The Audit

02:00 AM - July 22, 2011

CNN, Piers Morgan, and the Hacking Scandal

Questions raised about primetime anchor’s tenure as a tabloid editor

By Ryan Chittum

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Keep on this story... there's a lot yet to come out, sort of like Watergate.

#1 Posted by Aine, CJR on Fri 22 Jul 2011 at 03:49 AM

New Statesman: Are the Non-Murdoch media now threatening a select committee member?
Posted by David Allen Green - 22 July 2011 12:47
Some concerning tweets about Louise Mensch MP.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2011/07/select-committee-louise-mensch

#2 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Fri 22 Jul 2011 at 02:18 PM

Murdoch's Andy Coulson was Cameron's Communications Director;
Murdoch's Tony Snow was Bush's White House Press Secretary ...

#3 Posted by NadePaulKuciGravMcKi, CJR on Fri 22 Jul 2011 at 02:22 PM

Stay on this story. This Morgan chap, who has an oleaginous charm, which is to say no charm, is the apotheosis of tabloid journalism. The snippets of conversation included in your article warrant further investigation into his possible hacking affinity. In the meantime, CNN should tell him to desist from doing one more "the Chinese are eating our lunch" themed interview with Donald Trump. As well, why did this Morgan chap reference Trump and taxing the rich in an interview with Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West about their poverty march? Why not the Rev. Martin Luther King's Poor People's march in 1968-- which he never got to attend because he was assassinated a month before--as a reference point? Then, hearing the Morgan chap ask if there's "subtle racism" in America after Smiley said President Obama has faced more
obstacles in getting things done than any other President. Smiley disabused the Morgan of his "subtle" racism theory. Instead of traipsing after Beyonce in Harrods, toadying up to Murdoch and interviewing a hugely rich prince on the
state of the American economy, Morgan needs to do a little reading and studying.

#4 Posted by Patricia Burstein, CJR on Fri 22 Jul 2011 at 06:31 PM

Independent: Hacking was endemic at the 'Mirror', says former reporter
By James Moore and Ian Burrell
Saturday, 23 July 2011 [...]

[In an interview in GQ magazine in 2007, Morgan discussed hacking with the model Naomi Campbell and said: "Loads of newspaper journalists were doing it. Clive Goodman, the News of the World reporter, has been made the scapegoat for a widespread practice."

Hipwell told The Independent: "Piers was extremely hands-on as an editor. He was on the [newsroom] floor every day, walking up and down behind journalists, looking over their shoulders. I can't say 100 per cent that he knew about it. But it was inconceivable he didn't."]

#5 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Fri 22 Jul 2011 at 11:50 PM

Phone hacking used by Sunday Mirror, claims BBC Newsnight

Hannah Godfrey The Guardian, Saturday 23 July 2011 [...]

The source recalls having seen Liz Hurley's phone being hacked, and a reporter noting down her voicemails: "It was a Thursday and I was told there wasn't much on there – just something about lunch with another woman so they would keep trying before the weekend." [...]

The source said: "One reporter, who was very good at it, was called 'the Master of Dark Arts'. At one point in 2004, it seemed like it was the only way people were getting scoops. If they didn't just randomly hack people in the news, they would use it to stand up stories that people had denied." [...]

At the select committee hearing this week, Conservative MP Louise Mensch used parliamentary privilege to accuse Piers Morgan of hacking phones. Morgan was editor of the Mirror at the time Newsnight's main source was at the paper.

#6 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Sat 23 Jul 2011 at 12:06 AM

BBC 23 July 2011 Last updated at 05:01 ET
Sunday Mirror phone-hacking claim revealed by Newsnight

[The source claimed the Sunday Mirror hired a voiceover artist to imitate famous people in order to get information about them.

"I was told he had successfully managed to get health records too," the source said.

"He was such a god of a voiceover artist that he could pretend to be famous people or failing that he'd pretend to be their lawyer or someone related to them.

"I was told that we had got [actress] Leslie Ash's medical records from the 'dark arts'."]

#7 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Sat 23 Jul 2011 at 11:14 AM

Sky News: Ex-Mirror Journalist Makes New Hacking Claim 3:48pm UK, Saturday July 23, 2011

[A former journalist for the Daily Mirror has claimed the News Of The World was not the only British newspaper involved in phone hacking.

James Hipwell, 45, alleged the illegal practice was "endemic" at the Daily Mirror while he worked under the editorship of Piers Morgan between 1998 and 2000.]

#8 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Sat 23 Jul 2011 at 11:25 AM

New York Times: CNN Host and Ex-Tabloid Editor Is Reluctantly Dragged Into Phone Scandal July 23, 2011 By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and RAVI SOMAIYA

[LONDON — It was perhaps inevitable that the phone hacking accusations in Britain would cross the Atlantic and reach Piers Morgan, the flamboyant former Fleet Street editor who is now the host of “Piers Morgan Tonight” on CNN. [...]

Mr. Morgan said he was gratified to see that Tom Watson, the Labour lawmaker who led the parliamentary questioning of the Murdochs on Tuesday, had said Saturday on Twitter: “I’ve not seen any evidence linking @PiersMorgan to hacking. And I’ve seen a lot of documentation these last 2 years.”]

#9 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Sun 24 Jul 2011 at 12:21 AM

It is getting tighter in the House of Morgan. If Piers can explain this, he is a genius. Perhaps evidence that at CNN changes in management are indicated:

http://order-order.com/
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2011
Morgan Mocked Macca’s Misery Voicemails

[Yet another Piers Morgan phone-hacking implication has surfaced from his own misguided boasts. Writing in the Daily Mail in 2006 when Sir Paul McCartney split from Heather Mills, Morgan went into some extremely voyeuristic detail about their relationship:

“Stories soon emerged that the marriage was in trouble – at one stage I was played a tape of a message Paul had left for Heather on her mobile phone. It was heartbreaking. The couple had clearly had a tiff, Heather had fled to India, and Paul was pleading with her to come back. He sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang ‘We Can Work It Out’…”

Who played it to Piers? How did they get it? Did he procure the illegal interception of an electronic communication--an imprisonable offence--with a maximum two-year stretch on conviction?]

#10 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Thu 28 Jul 2011 at 03:36 PM

The Australian: More phone hacking allegations are emerging, this time against the publisher of the Sunday Mirror and Daily Mirror JON UNGOED-THOMAS From: The Times July 31, 2011 9:59AM [...]

[Any legal action is likely to increase pressure on Piers Morgan, who was editor of the Mirror from 1995 to 2004 and is now an interviewer on CNN.

Morgan has strongly denied that he published any stories based on information from hacked phones, but he has been confronted with previous interviews and articles that suggest he was aware of the practice.]

The Independent on Sunday: Hewitt wants Met to reopen case of Diana's stolen letters By James Hanning Sunday, 31 July 2011

[James Hewitt, the former lover of Diana, Princess of Wales, last night reignited his dispute with Britain's tabloid press – and the former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan in particular – by demanding that the Metropolitan Police reopen its investigation into the theft of love letters written by the Princess. He has instructed solicitor Charlotte Harris to pursue the matter.]

#11 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Sat 30 Jul 2011 at 10:36 PM