Those who look in regularly on Zelo Street will remember the occasion when Evan Harris, former Lib Dem MP, and more recently press regulation reform campaigner, appeared on the ITV breakfast offering Good Morning Britain and did up co-host Piers Morgan like the proverbial kipper. Dr Harris, as those of us who know him well can testify, is utterly unflappable; Morgan is not. One kept his calm; the other lost it totally.
Piers Morgan lost his rag ...
Now, Morgan has lost it again, and again, it is Dr Harris who has calmly skewered him. Worse for the former Screws and Daily Mirror editor, this latest meltdown leads directly on from the warning Dr Harris gave him on GMB. As I said then, “Harris … reminded Morgan that the Mirror, under his editorship, had been involved in phone hacking on a significant scale … [he] surmised that Morgan was either incompetent, or had been complicit”.
So when actor and campaigner Hugh Grant mused “You used to care so much about what actors said that the paper you edited hacked Nigel Havers phone for years while his wife was dying of cancer”, Morgan would have been best advised to think before replying. It seems he did not. “No journalist who worked for me at the Daily Mirror has ever been charged with or convicted of phone-hacking”. Cue Evan Harris.
“That is carefully-worded bull-shitting, but ultimately deceitful. A journalist at the Sunday Mirror pleaded guilty to hacking phones under your editor-in-chiefness and two more of your group’s news editors who went to NotW under your mate Andy Coulson also pleaded guilty there”. Come on Piers, let’s have a bit of the old wit, then. “I was never Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday Mirror. Just another of the many lies you obsessive weirdos perpetuate about me and phone-hacking”. We’re on to the abuse already.
... while Evan Harris did not
Dr Harris had Morgan exactly where he wanted him. “You were appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday Mirror, when [your] protege, and proven phone-hacker, Tina Weaver was appointed its editor in 2001. That is FACT. Stop lying. Stop covering up. Have the guts to admit hacking, as yr ex-employer already has”. What say Piers? “Nope, that’s a lie. I was never appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday Mirror, as a simple request to the company for confirmation would have established. So stop spreading fake news, Dr Pinocchio”.
True or Bluff, Evan? “I have 4 sources (none of which is a voicemail message or a blagged phone bill btw). Here is just one. From your biography”. Ouch! Still there, Piers? “Your 'source' is an unauthorised biography I had nothing to do with? Give it up, Dr Pinocchio, you pathetic lying twerp”. Is the wrong answer, as he soon discovered.
“Am not lying - that's defamatory - [you] [should] withdraw; 2) If you'd had a hand in biography or authorised it, people [would] set *less* store by it; 3) [Your] being in overall charge at [the] Sunday Mirror is only a tiny part of the evidence against [you] as [you] know; 4) But here's more evidence on that”. And so there was.
Piers Morgan could have responded with calm reason. Instead, he resorted to abuse, and will no doubt find solace in the encouragement of his fellow Old Media pals.
Anyone might conclude he has something to hide. I’ll just leave that one there.
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8 comments:
One thing Moron can't hide: He's a lying, shouty, thick-as-pigshit gimp with a large mouth and a very small brain. A sort of ten a penny here-today-and-gone-tomorrow spiv in a suit.
In other words, perfectly suited to extreme right wing British corporate media (which is all of them). But not to honest and decent civilisation.
What joy to see him if banged up in the Scrubs for phone hacking. You could be sure that would higher the octaves in his voice.
'he tells it how it is', as I'm often told. See also Clarkson and Rod liddle. In my reality it would be Charlie brooker, Frankie Boyle and armando inanucci telling it as it is.
What did Campbell mean when he called Piers a squealer live on GMB this week?
It certainly put the shits up Piers because he looked more uncomfortable than when he was being slaughtered at Leveson.
They all know their house of cards is doomed.
Off to the clink.
The fake story of abusive British soldiers has probably undermined the cause of prosecuting the very real atrocities committed by British armed forces.
I think they pinned it all on max 'pr guru' Clifford. A bit like Malcolm tucker's downfall perhaps.
To 17:33.
Max Clifford? The guy who died in prison after conviction on sex charges? You know, like that Epstein in the USA. Amazing coincidence, that......No wonder Weinstein's busting a gut to stay out of the Slam......
Seems that there's enough dirt held on all them, with a prison heart attack as the ultimate sanction if they spill they're guts to the wrong person at the wrong time.
Morgan is a nasty piece of work. Some of us will recall his pathetic appearance on "Have I Got News For You" twenty-odd years ago. H thought he could play the hard man. But instead got done over by Ian Hislop, Angus Deaton and Clive Anderson. Moron kept making snide, barely disguised threats against Hislop and Anderson.
A few days later, as a former Daily Mirror reader, I was greeted with an article on Ian Hislop comprising a large photo of Hislop's head and a headline declaring "THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS MAN" (or words similar).
And then nothing! No follow up! Ian Hislop later revealed what happened. Moron had sent reporters to Hislop's home village in order to dig up dirt on him and his family. Fortunately, neighbours kept schtum and gave them nothing.
This reveals everything you need to know about the bitter, petty and vindictive nature of Piers Morgan. Little wonder he is on good terms with the equally petulant Trump!
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