Friday 28 February 2014

Media Quotes of the Week: From media has ball as Piers Morgan falls to Sky's Alex Crawford on bravery in journalism via Harman versus Mail



Robert Peston ‏@Peston on Twitter: "Can barely hear myself think amid din of schadenfreude in UK media at cancellation by CNN of fellow Gooner @piersmorgan's show"

Piers Morgan ‏@piersmorgan on Twitter: "Humbling to bring such happiness to so many people today. Coming 3rd, as I've always said, is not a trophy. #MorganOut #CNN"

Jeremy Clarkson ‏@JeremyClarkson on Twitter: "I understand that Nigerian TV is looking for a new chat show host. Anyone got any suggestions?"

The New York Times: "There have been times when the CNN host Piers Morgan didn’t seem to like America very much — and American audiences have been more than willing to return the favour."

Jonathan Freedland ‏@Freedland on Twitter: "Unfashionable I know, but reckon it was admirable @piersmorgan maintained his stance on guns even though it clearly didn't help his career."



Metro md Steve Auckland in the Guardian: "There are a lot of people rushing out of print to go online. But I'm quite happy to rush into print because there's a lot of money to be made out of print, and I'll take as much as possible. And you know what – the agencies are crying out for that message. Everyone I've talked to has said it's refreshing to hear somebody who is actually willing to innovate in print."


Harriet Harman in a statement: "In recent days I have been the subject of a politically-motivated smear campaign by the Daily Mail. They have accused me of being an apologist for child sex abuse, of supporting a vile paedophile organisation, of having a relaxed attitude to paedophilia and of watering down child pornography laws. These are horrific allegations and I strongly deny them all of them."

MP tom_watson ‏@tom_watson on Twitter: "Reducing it to a row between Harman and the Daily Mail misses the point: kids were abused by members of PIE and investigations thwarted."

anne mcelvoy ‏@annemcelvoy  on Twitter: "We're in for another "Labour versus the Mail" moral high-ground competitions. Those who like real news may prefer to look away."

SubScribe: "Does it matter? Or is it, as an old journo friend says, 'all showbiz'? Yes it does matter. Not because of its effect on the career of one politician or because it will make a jot of difference to any police investigation or to the treatment of any child. It matters because the bully has triumphed. And so will carry on bullying. And the victims are not only politicians and celebrities. The Mail does not discriminate. It is happy to pour its bile and innuendo over anyone."



Hazel Blears talking to the Hansard Society, as reported by Guido Fawkes: “Until political blogging ‘adds value’ to our political culture, by allowing new voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and despair.”



Ray Snoddy on this blog from new book Is the BBC in Crisis?: "In the wake of current scandals facing the BBC, the up-coming licence fee negotiations, coinciding with the re-negotiation of a new ten-year royal charter, could be the most difficult and unpredictable there has ever been. The march of technology, the current political terrain and an unprecedented raft of scandals could all combine to create a perfect storm for the BBC. Certainly the BBC will never before have entered a licence fee round surrounded by the debris of such a number of internal embarrassments, many of them shrieking managerial incompetence."


Peter Preston in the Observer: "Lord Justice Laws's judgment, in short, doesn't just disappoint Miranda, Greenwald and the Guardian. It says, in effect, that any security service type – maybe after a chat with PM Tony Blair, once he's finished helping Rebekah with something – can present "compelling", if studiously vague, evidence and see passing dossiers, however dodgy, enjoy portentous protection. It can, seemingly, declare media workers potential "terrorists" in a schedule 7 trice. It balances the right to be informed (article 10 of the European convention) against the security right to be forcibly shut up – and declares no contest."


Culture Secretary Maria Miller at the Oxford Media Convention: "The internet isn’t a ‘Second Life’, it isn’t something where different rules apply, where different behaviour is acceptable – it isn’t the wild west.  To put it simply the rules that apply offline are the same rules that apply online."




Alex Crawford, speaking at the St.Bride's thanksgiving service for the Journalists' Charity:  “I'm often asked about bravery and the courage of foreign correspondents who travel to wars and disasters. To me bravery is taking on the establishment and the expenses department, as much as dictators abroad.

"Bravery is not - as some people seems to think - the defining quality of the war correspondent. Bravery comes in little acts achieved in every job or life, every day.

“Bravery in our profession is the editor who trusts his or her journalists in the field when everyone else is screaming otherwise. It's standing up to the accountants who say we can't afford to cover that genocide, or that natural disaster.

“Bravery is being prepared to go head to head with not only your own Government but that of several others by exposing the real extent of one nation's surveillance and snooping.

“Bravery is knowing you're guaranteed unpopularity but printing or broadcasting anyway because you KNOW it is the right thing to do."

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