foot took payments from the KGB: "This is not an attempt to re-run that libel case but to suggest that the circumstances might have been different in one respect. Had the case been conducted in America, the fact that the country’s spy agencies were aware of the allegations, and believed them, would have probably found its way into the public domain. It certainly was in the public interest. Britain’s intelligence apparatus, and the political establishment, were instead happy to sit on their knowledge and see a newspaper successfully sued for libel."

Jeremy Corbyn on Twitter: “Michael Foot loved this country. That’s why he wanted to make it better for everyone. Smearing a dead man, who successfully defended himself when he was alive, is about as low as you can go.”

Rachel Oldroyd, managing editor of The Bureau for Investigative Journalism, welcoming a European Court of Human Rights judgment that mass surveillance by GCHQ and other intelligence agencies without adequate safeguards to protect the freedom of the press is unlawful: “The Bureau believes the freedom of the press is a vital cornerstone of democracy and that journalists must be able to protect their sources. We are particularly concerned about the chilling effect that the threat of state surveillance has on whistleblowers who want to expose wrongdoing, and this ruling will force our government to put safeguards in place. It is an extremely good day for journalism.”

The Swindon Advertiser NUJ chapel in a statement after publisher Newsquest proposed more  redundancies: "The newsroom at the Swindon Advertiser was knocked sideways by the announcement on Friday that it is set to lose two members of its features department and the sports editor. The proposed cuts are being made to an editorial department that is already slashed to the bone following the loss of three subs, a news editor and the web editor to redundancy just before Christmas last year. Since then the newsroom has lost the assistant news editor and the deputy editor to more lucrative and probably less stressful employment in PR...The affected staff, who were described as ‘resources’ in their consultation letters, now face having to justify their existence in interviews. It is a horrific situation. They are being asked to fight among themselves for their survival."

Natalie Sanders, managing editor, of the newly launched Uranus Examiner serving the town of Uranus in Missouri, on the naming of the newspaper,  as quoted by BBC News: "We had thought about 'Constitution', but most of the people who love us, and who were part of coming up with the name, liked the Examiner better."

David Simon asked in a Rolling Stone interview why the media is disliked by so many: "We were always disliked by everybody. It just never metastasized into a political philosophy because we never had somebody who was, frankly, as morally depraved as the current president. Trump’s willing to trade on American fundamentals in a way that no other national leader has attempted since Huey Long. It’s populism wedded to totalitarianism. Very few people have been so devoid of ethic to go there. But it was always there. You felt it if you were a reporter and you went to your mailbox and read the furious rage of random people whose candidates were not supported or whose enemies were not vanquished in the pages of the newspaper."

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