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Brit Blogger Claims ‘Smoking Gun’ Recording Ties Piers Morgan To Hacking

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A British blogger who has repeatedly claimed that CNN’s Piers Morgan can be linked to phone hacking during his days as a tabloid newspaper editor in the U.K. now says he’s got “smoking gun” proof to back up his charges. The blogger, Paul Staines, who writes under the name Guido Fawkes, has told ForbesJeff Bercovici that a recording exists “which contradicts (Morgan’s) recent claims” that he has never been involved in phone hacking in any way.

On his program Piers Morgan Tonight, Morgan opened a discussion of the News Corp phone hacking scandal with his own statement flatly denying he ever engaged in hacking. “For the record, in my time at The Mirror and the News of the World, I have never hacked a phone, told anybody to hack a phone or published any story based on the hacking of a phone.” It’s unclear why–if a recording that contradicts that claim exists–the blogger hasn’t published it, but Bercovici discussed the recording’s contents:

Via email, I told Staines what I had heard, that the recording captures Morgan admitting to paying a third party to hack. “You are on the right lines,” he replied. He has not yet posted the recording.

If it delivers as advertised, it will be the first major expansion of the hacking scandal outside the confines of News Corp.

CNN declined to comment on the blogger’s claims to Forbes or to Mediaite.

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  • Anonymous

    Hmmm…why hasn’t CNN been investigating this serious allegation?

  • SNAPTIE

    Piers Morgan I have never hacked a phone!!! Piers Morgan I have never hacked a phone!!! Repeat,Deny,Repeat as Necessary

  • Paul G

     The same reason MSNBC isn’t investigating their ‘ties’ to the WH. Ha!

  • Anonymous

    If this is true, then morgan should resign. He’s not contributing anything to cnn anyways.

  • Anonymous

    LOL

    Hey, he’s the guy who published hoax photos of British troops abusing prisoners and was forced to resign from his newspaper.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLaLsNkaEq8 Unicon

    Moran is channeling the Weiner defense…

  • Anonymous

    Lets just see if Cooper covers this.

  • Anonymous

    You mean like Fox’s tie’s to the Bush White House?

  • Anonymous

    Not really. Bush had the tie in to FOX News. That’s how all the democrats fell for the Bush lies and went to war in Iraq! That stupid guy and his network threw all those brilliant liberals off and made them vote for that war with a kind of mind control thing….

  • Anonymous

    And please, trow any copy of my book away where I said that I have no knowledge of the hacking scandal…

  • Anonymous

    Or Matthews. Or Sharpton, or the other import Bashir… Larry? Rick Maddow? Ed “crazy train, I know nothing, nothing” Shultzie…

  • Anonymous

    We need to slap a “Return to Sender” label on Morgan and ship him back to London. Oh, wait, he had to leave because he faked photos of soldiers abusing prisoners to support his “I hate the military” position.

    So if Morgan got into News Corps’ voice mail, it would be, “Hack Hacks Hackers.”

  • david r

    Well I think he shoots his mouth off so well I’m going to make him an Honorary Texan.  All those Brits want to do is get drunk and raise hell.  He seems more of an “announcer” than a “reporter.”

  • Anonymous

    Gees, I’m so impressed by all your evidence of that.

    NBC/MSNBC’s ties?

    Brian Williams, news anchor, bowing to Barry and Chris Matthews certified dullard saying that it was “his job to make sure this presidency succeeds.”

    I think Barry ought to fire Chris!

    bawaaaaaaaaa

    Just last week, an MSNBC anchor leaves because the Pres. of MSNBC say people in Washington are concerned about the anchor’s tone.

  • Anonymous

    Hey, this will be nothing compared to “Fast & Furious”- that story is getting more legs everyday.

    Soon, it will be “what did the president know and when did he know it?”

  • Anonymous

    What story is that?  I haven’t seen much about it here on mediaite….although FNC is covering it fast and furiously, the others are beginning to at least mention it, but the broadcast libs are ignoring it, so mediaite isn’t talking about it.  Funny.  Just imagine if this were a Bush scandal….there would be screaming healines, but alas, it is the job of today’s so-called media to protect HIM rather than to report facts to the public.  Oh well…

  • Anonymous

    CNN sure knows how to pick ‘em.  It’s fun to watch them slowly dissolve into profound irrelevancy. 

