Thursday 27 June 2019

Media Quotes of the Week: From Boris Johnson stalls Ferrari over when 'loved up' pic was taken to the digital news divide between the rich and poor













Boris Johnson to Nick Ferrari on LBC who asked him 26 times when the 'loved up' picture of him and girlfriend Carrie Symonds was taken: "Newspapers and other media outlets are going to want to print and speculate about what they choose. The difficulty is that the minute you say one thing, you are bringing your loved ones into the public domain in a way that is not fair...Why should I tell you when the picture was taken?"



George Osborne @George_Osborne on Twitter: "Today’s ⁦@EveningStandard⁩ as a picture of the happy couple emerges."

Stewart Wood @StewartWood on Twitter: "Evening Standard splash: Boris Johnson showing the public a picture of his private life, having spent the weekend saying he wants it to remain private, to show the public that his private life, which is no business of the public, is fine, though still private. I hope that’s clear"

Jan Moir in the Daily Mail: "Bizarrely, this supposedly super-smart, media-savvy couple opted to semaphore their message of loved-up harmony by taking part in a cheesy Mills & Boon scenario that it is tempting to call Love Among The Weeds."


Trevor Kavanagh in the Sun on the Guardian scoop on the taped row between Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds: "This form of eavesdropping, with no public interest justification, is banned under the newspaper industry’s Editors’ Code. Yet the self-righteous Guardian decided to run it on Page 1. It was a gift from the gods to our publicly funded state broadcaster, whose mission is to ridicule the Tories, rubbish Brexit and, as a bonus, destroy Boris Johnson. A flimsy tale of raised voices led every BBC bulletin for the entire weekend, while a genuine news story — a potential war between the US and Iran — took second place."


Piers Morgan on MailOnline: "Is Boris Johnson a genuine buffoon who is going to turn us into a global laughing stock? Or is it all an act? As we debate this, Americans should stop worrying so much about President Trump. By Boris standards, he’s a choirboy."


Max Hastings in the Guardian: "I have known Johnson since the 1980s, when I edited the Daily Telegraph and he was our flamboyant Brussels correspondent. I have argued for a decade that, while he is a brilliant entertainer who made a popular maĆ®tre d’ for London as its mayor, he is unfit for national office, because it seems he cares for no interest save his own fame and gratification."


The Times [£] in the obit of Steve Dunleavy, the New York Post journalist who has died aged 81: "Steve Dunleavy would do anything for a story. He once approached Ava Gardner in a nightclub and she threw a glass of champagne in his face. His subsequent report began: 'Last night, I shared a glass of champagne with Ava Gardner. She threw it; I wore it'.”


The Guardian's Suzanne Moore, accepting the Orwell Prize for Journalism“We have a crisis of representation. We have it at the top: in politics, which is visible, and we have it in the media. Some things have got better, sure, but much hasn’t and that thing is class. I doubt now if someone like me could now make it a journalist.”


Manchester Evening News photojournalist Joel Goodman giving evidence against Yellow Vest activist James Goddard who was found guilty of common assault, in a statement: "Mr Goddard's direct threats have caused me to suffer months of verbal and physical abuse, both on social media and in person....Such abuse is not acceptable, under any circumstances and, in convicting him, I am glad the court has made this clear. Mr Goddard and his supporters are entitled to demonstrate freely within the law and photojournalists such as myself are entitled to report on such events, free of the fear of violence and intimidation."








Polly Curtis in the Financial Times: "There have always been people who were unnewsed, but now they no longer live in an information vacuum. Instead, these citizens still consume information and share opinions, but based on sources that are not produced with the rigour and standards of traditional journalism. Poor information for poor people; richer sources for the rest. This digital divide has serious ramifications for every element of our democracy and society."

[£]=paywall


Thursday 13 June 2019

Media Quotes of the Week: From demagoguery not the media is the enemy of the people to if we gain Boris Johnson as PM will we lose Max Hastings?



Bryan Cranston, after winning a Tony Award for his portrayal of a broadcast journalist in Network, as reported by the New York Times“I would like to dedicate this to all the real journalists around the world, both in the press — the print media — and the broadcast media, who actually are in the line of fire with their pursuit of the truth. The media is not the enemy of the people. Demagoguery is the enemy of the people.”

