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Subscribe to RSSTalk-show host and former Daily Mirror and News of the World editor, Piers Morgan, has denied knowledge of phone hacking during his time at the newspapers. ITN's Nina Nannar reports on England's High Court proceedings.
Published at 12:15 p.m. ET: LONDON -- CNN star interviewer Piers Morgan refused Tuesday to disclose details about the most damning link between himself and Britain's phone hacking scandal: His acknowledgment that he once listened to a phone message left by former Beatle Paul McCartney for his then-wife Heather Mills.
In a 2006 article in the Daily Mail tabloid, Morgan said he was played a phone message left by the former Beatle on Mills' answering machine, describing it in detail and noting that McCartney "even sang 'We Can Work It Out' into the answerphone." Mills has said there's no way Morgan could have obtained the message honestly.
On Tuesday, Morgan stubbornly refused to answer almost any questions about how he came to hear the message, saying that doing so would compromise a source. "I'm not going to start any trail that leads to the identification of a source," he said.
Asked by inquiry chief Lord Justice Brian Leveson whether he could supply any information to back the assertion that he had heard the recording legally, Morgan said he couldn't.
Updated at 12:10 a.m. ET: Morgan denies that during his editorship the Daily Mirror newspaper "suppressed" information that cell phones could be hacked in 1998 so that they could use it to spy on celebrities. "Absolute nonsense," he says.
Updated at 11:50 a.m. ET: Morgan denies any knowledge of paying police officers for information. "I've never been aware of any evidence of that, no," he says.
Updated at 11:30 a.m. ET: "It doesn't necessarily follow that someone listening to someone else is unethical," Morgan says. "It depends on the circumstances in which you are listening to it."
Updated at 11:28 a.m. ET: When asked to discuss the source of a voice mail message of former Beatle Paul McCartney to his then-wife Heather Mills, Piers Morgan refuses.
He also defends the newspaper when it is asserted that the Daily Mirror was among the top offenders of the practice of phone hacking, saying,"You also well know that not a single person has made a formal complaint against a Daily Mirror journalist, so why would you say that?"
Updated at 11:06 a.m. ET: Piers Morgan says the Press Complaints Commission code of practice was displayed prominently in the newsroom at the Daily Mirror, where he was former editor, and says it "informed every editorial decision I made."
When asked whether an editor should have responsibility for his journalists, Morgan says, "The average editor is probably aware of about 5 percent of what journalists are up to at any given time."
Updated at 10:42 a.m. ET: Piers Morgan begins testifying at Britain's Leveson Inquiry into media ethics via videolink from the United States.
LONDON -- Former News of the World editor and CNN interviewer Piers Morgan will appear by videolink from the United States on Tuesday at a judge-led investigation into the ethics and practices of Britain's scandal-tarred press.
He is expected to be grilled about comments he has made about widespread phone hacking at tabloid newspapers.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp shut down the News of the World in July after a public outcry over the phone-hacking practices by British journalists at the newspaper.
Morgan's appearance, along with a number of other witnesses Tuesday, has been widely anticipated and critics have been picking through old interviews and Morgan's autobiography "The Insider," in which the 46-year-old Morgan makes clear he knew of phone hacking as long ago as 2001.
In an interview for GQ magazine before the public scandal over the practice, Morgan said he couldn't get too upset over hacking because "loads of newspaper journalists were doing it."
And, in an earlier interview for BBC radio unearthed by one of his critics, Morgan appeared to go further, saying it was difficult to condemn private eyes hired to hack into people's phones "because obviously you were running the results of their work."
Dave Hogan / Getty Images, file
Former Daily Mirror and News of the World editor Piers Morgan and Rebekah Brooks (then Rebekah Wade), editor of the Sun newspaper, at the book launch party for Piers Morgan's memoirs, entitled "The Insider," on March 9, 2005 in London.
Morgan maintains that he has never participated in phone hacking or knowingly run a story based on an illegally intercepted message.
"I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, nor to my knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone," he said in a statement in August.
Actors Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller, "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling and singer Charlotte Church are among those who have given evidence about press abuse, while executives and lawyers for Murdoch's News Corp have defended the newspaper.
From newspaper man to TV star
Morgan shot to national prominence when he was picked by Murdoch to run the News of the World at age 28. Under his tenure, the tabloid exposed Grant's liaison with Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown and Princess Diana's late-night phone calls to married art dealer Oliver Hoare.
It wasn't all down to good reporting: Morgan has acknowledged that bribes were paid to informants on rival titles.
In 1995, Morgan left the News of the World for the Daily Mirror. His time there was marked by scoops and controversy, including an insider trading scandal.