  • Anonymous

    Hmmm…why hasn’t CNN been investigating this serious allegation?

    Yeah, hmmm…

    Maybe the blogger is hiding his recordings in the same place as those “Whitey” tapes.

    Send him your money quickly so he can beef up his security before the Black Helicopters swoop in to steal them!

    PS- Why hasn’t he turned over his alleged tapes to the authorities? I’m not up on the whole limey legal system but Isn’t it a crime to withhold evidence?  What is he waiting for? A bribe?

  • Jimmy

    “It’s unclear why–if a recording that contradicts that claim exists–the blogger hasn’t published it,”

    Indeed.

  • ceeza

    Piers Morgan is a most certainly a toad …even so I say release the tape or shut up…

  • Jimmy

    Staines has pretended to have smoking gun documents before which he was “about” to release but somehow never did.  I wouldn’t hold my breath.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RGDGSWDF35W6LCG4DLOIRNUPOA shaun

    This guy betrayed our troops (British troops in Iraq), as Editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper he knowingly published fake photos of so-called army guys abusing iraqis. Nasty person who escaped justice. Now he is getting his deserved comeuppence.

  • Anonymous

    What story is that?  I haven’t seen much about it here on mediaite…

    It’s not really a story so much as a teabagger tale about gummint gun grabbers and the Phoenix ATF’s operation to attempt to track “straw” gun purchasers who legally buy guns in the US and then illegally sell the guns up into the Mexican gun smuggling networks.

    They tracked one of the guns that was purchased to a crime scene where a US Border Patrol agent was killed, so you know, impeach Eric Holder and President Obama too (but don’t let them fire the head of the ATF because Rep Issa likes him).

    Or something.

    This story doesn’t need “legs” it needs crutches, but Rep. Issa has it on life support, so no worries.

  • Anonymous

    Apparently it’s just a Republican talking point. Some crazy Fox News thing. Move along. Nothing to see here.

    According to whistleblowers and key
    witnesses, however, the real lesson behind Fast and Furious, a two-year
    operation that ended in January 2011, is how “groupthink” clouded
    decision-making at the highest levels of government
    , causing an agency
    to go against its basic instincts – which is to not allow arms to be
    trafficked illegally – and consequently contribute, not detract, from
    border violence.
    “These guns
    weren’t going for a positive cause, they were going for a negative
    cause,” ATF attaché Carlos Canino told the congressional oversight
    committee. “The ATF armed the [Sinaloa] cartel. It’s disgusting.”

  • Frod

    Becuse they are too busy investigation the possibility that unspeakable simpletons may have gained internet access.

  • Anonymous

    Gosh, you must get your facts from the broadcast nets or something, cuz you are way off the mark…way off.

    Holder has been caught in the big lie to congress…..gosh, the government is prosecuting some baseball player for that….hmmmm

  • SouthernYankee

    Your really an asshole, but I guess you already know that.

  • Anonymous

    This investigation has taken them to the White House….a step or two away from the President.

    It is going to get embarrassing for POTUS very soon, as well as the Attorney General.

  • Anonymous

    Rut-Roh…wonder how CNN will spin this to make FOX News in the US culpable.

  • Paul G

     Don’t say asshole in front of ‘it’…he’s prob part of that DADT….(not that there’s anything wrong with that) HA!

  • Paul G

     Don’t say asshole in front of ‘it’…he’s prob part of that DADT….(not that there’s anything wrong with that) HA!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CQWUTBF2KSSVOXCR4PSN66L2PM James

    that;s just a cliam. there is no prove of Pearce’s part in this. I think if it does come out that He was and there facts to back that up. CNN will have a resoin to drop him. If they didn’t it would hurt CNN name if they didn’t

  • Jimmy

    Told you it was a hoax.  It’s just a conservative blogger running interference for Murdoch.  Really badly.

  • Michael T.

    Update (from Jeff Bercovici) about this Mediaite article.

    “That Piers Morgan Smoking Gun? Not So Smoky (afterall).”
    http://tinyurl.com/3getf6z

  • Anonymous

    Holder has been caught in the big lie to congress….

    The “big lie” is what you’re  doing right now, Mabel-from-Madagascar.

  • Anonymous

    You mean like Fox’s tie’s to the Bush White House?

    I don’t think “ties” is the best word to use.