Patrick Wintour @patrickwintour on Twitter: "The whole habit of blending press conferences with political rallies is grim. Nasty feature of 2015 election and before - a practice followed by Labour as much as the Tories. Audience jeers a hostile question, and then gracious leader urges his flock to show tolerance."


Chris Cook @xtophercook on Twitter: "Michael Gove taking cocaine while a journalist is paired in my mind with Sarah Sands saying journalism is like going to wonderful embassy parties where you meet amazing people. I can’t help but wonder if I’m doing it wrong."

Rory Cellan-Jones @ruskin147 on Twitter: "Wife and I who were both journalists in London in that period now feeling desperately provincial that we got by on white wine and pints of London Pride..."


The Guardian reports: "Russia’s three major newspapers have put out nearly identical front pages of their Monday editions in a show of solidarity with a detained journalist. Kommersant, Vedomosti and RBK, among the most respected daily newspapers in the country, published a joint editorial under the headline “I am/We are Ivan Golunov”, calling for a transparent investigation into the case of the prominent investigative journalist. Golunov was beaten and kept in custody for 12 hours without a lawyer."


The Times [£] in a leader: "Today The Times stands shoulder to shoulder with courageous Russian journalists and citizens defending press freedom... Targeting journalists is almost always counter-productive. Mr Golunov has written critically about the army, censorship of the media and the running of Moscow city. Predictably, interest in his work has rocketed since his arrest, and his articles have been placed under the Creative Commons licence to allow readers around the world to share the stories far and wide. "
  • On 11th June, the Russian police announced it dropped all charges against Ivan Golunov.
International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger in a statement: "The mobilisation of civil society and newsrooms in support of Ivan Golunov is good news for the state of press freedom in Russia. It indicates that the regime can no longer silence critical voices with impunity. Harassment of journalists in Russia has to stop."


Sean Spicer @seanspicer on Twitter: "I wonder what female journalists think of @TheAtlantic @JeffreyGoldberg ‘s comments: 'It’s really, really hard to write a 10,000-word cover story. There are not a lot of journalists in America who can do it. The journalists in America who do it are almost exclusively white males'.”


Caitlin Moran @caitlinmoran on Twitter: "I don't know a single British female journalist in my social circle who couldn't knock out a 10,000 word piece in between childcare, three other pieces, dying their eyebrows, and pissing around on Twitter posting Madonna memes. So I don't know what's going wrong in America."

PA City editor Simon Neville @SimonNeville ‏on Twitter: "Dear PRs. Gentle reminder: saying 'that's not a story' is never a sensible line to use on a journalist."


Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Joel Simon in a statement condemning police raids on ABC in Australia: "The raids on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation newsroom and the home of reporter Annika Smethurst are deeply troubling and directly threaten Australia's standing as a country that respects press freedom. Because government abuse can be hidden or covered up through the assertion of national security, journalists must have the ability to report on such matters and protect their confidential sources. Democratic governments understand this, and provide journalists the legal protections they need to do their job."


The Sunday Times [£] on Bryan Appleyard being made CBE: "Whenever something complicated needs explaining in an accessible style, the cry goes up from Sunday Times editors: 'Get me Appleyard.' During 34 years with the newspaper, Bryan Appleyard has explained the mysteries of the brain, gene editing, intelligent design and the cultural politics of Justin Bieber’s hairstyle."


Christopher Spencer aka Coldwar Steve @Coldwar_Steve whose work has featured on Twitter on being commissioned to do a Brexit cover for TIME magazine: “I have never created something specifically for an American/international audience before, being commissioned to do the cover of TIME was mind-blowing and capped off a remarkable first half of 2019 for me.”


Blast from the past: Max Hastings, who as editor of the Daily Telegraph was Boris Johnson's boss,  in the Daily Mail in 2012: "I would not trust him with my wife nor — from painful experience — with my wallet. It is unnecessary to take any moral view about his almost crazed infidelities, but it is hard to believe that any man so conspicuously incapable of controlling his own libido is fit to be trusted with controlling the country...If the day ever comes that Boris Johnson becomes tenant of Downing Street, I shall be among those packing my bags for a new life in Buenos Aires or suchlike, because it means that Britain has abandoned its last pretensions to be a serious country."

