CNN's Piers Morgan denies he hacked phones for Rupert Murdoch

[discocrisco01]

Source: Los Angeles Times

CNN host Piers Morgan is lashing back at an allegation from a British Parliament member that he participated in the hacking scandal that's rocking Rupert Murdoch's news empire.

Morgan, the host of CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" and a judge on NBC's "America's Got Talent," was accused of being one of the Murdoch News Corp. journalists who allegedly hacked into the voicemails of celebrities and government officials to get scoops. During the mid-1990s, Morgan edited Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, which has since been shuttered following intense criticism of its investigative methods


Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/07/cnns-piers-morgan-denies-he-hacked-phones-for-ru

[ClarkUSA]

1. Morgan is as honest as a three-pound coin.

[SkyDaddy7]

11. Exactly...If you have time watch him...

go out of his way to defend Murdoch last night...He had no clue his name would get dropped at the hearings! LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLcgxdTv1N8

[JDPriestly]

2. Inevitably, some accusations will be true and some not.

That's the way it is. The police should have done a better job investigating this way back when.

The reputations of some innocent people will inevitably be damaged along with the guilty.

If he did not do this, then Piers Morgan can help clear his name by coming forward with any facts he might know that could be relevant to the investigation -- any instances when he wondered how someone had obtained information, anything like that.

Some people at Fox must have known more than they are saying. The list of people whose information was hacked is quite long.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. Lol!

Nice benefit of the doubt, but he is busted.

In his book, he wrote of how people never change their passwords on their cell phones and how he used to dial into people's voicemail (waiting for them to not pick up) and then putting in the default code. He also talked about using police resources to triangulate the position of his 'target' (mostly celebrities) so he could sick his photogs on them. This all complete with a how-to.

Buy is busted big time.

[JDPriestly]

17. Wow! You sure are right, Ruby.

I don't wish any of them well. I just don't want to be disappointed if the allegations against this large number of people don't hold.

[elehhhhna]

3. too bad he copped to it in his autobiography a few years ago. yes. in writing.

he's a LIAR

[FreakinDJ]

6. Them "Pesky Facts" again

[Donnachaidh]

4. umm, didn't he put it in his book that he did hack phones?

Is he going to suffer from memory issues too? :rofl:

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Of course - because he was hacking phones for the rival Daily Mirror which he joined in Nov 1995

That's how he got hold of this:

Moron, meanwhile, is enjoying the limelight as a celeb interviewer on cable TV. Former Mirror hacks have this week been reminiscing about the occasion when Moron serenaded their newsroom with the Beatles song “And I Love Her” during a period of pre-wedding froideur between Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, and then informed them that “It’s the message he sang to Heather to make it up — you should hear the tape.”

http://www.matthewcharlesdavis.com/2011/02/14/you-should-hear-the-tape/

Printed in Private Eye magazine, Feb 2011.

Before November 1995, there would have been much fewer voicemails left on mobile phones, and it might not have been worth his while hacking them when he was employed by Murdoch.

[Uncle Joe]

26. Nice catch, muriel.

:thumbsup:

[juajen]

8. Well, this will be a short stay at CNN! NT

[Maine-ah]

9. I don't really know much about the guy...but

wiki's info about him is pretty friggin' interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Morgan


In 1994, aged 28, he was appointed editor of News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, becoming the youngest national newspaper editor in more than half a century.<7> He quickly gained notoriety for his invasive, thrusting style and lack of concern for celebrities' right to privacy, claiming that they could not manipulate the media to further their own ends without accepting the consequences of a two way deal. Morgan's autobiography The Insider states that he left the News of the World of his own choice and somewhat against owner Rupert Murdoch's wishes when he was offered the job of Editor at the Daily Mirror.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Notice the paragaph about share fraud

In 2000, he was the subject of an investigation after Suzy Jagger wrote a story in The Daily Telegraph revealing that he had bought £20,000 worth of shares in the computer company Viglen soon before the Mirror 's 'City Slickers' column tipped Viglen as a good buy.<9> Morgan was found by the Press Complaints Commission to have breached the Code of Conduct on financial journalism, but kept his job. The 'City Slickers' columnists, Anil Bhoyrul and James Hipwell, were both found to have committed further breaches of the Code, and were sacked before the inquiry. In 2004, further enquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry cleared Morgan from any charges.<10> On 7 December 2005 Bhoyrul and Hipwell were convicted of conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act. During the trial it emerged that Morgan had bought £67,000 worth of Viglen shares, emptying his bank account and investing under his wife's name too.

And also:

"In May 2005, in partnership with Matthew Freud, he gained ownership of Press Gazette, a media trade publication together with its 'cash cow' the British Press Awards, in a deal worth £1 million.<14><15> This ownership was cited as one of the reasons many major newspapers boycotted the 2006 awards.<16> Press Gazette entered administrative receivership toward the end of 2006,<17> before being sold to a trade buyer."

That's Matthew Freud, son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch, for those of you keeping track.

[Maine-ah]

20. apparently last night's Americas Got Talent..

at one point, Howie quipped something to the effect of "Maybe you (Piers) were off hacking someone."

I'm watching the episode now to see if this is true...

http://www.nbc.com/americas-got-talent/video/week-8-night-1/1341818/

[grantcart]

21. Howie said that he had the same opinion as Morgan

and then quipped that maybe Morgan had 'hacked into his brain'.

Rather clever set up and score on Mandels part.

[emulatorloo]

22. He's a snake and a major league a-hole, IMHO n/t

[seafan]

12. Yeah, Piers. Let's look at your tenure at The Sun, NOTW and Daily Mirror..

CNN's Piers Morgan denies role in UK hacking scandal


Reuters

7:03 p.m. MDT, July 19, 2011

.....

Morgan, who edited the now-defunct News of The World in 1994-1995, was responding to remarks by British MP Louise Mensch at Tuesday's televised grilling of Rupert and James Murdoch, which was seen around the world.

Mensch stated that Morgan had boasted in his 2005 book "The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade" of having won a scoop for his Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper by using a code to gain entry into another person's cell phone.

Morgan said Mensch had got her facts mixed up.

In the book, he wrote that he suspected he was a victim of phone hacking. "I wrote in my book that someone warned me phones could be hacked, so I changed my pin number."

.....

Morgan, 46, also worked on Murdoch's daily newspaper The Sun between 1989-94 before moving to The News of the World and then The Daily Mirror in London from 1995-2004.

Operation Motorman.

09 July 2011 13:06 GMT

.....

Successive UK governments failed to take action against newspapers despite being made aware of thousands of offences five years ago, according to First Minister Alex Salmond.

Mr Salmond said the Information Commissioner's Operation Motorman report in December 2006 revealed over 3000 breaches of data protection laws across a range of newspaper titles.

.....

[seafan]

15. Tell us about your 'little tricks', Piers.

Piers Morgan (Jim Spellman/WireImage)


July 19, 2011

Conservative MP Louise Mensch insinuated this morning that Morgan may have participated in the hacking during his tenure at the tabloids, borrowing a passage from Piers' own seemingly incriminating autobiography.

"Piers Morgan, who is now a celebrity anchor at CNN, who do not appear to have asked him any questions about phone hacking, is a former editor of the Daily Mirror," Mensch said. "He said in his book The Insider recently, and I quote, that that little trick of entering a standard four-digit code allows anyone to call that number and hear your messages.

"In that book he boasted that using that little trick enables him to win scoop of the year for a story about Sven-Goran Eriksson. So that is a former editor of the Daily Mirror being very open about his personal use of phone hacking…and indeed he is a former News of the World executive."

.....Link

[IamK]

13. I'd be surprised if he could dial a phone never mind hack one....

[Supersedeas]

14. Po' CNN, first they bring on Beck with all that fan fair, now this...for Larry King's replacement

[jonthebru]

16. Remember Bernie Madolf?

For years under all conditions his investments made money. Some of his clients, those who actually paid attention, scratched their heads. But because it was working they let him continue and make them money. The individual who really saw the problem was not listened to and the condition went on for a few more years.
In this case these are top drawer smart managers, in the big leagues. It is insane to think that none of them ever stopped and asked questions, at least to themselves, about how these stories were acquired when no other media had the same scoop. Simply put they ignored ethics and any sense of fairness for the bottom line.
This morning, when asked if celebrities deserve privacy in today's media world, Murdoch answered in one word:"No." And yet News Corp has some of the most secretive operations of any modern corporation.
The pie dude was really stupid. He created an unnecessary diversion to the content of the answers uttered by the criminal corporatists.
They lied and repeated well rehearsed responses of sadness and remorse. In reality they are really sorry; sorry that they got caught.

[aquart]

18. The mad anagramist says Piers is up to his ears.

Really dislikes him. Claims Piers also had a 3-year affair with Brooks.

[flamingdem]

23. Do you have a link for that story

... the plot thickens

[Rex]

19. Well someone start a formal investigation into his activities and then

get the chopping block ready! Looks like he will have company!

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. He just happened to be able to get Kate Winslet's brand new mobile number

I got back to the office to learn that Kate Winslet, having indicated she would come to our Pride of Britain awards tomorrow, is now saying she can't. Someone had got hold of her mobile number - I never like to ask how - so I rang her ... 'Hello,' she said, sounding a bit taken aback. 'How did you get my number? I've only just changed it. You've got to tell me, please. I am so worried now.'

Piers Morgan, 10 April 2000 diary entry in The Insider.

Quote in Private Eye magazine today.

[NashVegas]

25. If A "Journalist" Will Work For a Tabloid, They'll Do Anything