Media Quotes of the Week: The Times champions local news as vital to democracy to Murdochs urge media owners to stop promoting toxic politics

The Times [£] in a leader: "The danger, as Professor [Timothy] Snyder notes, is that once local news is dead, citizens start thinking about the “media” as some kind of distant and alien elite. It creates a vacuum and they instead turn to social media. This is far less reliable but appeals to their emotions or pre-existing convictions. That in turn fuels polarisation and creates fertile ground for conspiracy theories and dangerous fictions, such as claims of a stolen election, especially when such views are espoused by the president. In the past week there have been welcome moves by social media companies to recognise their own responsibilities in addressing this danger. That has prompted a debate about what further steps societies should take to improve public access to the information needed to sustain democracy. That debate should start with how best to reinvigorate local news"

• Steve Clarke in a  letter to The Times:  "As a young reporter in the 1970s I spent hours every week covering courts or local councils. The evening newspaper I worked for had an editorial staff of well over 30 people including a sports department and half a dozen local offices. I’m told it now runs on about six journalists. Court coverage and scrutiny of local affairs must have dropped dramatically as a result and more local newspapers are closing or cutting staff every day. Meanwhile, the BBC enjoys a monopoly income in the billions every year. Isn’t now the time to spread that money a little further than just one organisation? A fraction of that huge sum could be diverted to help to support local journalism and rekindle civic awareness in our towns and cities. "

James Forsyth in The Times [£]: "Johnson has long thought that the fact the licence fee frees the BBC from commercial pressures has created a statist culture in its newsrooms and a separation from the concerns of viewers. When out campaigning, Johnson often laments that regional newspapers are shadows of their former selves while the BBC’s local stations have carried on much as before. It’s hard, he notes, for anyone to compete with a media company that has a legally guaranteed revenue stream."

• Forsyth also claims: "The plan to make Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor, chairman of Ofcom is still very much in place. Indeed, given Ofcom’s coming responsibility for regulating social media companies this choice has taken on greater significance with the growing debate about free speech online."

John Simpson on Twitter: "Just before the Gulf War 1 bombing started, the BBC ordered me to leave Baghdad. I refused. Eventually my boss gave in, promising ‘You won’t be disciplined.’ Me: ‘Such a relief, waiting for the biggest bombing attack in human history, to know I won’t be disciplined by the BBC'."

Tim Walker in the Guardian on Telegraph co-owner Sir David Barclay who died last week: "For all that Daily Telegraph editors professed to be their own men, the newspaper seldom, if ever, took a view on a major issue of the day – most notably Brexit – that didn’t happen to coincide with that of Sir David Barclay. 'I owned the toy shop and got to play in it,' Barclay once gleefully admitted to me."

Denis MacShane on Twitter: "Barnier tells FT, he offered UK special travel rights for journalists, musicians, artists in deal talks but Frost, presumably on orders from Johnson terrified of DTel/Mail/IDS etc turned them down. As NUJ member this is very sad."

Denise-Marie Ordway on Journalist's Resource: "Major network and cable TV news outlets have given the most airtime to members of Congress with the most extreme views, creating a perception there is greater division among elected leaders than actually exists, researchers have found. Their analysis indicates broadcast news outlets — Americans’ primary source for political news — are partly to blame for growing political polarization in the U.S. and voters’ heightened dislike for members of the opposing political party."

Craig Oliver, senior news executive at the BBC and ITV before he became David Cameron’s communications chief, quoted in the Evening Standard on launch of tv channel GB News: “There’s a danger launching a news channel now is a bit like launching a high street travel agent. It’s a very analogue thing to do in a digital world.”

GB News chairman Andrew Neil on Twitter on the inauguration of President Joe Biden: "Throughout the Trump Administration @FoxNews was its broadcast arm. It’s clear @MSNBC and @CNN are going to be the broadcasting arm of the Biden administration, from today’s saccharine coverage. Neither is a good look for independent journalism."
 

James and Kathryn Murdoch in a statement after the Capitol riots, quoted by CNN Business: "Spreading disinformation — whether about the election, public health or climate change — has real world consequences. Many media property owners have as much responsibility for this as the elected officials who know the truth but choose instead to propagate lies. We hope the awful scenes we have all been seeing will finally convince those enablers to repudiate the toxic politics they have promoted once and forever."

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