Among the newspapers to report it was The Independent, which said he allegedly bought 20,000 pounds ($31,000) worth of shares in a technology company the day before it was tipped in the newspaper's investment column. While two other journalists at the Daily Mirror were jailed, Morgan was not charged and kept his job.
However, his editorship at the Daily Mirror ended in 2004 when he ran a faked photograph purporting to show a British soldier urinating on an Iraqi detainee.
Morgan won a second life as a TV personality, eventually signing on as a judge of "America's Got Talent" and taking Larry King's old spot at CNN. So far, he's prospered. Ratings for "Piers Morgan Tonight" have been up 9 percent on last year's figures — good if not spectacular — and he appears to be reaching a younger audience.
CNN spokeswoman Barbara Levin said the network was "extremely pleased" with how Morgan's program was performing and the company has so far stood by its star even as the phone-hacking scandal threatens to draw him in.
'Despicable human being'
"So heartwarming that everyone in U.K.'s missing me so much they want me to come home," Morgan joked earlier this year amid demands he return to give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry.
Morgan's denial that he has had nothing to do with phone hacking is hard to square with a 2006 article in which he said he'd been played a phone message that former Beatle Paul McCartney left for his now ex-wife Heather Mills in the wake of one of their fights.
"It was heartbreaking," Morgan wrote of the tape, saying that McCartney "sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang 'We Can Work It Out' into the answerphone."
How did Morgan come to hear the tape? He's refused to say, but Mills told the BBC in August that "there was absolutely no honest way" he could have obtained the recording. McCartney echoed her sentiment, saying he'd apparently been hacked.
Morgan's autobiography also abounds with tantalizing references to questionably obtained material: There's "a dodgy transcript of a phone conversation" and a celebrity's stolen laptop.
And when actress Kate Winslet demanded to know how Morgan got her cell phone number, which she had only just changed, Morgan shrugged it off.
"Look, Kate," he joked, "You don't get to be the editor of the Mirror without being a fairly despicable human being."
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
he is a breath of foul air.
And this is news. Please!
Yet YOU read it, AND took the time to COMMENT on it. Please!
Let's seem him worm his way out of this one
I guess being a journalists now is akin to being a politician!
Used car salesmen have more credibility than journalists!
In his own testimony, he admits that he has no evidence that he obtained the recording legally. This is basically a confession that it was illegally obtained. And CNN, by keeping him employed, is condoning this behavior. I guess that CNN supports illegal activities, is probably as guilty as Morgan in their news gathering activities..
And CNN needs a non-American who has admitted to illegal activities? This means that (in order to get his green card) CNN certified that this criminal is 'more qualified' than any American in doing his job (being a talking head). I hope that Immigration revokes his permanent resident card due to his illegal activities. And I hope that the Justice Department investigates both him and CNN for this illegal activity.
one of those jazzholes who can get away with anything because people.... we all know $$ talks, poor people go to prison.
I blame GOD...
I blame Obama...
It's all the Queen's fault
It's the Bush twins at it again
Time to vote off this pompous limey.
Hope they send this bloke packing
You could tell on "America's Got Talent" that he was an egomaniac. If I didn't know better, I'd say he is a politician. You know, a bottom-feeder, not relevant to hold communion with any other human being.
From Murdoch (Fox News) to CNN. Left or Right reporters are all the same. Full of crap..
Just think, if we could not speak, publish, film, digitize, post, create, steal, or profess facts and/or gossip in public media, it would be like living in the former Soviet Union, right? It just would not be a free and open democratic society! Who has the right to privacy in this day and age where information moves faster than the human brain can assimilate, reason, and make sound critical decisions? Welcome to the future! Now, just learn to survive in this technological jungle WE have created!
"Who has the right to privacy in this day and age...?" Thats an easy one. We all do.
Yeah we all do, even the celebrities. Otherwise Piers Morgan wouldn't be lying about what he knows and where his hacked messages came from. If none of us had that right he wouldn't have to go give lies for testimony in order to avoid jail.
Who decided this guy was a "star"?
You cousin Sheila did. (You KNOW that no one likes Sheila.)
Sad state of affairs when news people are breaking laws to report on people in the news. I think that the news is becoming nothing more than propaganda machine for people in power reminds me of Germany when Hitler was in power. I sure hope the FBI investigates everyone connected with this mess and if they are in the media in this country they should be charged if they spied on any US citizen illegally.
I would think that Fox News should be under the microscope also, given their ownership and history in the US!
I know everything in Europe is better than the U.S. because the liberals tells me so BUT do we have to put up with these British accents on TV over here? Really? Are there no American accented news readers in this country.