 [£] =paywall

Thursday 6 June 2019

Media Quotes of the Week: From Trump trusts me to be fair says Piers Morgan to police tell reporter vile online abuse is part of being a public figure



CNN's Brian Stelter @brianstelter on Twitter: "When I asked @PiersMorgan how he has snagged 3 sit-downs with Trump since Inauguration Day, he replied with characteristic thunder: 'He trusts me to be fair, something that so few journalists seem prepared to be about President Trump'."

Verified account

Krishnan Guru-Murthy @krishgm on Twitter: "Trump gives interviews to The Sun and Times. Theresa May calls questions only from Sky and the Times. Trump sees Gove privately. There’s a theme. It starts with M and ends with h. And has urdoc in the middle."


NUJ assistant general secretary Seamus Dooley in a statement welcoming the decision of three appeal judges at the High Court in Belfast to quash warrants for the arrest of No Stone Unturned documentary makers Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey: “This is a victory for Trevor and Barry, for the NUJ and for press freedom.The High Court has affirmed the right of journalists to protect confidential sources of information and provided clear and unambiguous directions for the appropriate manner in which the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the courts should behave in seeking to access journalistic material. There can be no shortcuts when it comes to fundamental principles of human rights.”

Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey in a statement, quoted by the Belfast Telegraph: "The police have dropped the case for one reason only: Finally, they accept that by arresting us and raiding our homes and offices, they were the ones that acted unlawfully...The Lord Chief Justice told the court last week that we had no case to answer. We were right to protect our sources. The PSNI put the cudgel in the hands of Durham Constabulary and let them loose on us and on press freedom itself."


Rory Cellan-Jones @ruskin147 on Twitter: "PR emails to ask whether I received her previous email headed: ‘Revealed: Brits’ most desired smart bathroom technology.’Dilemma - should I tell her where I flushed it?"


Roy Greenslade on the Sun's 50th anniversary  in the British Journalism Review"The paper that was once Murdoch's cash cow, providing him with the funds to expand his empire, now cannot generate profits. At the beginning of this year, News UK declared that it had lost £91 million. The game is surely up. It is simply impossible to imagine The Sun lasting a further half-century, or even much beyond Murdoch's death. Murdoch is 88."


Playwright James Graham @mrJamesGraham on Twitter: "So gutting that the Evening Standard is losing its theatre critics @henryhitchings @FionaLondonarts. The arts is one of the very last things we're heavyweights in. Art changes lives. The city's local paper MUST champion it. Its 60yr old theatre award ceremony is hollow without it."


The News Media Association objecting to the Information Commissioners Office Age Appropriate Design draft code:“Unless amended, the draft code published for consultation by the ICO would undermine the news media industry, its journalism and business innovation online. The ICO draft code would require commercial news media publishers to choose between their online news services being devoid of audience or stripped of advertising, with even editorial content subject to ICO judgment and sanction, irrespective of compliance with general law and codes upheld by the courts and relevant regulators."

BBC director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth in the Observer: "The BBC is trying to report on and analyse an issue of deep complexity that crosses traditional party boundaries. Are we broken? Well, we pick up bruises most days of the week, but that goes with the territory. I don’t see any fractured limbs. Or even a lack of confidence, as your commentators suggest. People have the right to their opinions about the BBC. But don’t mistake them for facts. Yes, we interview people that some might not want to see or hear. That’s never seen as proper journalism, properly carried out. Instead we’re told we’re giving them 'a platform'.”


Guardian readers' editor Paul Chadwick on the difference between those who phone or email the paper and those who write letters: "Emails and phone calls naturally relate mostly to very recently published material and to the most prominent and controversial issues of the day. These communications may be formulated in anger or exasperation, and sent with haste that is evidenced by typos and misspellings. Letter writers are generally different. They mull. The topics they choose often suggest considerable time spent reflecting. And the issues they raise frequently have nothing to do with recent Guardian coverage of news and current affairs."


Amy Fenton, chief reporter of The Mail, Barrow-in-Furness, on HoldTheFrontPage“Over the last 18 months I’ve been subjected to some of the most vile and vociferous abuse on social media solely for doing my job. I’ve been threatened, targeted, belittled and humiliated by mostly anonymous bullies who seem to relish the prospect of hurting and scaring me. During that time I have involved the police on three separate occasions, for what I and my editor believed were legitimate grounds, only to be told that as a ‘public figure’ such abuse has to be expected."