Piers Morgan at Leveson Enquiry

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Jason Farrell

December 20, 2011 5:20 PM

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At the Leveson inquiry this
afternoon Piers Morgan admitted he had listened to a recording of
Heather Mills' voicemail during her divorce with Paul McCartney. He was
then asked who had given him the tape. Mr Morgan was steadfast as he
refused to reveal his source. He was then asked if he thought he had
acted unethically by listening to the tape. He replied that it was not
unethical, but indicated that to explain why it was not unethical, would
be to reveal his source.
At
this point Lord Leveson stated that unless his source was Heather Mills
herself or an agent acting on her behalf then it was hard to see how he
was acting ethically. But Mr Morgan wouldn't budge.
In
an inquiry where Lawyers were challenging Piers Morgan's ethical code,
this was one moral high ground in which he could take refuge. Quite
right not to reveal a source, especially if anonymity was promised.
Lord Leveson wasn't budging either. He said he may have to call Heather Mills to give evidence in order to get an answer.The
result of that may lead to embarrassment, either for Ms Mills or Mr
Morgan. If indeed he is protecting her, its unfortunate that his source
should be prized into the public domain in this way. That said why would
he be protecting her when in the recent TV interview in the US he
accused her of phone hacking.
Speaking
to Conan O'Brien Piers Morgan pointed to allegations in McCartney's
divorce papers that Heather Mills had hacked his phone and passed
information along to the press. "Paul McCartney is apparently now
claiming that someone hacked his phone. The police have told him that,"
But in the TV interview Piers Morgan continued. "I suspect it was
Heather Mills." He added "Heather Mills is not the best person to be
throwing any dynamite at anyone on this."
What explosives would she bring to the Leveson inquiry.

TBH it was embarrassing to watch Morgan today. He had a face like a slapped arse and constantly spat his dummy out, saying Stephen Nott was in his opinion 'a sandwich short of a picnic' was just spiteful.

You could tell he was lying and being as awkward as possible in asking where in his notes he needed to be looking and asking them to explain their questioning all the time, silly little twit.

margaret wrote:TBH it was embarrassing to watch Morgan today. He had a face like a slapped arse and constantly spat his dummy out, saying Stephen Nott was in his opinion 'a sandwich short of a picnic' was just spiteful.

You could tell he was lying and being as awkward as possible in asking where in his notes he needed to be looking and asking them to explain their questioning all the time, silly little twit.

Hi margaret, I caught a snip of the interview on the News, Leveson was obviously p***ed off with him when he suggested , because Piers couldn"t remember, that Heather Mills be asked if she had given her permission for her phone to be hacked, Piers didn"t like that. Does he really expect us to believe
he took no part when He knew what was going on?

It was hilarious.... he couldn't remember all sorts of things he was asked, yet when he needed to get a point across he could remember very fine detail!

He didn't appear to know many things going on at the mirror and sources of stories yet he remembered all the bits he wanted to take the credit for.

He knew he was lying, the panel knew he was lying but finding the evidence to catch him out is another matter and his arrogant smirk said it all.

Piers Morgan is and always will be a T**t, give idiots enough rope and they WILL hang themselves just like our two favourite Docs, got to say though that Morgan went up in my estimations recently (only a little) when he made stupid Loiuse Mench look like the blithering idiot she really is

Good to read this now: Interview Piers Morgan with The McCanns

http://littlemorsals.blogspot.com/2011/05/piers-morgan-interview-with-mccanns-may.html

Annabel wrote:Good to read this now: Interview Piers Morgan with The McCanns

http://littlemorsals.blogspot.com/2011/05/piers-morgan-interview-with-mccanns-may.html

Morning Annabel,

I was thinking maybe the Piers interview, without the comments should be moved to the main Madeleine section where more Members would see it
because it is of interest.

Phone hacking rife at Morgan's Mirror, former employee says



By Richard Allen Greene, CNN
December 21, 2011 -- Updated 1753 GMT (0153 HKT)






James Hipwell told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics, that phones were hacked on a daily basis.


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Paul McCartney's ex-wife accuses Piers Morgan of using her as a scapegoat
  
• A former Piers Morgan employee says he must have known about hacking
  
• It "happened every day" on the Mirror's show business desk in 1999, James Hipwell says
  
• Morgan earlier said he did not believe there had been hacking at his paper
  

London (CNN) -- Phone hacking was widespread at the
Daily Mirror newspaper when Piers Morgan was editor of the paper, a
former employee testified Wednesday, stopping just short of saying
Morgan definitely knew about it.

James Hipwell said that he "cannot prove" that Morgan knew about
illegal eavesdropping, but that it was "very unlikely he did not know
what was going on."

Phone hacking "happened every day" at the Mirror's show business desk
in late 1999, Hipwell told the Leveson Inquiry, a wide-ranging
government-backed investigation of British press ethics and practices.

Also on Wednesday, Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills accused Morgan of using her as a "scapegoat."

Morgan, who now hosts the CNN talk show "Piers Morgan Tonight,"
testified the previous day that he did not believe phone hacking had
taken place when he was editor of the tabloid.

Speaking by video link, Morgan tenaciously defended himself against
accusations that he knew more about phone hacking than he has admitted
in the past.

Some of the toughest questioning focused on a story based on a voice
message McCartney left for his then-wife Mills, trying to make up after a
quarrel and singing to her.

Morgan refused to say who played the message for him or where, but
admitted under sustained questioning that he believed it was a voice
mail.

"Did you know that was unethical?" demanded Robert Jay, the lead lawyer for the inquiry.

