Thursday 7 May 2015

Media Quotes of the Week: From more bloodshed at Newsquest? to sold the front page to the Tories



The Grey Cardigan on TheSpinAlley: "ANOTHER bloodbath at Newsquest last week, with some excellent editors booted out of their once-excellent newspapers. Amongst the dearly departed were Malcolm Warne at the Darlington & Stockton Times while the Craven Herald, which I’ve always regarded as a brilliant example of what a local weekly should be, is set to lose its third editor in as many years. I won’t recite the usual nonsense quotes from management, but bear in mind that this is a company that thinks that one single editor can run 18 of its southern titles. Utter madness. And I have bad news for other Newsquest centres. I’m reliably informed that the Grim Reaper is on his way, with further massive cuts in the pipeline."


The Independent Press Standards Organisation rejecting complaints against Katie Hopkins' Sun column, as reported by the Guardian: “Many complainants said the column breached clause 12 (discrimination) … while we noted the general concern that the column was discriminatory towards migrants, cause 12 is designed to protect identified individuals mentioned by the press against discrimination, and does not apply to groups or categories of people. The concerns raised by the complainants that the article discriminated against migrants in general did not therefore raise a possible breach of clause 12."

Chris Frost, chair of the NUJ ethics council, in a statement: "Vicious, racist and inflammatory articles impact on all of us. Katie Hopkins and the Sun should be held responsible for whipping up xenophobia and hostility. History has repeatedly shown that when sections of the media resort to describing people as ‘cockroaches’ it only serves to inflame prejudicial hatred. Such language must be considered a breach of ethical codes.  The NUJ believes that a regulator should accept third party complaints and we also continue to argue that complaints that do not name specific individuals but disparage whole groups of people in society, whether they are migrants, asylum seekers, women, disabled or LGBT people, should be a potential breach of the code of practice.”


Jack Peat, Head of Digital at 72Point, on new research: “Our Media Consumption report demonstrated that the way we consume and interact with media is undergoing a seismic change. News is predominantly consumed on mobile devices and discovered socially, which means there is a thirst for more digestible content that can be delivered quickly with maximum impact.”


Paul Holleran, NUJ Scottish organiser, on cyber bullying of journalists: “In recent weeks there has been a spate of attacks on journalists and the union responded targeting the bullies and demanding a stop to the abuse. This stage of our campaign is about stepping up the pressure on the bullies but also calling for employers to step up to the plate and stand up for journalists working for their titles or stations. As we have always stated it is to be expected when journalists are criticised but we draw a line at unacceptable levels of abuse and threats. We will highlight any ongoing attacks and in serious cases we will involve Police Scotland who have always been supportive of our work in this field."


Jon Snow ‏@jonsnowC4 on Twitter: "Sun delivers a new low in UK journalism: Foul front page: Calls itself a newspaper:3 pages that tell you why few want to go into politics."

Rupert Murdoch ‏@rupertmurdoch on Twitter: "So all UK polls nonsense. Also bloody nose for BBC."



Caitlin Moran ‏@caitlinmoran on Twitter: "By the time of the next election, it won’t really matter what parties newspapers back. All the new, young electorate is going elsewhere."



Lincolnshire Echo publisher Steve Fletcher, on HoldTheFrontPage: “The decision to publish the wrap made business sense and all political parties would have been welcome to make the same approach. It is clearly marked as an advert. We have carried ads from most parties across our titles in Lincolnshire in the run up to the election, including a wrap from UKIP in our papers covering the Boston and Skegness constituency. The main parties spent £9.1m on advertising during the 2010 General Election campaign and it makes business sense for the regional media to try and take a fair share of this spending."

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