CNN host Piers Morgan, testifying via video from Los Angeles before the Leveson Committee of the British Parliament, said the suggestion that he authorized hacking while working at U.K. newspapers was "nonsense," reports The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog.
Morgan said he had no direct involvement in hiring private investigators, although the article says he "side-stepped" questions about listening to voice mail of Heather Mills, the former wife of Paul McCartney. By the end of an hour of difficult questioning, "he was clearly irritated," the story notes.
CNN "surely did not realise what it had got itself into" when it hired Morgan to replace Larry King, the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper writes. Morgan is a former editor of the U.K. papers News of the World and The Daily Mirror. "The difficult question for CNN is: what does it do with Piers Morgan now?" the article asks.
Given Morgan’s sliding ratings at the network, CNN "may decide that the baggage is not worth the fare," the Guardian story says.
Calling Morgan’s testimony “bumbling,” The Guardian said in a commentary that by the end of the questioning, “The imperious interviewer familiar to viewers of Piers Morgan Tonight was reduced to sullen, one-word answers delivered with curt annoyance.”
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