Friday 6 September 2013

Media Quotes of the Week: From Tony Parsons' progress to a little bit of spin from PR Week



Tony Parsons on leaving the Mirror after 18 years: "I am going now but I wish nothing but the best to this great old newspaper, to my brilliant colleagues who remain and – above all – to you, dear, beloved Daily Mirror reader.You see, I know you, and I have known you all my life. You are the family that raised me.You are the hearts who loved me.You are the sharp, ­questioning minds who put books into my hands and taught me to look at the stars. You are the faces who looked at me across the breakfast tables of my childhood and said 'Haven’t you finished with that paper yet?' It has been a privilege, a joy and an honour."

Tony Parsons on joining the Sun Sunday, as quoted by Press Gazette: "Every footballer wants to play for Real Madrid, every actor wants to work in Hollywood. And any journalist who truly wants to reach millions of the British public wants a column in The Sun."

on Twitter: "Frost-Nixon interviews described on BBC today as one of greatest exclusives ever. Frost PAID Nixon. Tis a wonder Op Elveden didn't nick him." 

Chris Oakley warns in the updated edition of What Do We Mean By Local? of a "Kafkaesque nightmare vision – citizens with no local pub, no local post office, no local newspaper, no knowledge, no informed opinion on anything that should matter to them or their families.  Times are always changing, but if good men and women - and good journalists - can do nothing then change can destroy rather than create progress."

Frank La Rue, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, quoted in the Guardian: "The protection of national security secrets must never be used as an excuse to intimidate the press into silence and backing off from its crucial work in the clarification of human rights violations."

Grey Cardigan on The Spin Alley: "BBC director general Tony Hall announces with a smirk of self-satisfaction that half of regional breakfast show hosts will be female by the end of 2014. Why? Is he saying that half the men currently doing the job aren’t up to scratch? And, if so, why haven’t local managers done something about it and sacked the useless sods?  Or is he saying that perfectly capable presenters are going to be turfed out of a job just to meet some artificial quota? Either way, the employment lawyers must be rubbing their hands with glee, the money-grabbing bastards."

Keith Vaz, chairman of the home Affairs Select Committee, quoted by the Daily Mail says the Serious Organised Crime Agency should identify the organisations who were clients of corrupt investigators: "We give you until Monday to publish this list, if you fail to publish it on Monday, we will publish it because we think it is in the public interest to do so. We’ve taken legal advice." 

Unemployed Hack on his blog takes aim at professional trolls: "A lack of principle and no journalism ethics means they’ll produce right-wing shite for The Sun and less right-wing shite for The Guardian so long as the money goes in the bank. These trolls,of course, exist alongside the lesser 'celebrity' hacks but together they create a predominantly white, middle class, myopic clique of London-based writers who condemn, judge and make a mockery of our lives and our journalism. It’s a nasty trend that sees columnists paid to share their ill-informed views – sometimes with intent to cause offense -  while investigative journalism falls by the wayside and real journalists struggle to to find freelance or staff jobs."

PR Week puts a bit of spin on the news it's going from weekly to monthly publication: "The communication industry's leading title PRWeek is preparing the biggest overhaul in its 25-year history with the launch of a monthly magazine and a series of digital products next month." 

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