He ran a faked photo that he knew was faked.
...new about since 2001,and didn't do anything about it..hope he gets jail time..dumb @$$
Piers Morgan is a disgusting reporter.
Piers....What the hell kind of dumbazz name is that???
I would equate News of the World phone hacking with Bush and Obama's Patriot Act. I hardly see any difference, except Bush and Obama have made it legal in America to intrude on our Freedoms. Therefore, the many of you who complain about Morgan, should really be complaining to your Senators and Representatives in Washington, after all, you elected them. And many of you call Obama a Liberal!!!!
Obama's Patriot Act? Don't you mean Congress and Georgie boy?
No, I meant exactly what I posted since Obama was one of the few Democratic politicians who voted for it and saw that it was still in effect once elected to President, Look up his voting record under Bush.
who was president? boy republican can do no wrong, cheat of there wives but persecute others who do it. it's great having religion so deep in politics
The Patriot Act was schemed and devised over the objections of many Americans by Bush-Cheney and the GOPs. President Obama's name is attached to this GOP back-door invasion-of-privacy intrusion [only] for two GOPs reasonings and two reasonings only. Reason #1: It's a NEGATIVE and if it involves a negative, Obama must be the culprit behind its evolution (in their minds), and reason #2: Just as the GOPs Republicorp's political plan's "discarded paper" that was retrieved from a trash can reveals (in their OWN writing/saying: (the GOPs) "let's just keep saying "tax-and-spend and liberal. Even if it's a lie, let's just keep repeating it. Our voter-constituents are uneducated,uninformed,and will vote for us anyway." The GOPs are intrinsically bias and always sees superiority of a Republican over a Democrat, remains mum and/or deflects when GOPs negatives are so dark that one needs to be Stevie Wonder/Ray Charles in order not to see it. Case-in-point: If a Democrat was running for Present with the negative baggage that Gingrich is carrying, daily headlines and vitriolic posts would permeate every facet of communication. Bias? Yes! For example: Watch and pay attention to D. Gregory in Republicans -vs-Democratics guests on Meet-The-Press (This past Sunday,it was Michelle Bachmann). The GOPs are allowed to ramble on-and-on,deflect and stray away from the asked question and repeat GOP campaign talking points minutia, and D. Gregory always ends his session with GOP guests on a positive note. For Democratic guests, there's constant "but" "buts," and the high-lighting of OUT-OF-CONTEXT video shots. It's biasness to the extreme. But of course, Obama/Democrats are the culprits, even though this picture speaks for itself.
The hoopla in regards to the increase in Public Debt:
01/1981-01/1989:Ronald Reagan's debt increase was 189%, (a GOP)
01/1989-01/1993: G.H.W. Bush debt increase was 55%, (a GOP)
01/1993-01/2001: Bill Clinton debt increase was 37%, (a Democrat)
01/2001-01/2009: G.W. Bush debt increase was 115%, ( a GOP)
01/2009-01/2011: Pres. Obama: debt increase was 16%, (aDemocrat)
Which party should be vilified for increasing the debt?
Except for dishonest deflections,dismissal of any/all common sense, and outright prevarications, this case is closed!
Michala they are all POS. While Bush is definitely to thank for the current economic disaster, Clinton can be thanked for NAFTA which has cost millions of American jobs. Quit being the problem by acting like your gang of thugs is better than the other, and try to be part of a solution. Like maybe voting someone into office that doesn't wear a colored rag out of their back pocket to represent their "set". At the same token, Obama (while he hasnt done too much to date) seems to be trying to get things done but our worthless congress (Democraps and Republican'ts alike) wont let him because they don't care about any of us, only their staying in office.
The first step is putting a limit on their terms. No other way.
Replying to Kayner:
It is when one is defeated by a circumstance that they reduces themselves to assumptions. I diligently vets any/all candidates before I cast a vote for them. I was a precinct delegate and also caucused in the selection process. The problem arises out of your kind of thinking/stereotyping and assumptions. Your kind cannot see beyond color and is subjective to ingrained and subliminal biasnesses. Don't even bother to deny the assertion because that's the mantra of Republicans— denying/reflecting. Nothing about PRESIDENT Obama equates with "thugs". The 1980's reference to "colored rag out of their back pocket...," substantiates your subliminal racism— you just had to use the central element behind your retort— "color." I saw the same racist tactic used in Alabama, in 1965 after the passage of the civil rights bill and the Media could no longer overtly discriminate. They alluded to a crime this way: "A man robbed a store this morning. He was seen fleeing the scene with an alfro comb and a jet book sticking out of his back pockets." Anyone that does not visualizes the progress that Pres. Obama would've made, but for the deliberate obstructions by the Republicans, definitely should make an appointment with both, an ophthalmologist and/or an optician. Look at the 'foundational causes' of things folks! Pres. Obama didn't craft NAFTA, but felt it to be one medium to cure some of the worldwide ostracism brought on by Bush's travails. Had I or another postulated a remark about "bratwurst" or "begals," you'd immediately know to which ethnic the postulation was referencing. There's one thing for sure, water will seek its own level, and if some dogs are hiding under some bushes and one throws a rock into those bushes, the dog that hollers, is the dog that was hit! I hope that I didn't hit anyone!
