Mirror hacked no phones - Morgan

[Win2Win Racing]

Former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan tells the Leveson Inquiry he does not believe phone hacking took place at the paper while he was in charge.

More... (http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-16259941)

[barneymather]

How does the beginning of the Dad's Army song go again? I think Piers Morgan is panicking that his high-flying media career could bite the dust if Mirror reporters under his command were found to have regularly hacked phones.

Morgan says he wasn't aware of this, but what does it say about a newspaper editor if this was going on - and not on the odd occasion either - and he knew nothing about it?

From what I've read and from a variety of sources, phone hacking was commonplace at every tabloid, and former Mirror reporter James Hipwell says his paper was no exception.

Piers Morgan seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with trashing the reputation of Heather Mills when editing newspapers. I hold no brief for Mills, but she wasn't and isn't a war criminal or major league villain, therefore I'm completely mystified by the motives of Morgan in his determination to ruin Mills's public image.

She married a rich older bloke and it didn't work out, big deal. Paul McCartney's said to be careful with his money so I don't see him going short, particularly as he could afford the best divorce lawyers money can buy and his share of Beatles royalties could run a small country.

Morgan's statement that editors are only aware of 5% of what their reporters are up to also takes some believing, and I can't imagine Kelvin Mackenzie taking such a hands-off approach when he edited The Sun for 13 years. We're not talking about the chairman of a large company being unaware of what shop floor staff in a remote factory are doing, but an editor in charge of a relatively small number of staff with an equally small number of stories.

Everything a reporter writes could potentially land their newspaper in court if it's untrue or inaccurate, so for an editor to say he's only aware of one-twentieth of what his reporters are doing is a mite concerning, not least for the newspaper's owner. There's delegating and there's poor people management.

As you may have gathered, I don't have a lot of time for Piers Morgan. This is a man who was all too eager to besmirch the reputation of British soldiers, who have no choice in where they fight wars but who are a million times braver than Morgan, or me, come to that.

When Morgan splashed that 'story' across the front page, he should have been 150% sure it was wholly accurate, and when he discovered it wasn't, rather than do the decent thing and resign, he refused to go and had to be removed from his job by a Mirror executive.

To me, that tells you all you need to know about Piers Morgan as a man and as a journalist. An arrogant and deluded pygmy of a reporter, whom I wouldn't trust an inch.

[Win2Win]

Well Piers did say he'd never listened to a recorded message then a few minutes later when asked about Mills when repeatedly questioned he said it was a recorded message :doh :crazy: :doh1:

CNN are holding an inquiry now :biggrin: