Quote of the day has to be this opener from Guido:
It’s an interesting contribution, not least after Piers Morgan’s assertion he knew nothing about phone hacking at the Daily Mirror. As the Sabotage Times notes:
…while he could offer up an explanation of how to hack a phone he struggled to remember who had told him how to do it.
And a former financial journalist on the paper, James Hipwell, has told inquiry and reported by the Daily Mail (which seemed strangely quiet during the News of the World story):
‘Looking at his style of editorship, I would say it was very unlikely that he didn’t know what was going on because, as I have said, there wasn’t very much he didn’t know about. As I think he said in his testimony, he took a very keen interest in the work of his journalists. Showbusiness is very close to his heart.’
It certainly doesn’t stack well, but we’re now about where the Commons was back in July 2009 with the News of the World story… Morgan’s line is less than convincing, but there’s no one, yet, who can falsify his protests of ignorance… Any sign or proof that hacking happened ought to be enough..
The Coulson line that “I never knew what they were up” surely cannot hold this time round for this former acolyte of Kelvin McKenzie, editor at the Sun at the height of its pugilistic aggression, and commercial success…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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