Piers Morgan Called To Testify in Hacking Scandal (VIDEO)

Piers Morgan Called To Testify in Hacking Scandal (VIDEO)

Piers Morgan Called To Testify in Hacking Scandal (VIDEO)

Once upon a time t CNN would be airing the hottest hearings of the day. Now  they’re at the heart of the story, as Lord Justice Leveson calls CNN anchor Piers Morgan to “explain himself” over comments he made relating to phone hacking.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Once upon a time t CNN would be airing the hottest hearings of the day. Now  they’re at the heart of the story, as Lord Justice Leveson calls CNN anchor Piers Morgan to “explain himself” over comments he made relating to phone hacking.

Piers Morgan’s name has come up more than once in the Murdoch hacking story. Now a CNN anchor, Morgan once editied The Daily Mirror and before that, The News of the World, two News Corps properties. The News of the World’s defunct now; the first victim of the scandal. Morgan’s days may well be numbered. 

Earlier this week, the BBC’s Newsnight present, Jeremy Paxman told the Leveson Inquiry that Morgan showed his guests at a Daily Mirror lunch how to hack into mobile phones. At the same lunch, Morgan also teased TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson about the details of private conversations she had had with Sven-Göran Eriksson, at the time the England football manager.  (Earlier that year, the Mirror had revealed that Jonsson had an affair with the then England football coach.)

Paxman told the Inquiry that Morgan then "turned to me and said ‘Have you got a mobile phone"…. He then explained that the way to get access to people’s message was to go to the factory default setting and press either 0000 or 1234 and that if you didn’t put on your own code … his words: ‘your’re a fool’." Adding, "I don’t know whether he was making this up, making up the conversation, but it was clearly something that he was familiar with…" The Guardian posted the testimony. (Not CNN.) 

 

Morgan has always strenuously denied wrongdoing relating to phone hacking. Now it looks as if he’ll get to deny in public, In breaking news Thursday, Lord Justice Leveson said  that  Piers Morgan will be called to “explain himself” to the inquiry.  CNN is saying that the talk show host will testify in person. According to their statement: "Piers Morgan has confirmed to CNN that he will be giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry at a later date."

 

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x