"Not unethical, no. It doesn't necessarily follow that it was unethical," Morgan said.

Mills Wednesday appeared to try to shoot down speculation that she herself had played the recording for Morgan

"I can categorically state that I have never ever played Piers Morgan
a tape of any kind, never mind a voice message from my ex-husband," she
said on her website.

CNN is seeking a response to the Mills statement from Morgan.

In August, she told the BBC that a journalist working for a Mirror Group publication admitted hacking her voice mail.

She said a senior Mirror Group Newspapers journalist phoned her and "started quoting verbatim the messages from my machine."

She said she replied: "You've obviously hacked my phone and if you do anything with this story... I'll go to the police."

The journalist responded: "OK, OK, yeah we did hear it on your voice messages, I won't run it," according to Mills.

On Wednesday, former Morgan employee Hipwell painted a picture of the
editor as deeply involved in the daily workings of the paper he edited
from 1995 to 2004, comparing the editor to late North Korean leader Kim
Jong Il.

Morgan "was the 'Dear Leader.' It was all about him," Hipwell said.

"Nothing that happened on that desk happened without Piers knowing about it," Hipwell said of the show business desk.

A lawyer for Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Mirror, said the
company disputed Hipwell's testimony and would go into more detail at a
future session of the inquiry.

In the past, Morgan has vigorously denied ordering phone hacking at any point during his career.

He struck preemptively at Hipwell on Tuesday, pointing out that the
journalist had gone to prison over a stock tip scandal and saying he
would not be a reliable witness. Morgan was investigated over the stock
tip scandal but not charged or convicted of any crime.

Also on Tuesday, Jay, the inquiry lawyer, repeatedly tried to use
Morgan's own words against him to show he knew more about hacking than
he admitted, citing his books and interviews in print and on the radio.

Morgan, at times clipped and at times testy, deflected line after
line of inquiry, saying the quotes did not mean what Jay implied they
did.

The Leveson Inquiry was prompted by public and political outrage at
the revelation that another tabloid, Rupert Murdoch's News of the World,
hacked into the phone of a missing teenage girl who later turned out to
have been murdered.

Murdoch's son James ordered the best-selling paper closed over the scandal.

Much of the inquiry -- and a related police investigation -- focus on allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World.

The publisher of the paper, News International, announced Tuesday
that a subsidiary had settled with seven people who accused Murdoch's
newspapers of phone hacking.

The claimants included James Hewitt, who was a lover of Diana, Princess of Wales, and other British celebrities.

The newspaper group "has agreed to pay appropriate sums by way of
compensation and costs and have expressed regret for the distress
caused," News International said in a statement.

The company settled earlier this year with "G.I. Joe" actress Sienna
Miller and a handful of other claimants, but other lawsuits against the
newspaper group are outstanding.

Testimony by former staff of News of the World and News International
last week focused on how much News International chief executive James
Murdoch knew about hacking by his employees.

Police say notebooks seized from a private investigator working for
News of the World contain the names of about 5,800 potential victims of
phone hacking.

The process involves calling a cell phone and entering a personal identification number to access voice messages.


CNN's James Partington contributed to this report.

It seems to me that Pears Morgan is in trouble,You can lie as long as you are the only one in on the lie, trouble is Morgan ain't the only one who knows about the "LIE". However pathetic Leveson is he can't let Morgan get away with his arrogant deliberate lying imo, if everyone has to tell the truth (apart from the McCanns) why shouldn't Pears Morgan

Lillyofthevalley wrote:It seems to me that Pears Morgan is in trouble,You can lie as long as you are the only one in on the lie, trouble is Morgan ain't the only one who knows about the "LIE". However pathetic Leveson is he can't let Morgan get away with his arrogant deliberate lying imo, if everyone has to tell the truth (apart from the McCanns) why shouldn't Pears Morgan

Hi lillyofthevalley, I think it is CNN which employs Piers Morgan and he could well lose his job if he is found guilty of lying under oath. Having said that, Leveson, reportedly a friend of Rupert Murdoch should be brought to account for his remark that the McCanns are blameless.

Yes I agree Panda Leveson is showing himself to be the leach that he obvisouly is when it comes to Murdoch and the McCanns, which imo both will be finished in 2012, and hopefully Leveson will be known for his support of these people, and left with more then egg on his face.

piers morgan is a sycophantic weasle,his pathetic arse licking attempt to interview the mccanns surparsed only by his pathetic attempt to fake pictures of British soldiers alledgedly torturing Iraqi detainees just to sell a few more 'copies'.
The only time that awful woman heather mills got anything right.

Oh yes he's a born liar who courts favour with anyone whos in favour to boost his own ego.A very horrible man.

Oh yeh.The same piers morgan who escaped the 'insider trading' scandal by the skin of his teeth sending his mate James Hipwell to the clink instead.
And oh yeh,this is the same piers morgan ( i never knew anything about hacking) who got into bed with Rebekah Brooks,yep thats the one.... the utterly depraved former Newscorp CEO Rebekah Brooks. It emerged that Brooks had given a mobile phone to the mother of murdered kiddy Sarah Payne “as a gift”….and then hacked it.

I know nothing about 'hacking' morgan !! sure you dont.

Here ya go piers (i know nothing about hacking) morgan and the repulsive brooks.....................

Well, Lioned, you are obviously well informed...Rebekah has been charged though and is out on bail. This Enquiry is another waste of Taxpayers money because Leveson is a mate of Murdoch , I don"t even know what it is meant to acheive .