Many of you it seems think I am supporting Bush and bashing Obama. That's not the case. Obama did vote for the Patriot Act as many Democrats did. But he did not try and repeal it once elected President. Mainly because too many in Congress would oppose such a repeal. I realize that the GOP has it's hands in every part of our lives, if that's not socialism I don't what is. My point we lose rights and no one stands up for us.
This is just a teapartybagger smear.
They are easy to smear! Anyone who is trying as hard as they are in destroying this country is easy to smear. Though I am not a fan of the Democrats either, it is a pick of lesser of two evils, and the far right is just plain dangerous to 95% of all Americans.
Mike, why vote for the lesser of two evils? Would you do that in your own home or would you obstain and protect your home from all of it? Until everyone quits voting for the lesser POS, we will keep getting what we are getting.
Always wondered what was his appeal, now I see he just pulled favors to get on TV
To those of you who think CNN has any involvement in this hacking scandal, the answer is no. Its only tie comes from having hired Piers Morgan last year to replace Larry King. All the purported crimes occurred while Morgan was an editor for "The Mirror" in England from 2002 until he resigned several years ago.
He isn't funny, he isn't witty, he isn't pretty, he isn't honest, he isn't insightful, he isn't brave, he isn't clever, --so why are we watching him?? I don't like Piers Morgan, he is a very poor replacement for Larry King with none of Larry's humility!
He's edgy. And... notice that you and I are both interested in him enough to read ... and comment on ... his exploits. If this artical had been about Robert J Thompson, would you have read it? Unless, of course, his position had been identified (1). No need to identify Mr. Morgan.
(1) Editor-in-Chief of Wall Street Journal appointed by Mr. Murdoch.
I find his edge dull! I read the WSJ so an article on Thompson may have been interesting as I don't trust Murdoch one millemeter.
"Edgy" = Rupert Murdoch stooge who lies, steals people's personal communications, smears and has the arrogance to think he's qualified to educate us Americans on our own political process.
I knew I was never watching this guy again when he started dragging out the tired old Faux News lie about Obama spreading socialism.
I hope the brits throw him and Murdoch into prison. My condolences to Paul McCartney and Heather Mills on this slimy dirty weasel prying into your personal life and paying somebody to hack your personal communications.
Of course, I guess he can just deny it and lie about how he has to "protect his source" when he breaks the law. Let's just give him a job on CNN for millions of dollars instead of throwing him in jail. What trash this guy is.
Piers Morgan has a personna that brings quality and class to anything he does. There's a Public School English reserve that sets him apart from the all the other talking heads on television right now.
Contrast him with Larry King, a kid out of Brooklyn whose CNN gig Morgan took over from him last January (truly he's a Morgan's polar opposite!) a street kid born from immigrant parents who somehow--nobody could ever discover the magic of just why--survived and made himself a sixty year career by tossing soft ball questions at people who really needed a baseball bat planted squarely to the sides of their heads to extract the truth out of them.
Think too about the startling contrast between the original judges on America's Got Talent which Morgan left last year: Morgan urbane and with English charm; Sharon Osbourne, aka Mrs. Airhead, whose claim to fame rests mainly on the fact she's somehow miraculously managed to stay married to one of the real rock maniacs of all time, Ozzy Osbourne; and then in the third slot sat Howie Mandel, a guy who for years made a career out of running around the stage with a surgical glove on his noggin pretending he was a chicken, which in all fairness to Howie was a funny-as-hell act by a high energy madcap hellion!
Gee this makes it appear as though journalists have achieved the same degree of character, integrity and honor as lawyers, politicians and union thugs. Makes used car salesmen and carnival hucksters seem overly respected.
Don't slander the good name of used car salesmen and carnival hucksters by comparing them to this sleaze.
every major network now has taking head who are there to entertain and piss off target audiences. fox has hannity, cnn has morgan and msnbc has al sharpton.