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Inevitably the British papers are dominated by the sacking of Mirror editor Piers Morgan and the paper’s own post-Hutton-BBC-type apology, ‘SORRY.. WE WERE HOAXED’. Morgan was fooled by pictures alleged to be of British troops abusing Iraqis in the US-style.
Hutton has taught the government not to avoid gloating. Whoops of delight at being let off the hook that time destroyed any political advantage; opinion polls showed the public still trusted the BBC on the issue. And quite right too. More than that, Morgan’s (albeit inadequate) defence that the fake pictures illustrated events that had happened is probably true. The difference between Brits and Yanks seems to be that Brits aren’t stupid enough to document their crimes.
Hey ho. Just as Greg Dyke was a great loss to the BBC, Morgan is a genuine loss to the Mirror. He did attempt to take the red-top tabloid into the realms of serious news with respected writers like Tony Parsons, who are equally at home in the broadsheets and, of course, John Pilger, who made his name when the Mirror was first a serious working class paper in the 1960s and ’70s. Morgan didn’t necessarily deliver readers though. The only tabloid to put on readers – and in significant numbers – is the determinedly downmarket Daily Star (no link because its wank mag owner, in common with other terrestrial pornographers, hates the web).
A fair trial for Private Lynndie R. England……Myth of moral superiority……Express dumps Tony… but who knew they were friends?
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