Good morning from the team at Press Gazette on Monday, 3 November. Here’s our daily round-up of media news.

🚅The Cambridgeshire train attack provided another reminder of the hugely important role the professional media plays in curbing the spread of misinformation.

As the attack unfolded, various prominent figures jumped to conclusions around the incident being terror-related and to push an anti-immigration agenda.

Former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, appearing on News UK’s Talk (radio and Youtube TV station), said “the British state has been complicit in a crime like this” because governments “haven’t done enough to deport illegal immigrants”.

Former GB News presenter Dan Wootton, who now self-publishes on Substack, said on X: “GB News now talking about knives rather than the elephant in the room: MASS MIGRATION FOR DECADES HAS PUT US ALL AT RISK. The MSM are following the narrative of the police as per.”

And after police ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack, Daily Mail columnist Andrew Neil wrote on X: “The legal definition of terrorism in the UK is, roughly, the use of violence in pursuit of a political, ideological, religious or ethnic cause. The police have ruled that out in the case of the appalling, terrifying knife attacks on a train, at least so far.

“OK. But then [what] would motivate two men in their mid-30s to run through a train stabbing anyone they can across?”

Police initially detained two people.

This morning police said that British-born Anthony Williams, 32, from Peterborough, had been charged with ten counts of attempted murder.

It now looks clear that speculation about terrorism and the attacker’s immigration status were wide off the mark and irresponsible.

🗞️The battle for control of The Telegraph appears to be entering its final phase with Telegraph staff themselves fighting a rear-guard action against the Redbird Capital Partners-led consortium.

Funding for the £500m purchase appears to be in place (with Abu Dhabi government-backed fund IMI set to take a 15% stake). Redbird managing partner Gerry Cardinale has issued new assurances over the continuing editorial independence of The Telegraph as the US investment fund tries to get the UK government to stop blocking the deal.

But The Telegraph’s editors appear unconvinced and have published repeated articles warning about Redbird’s links to China and expressing alarm over continuing involvement in the deal from the UAE.

READ THE FULL STORY

📨And a memo from Times associate editor Ian Brunskill to editorial staff marks a welcome intervention from a senior journalist to halt the growing invasion of fake and AI-generated content in UK-based news publications.

Press Gazette revealed how The Times was duped into profiling a former royal cleaner who appears to have been the invention of a dubious PR outfit. More recently The Times interviewed a New York wine importer called Bill DeBlasio and mistakenly attributed his comments to former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Both mistakes were caused by reporters relying on email-based quotes.

Brunksill’s advice is something we should all take to heart: “We – reporters and editors – should be asking: Who is telling me this and why? How do I know they’re who they say they are? How plausible is what I’m being told? What can I do to check?

“Those questions are absolutely basic. Asking them should be second nature to anyone working for a paper with a long history of trusted reporting. There are no excuses.”

READ THE FULL STORY

🗞️News In Brief

Good Morning Britain chief correspondent Richard Gaisford has announced he is stepping down after more than 25 years. (Press Gazette)

A national design competition has been launched with the goal of creating the UK’s first permanent memorial dedicated to British and UK-based journalists who have lost their lives while reporting from conflict zones. (Press Gazette)

A Mail on Sunday front page headline saying punk rap duo Bob Vylan had “led ‘death to Israelis’ chants” at Glastonbury was not misleading or inaccurate, press regulator IPSO has ruled. (Press Gazette)