    The Bush Whitehouse was hiring bimbos right from the FOX “news” desk, in the case of Tony Snow, and FOX was hiring people right out of the Bush Cartel, in the case of John Prescott Ellis.

    What FOX had is more of a working relationship with the Bush Whitehouse.

  • Anonymous

    “These guns weren’t going for a positive cause, they were going for a negative cause,” ATF attaché Carlos Canino told the congressional oversight committee. “The ATF armed the [Sinaloa] cartel. It’s disgusting.”

    What’s truly disgusting is to imply that the Phoenix ATF provided any guns to anybody, because saying it would be a lie.

  • Anonymous

    Tell me, where did the WH find Jay Carney? How about Linda Douglass?

  • Anonymous

    Oh, so those were teabaggers walking guns into the hands of the drug cartels? Where’d you get that idea, genius? You lie. As does Holder.

  • Anonymous

    And your knowledge of the operation is superior to Carlos Canino’s because why, exactly?

    I think I know the answer to that question.

  • Anonymous

    Pablo ez:Oh, so those were teabaggers walking guns into the hands of the drug
    cartels? Where’d you get that idea, genius?

    They probably thought it was a healthcare townhall meeting.

    Pablo ez:You lie. As does Holder.

    Yeah, that’s what you teatards keep saying, so where is the lie already, ese?

  • Anonymous

    Pablo ez:Oh, so those were teabaggers walking guns into the hands of the drug
    cartels? Where’d you get that idea, genius?

    They probably thought it was a healthcare townhall meeting.

    Pablo ez:You lie. As does Holder.

    Yeah, that’s what you teatards keep saying, so where is the lie already, ese?

  • Anonymous

    Pablo quotes Carlos:”These guns weren’t going for a positive cause, they were going for a negative cause,” ATF attaché Carlos Canino told the congressional oversight committee. “The ATF armed the [Sinaloa] cartel. It’s disgusting.”

    Mia Kulper wrote:What’s truly disgusting is to imply that the Phoenix ATF provided any guns to anybody, because saying it would be a lie.

    Pablo sez:And your knowledge of the operation [Fast and Furious] is superior to Carlos Canino’s because why, exactly?

    Because Carlos Canino never testified that the Phoenix ATF provided any guns to anybody and his statement that you’re quoting above is misleading and inflammatory.

    The Phoenix ATF’s Fast and Furious operation tracked buyers and tracked guns that were bought legally here in the US and subsequently illegally sold into the Mexican gun / drug networks. The Phoenix ATF never supplied any weapons to anybody, you idiot.

  • Anonymous

    It was disclosed yesterday that that a member at the NSC at the WH KNEW of this operation.

    OUCH!

  • Anonymous

    And?

    OUCH!

  • andrew slack

    Take anything Jimmy says with a pinch of salt. He’s a British Labour Party/Marxist shill who trolls around numerous blogs every hour of the day to push his leftist agenda. Obviously hasn’t nay meaningful employment other than trolling leftist propaganda. By the way, this particular article has been placed as a link on the Guido Fawkes blogsite. Jimmy’s last post is just his biased view that doesn’t square with the facts. Staines has posted as many threads criticising Murdoch as he has defending him. The way the British Labour party has gone after Murdoch’s newspapers, whilst ignoring the same actions of a paper that supports the party (The Daily Mirror) has done the almost impossible task of creating sympathy for old Rupert.

    By the way, please don’t send Piers Moron back to Britain. We can’t stand the arrogant, name dropping idiot either.

  • Jimmy

    “Staines has posted as many threads criticising Murdoch as he has defending him.”  Really?

    Guardian Get Over It

    Unusually for Guido he flicked through the Guardian first thing this morning.  It seems to have developed a mono-mania.  Peter Wilby writes The Biggest Media Story in Years – So Why the Silence? Hmm,
    possibly because it isn’t news that newspapers hack mobiles and has not
    been since we listened to Diana’s squidgygate recordings over a decade
    ago.  They also strung out another news story rehashing Sunday coverage.  Martin Moore from the Media Standards Trust says incredibly supportively This Calls for An Inquiry – But Not by the PCC (nothing to do with the fact that the Guardian’s owner funds the Media Standards Trust).  Jackie Ashley kicks out 800 words on Coulson Must Go Or Else I’ll Scream Until I am Blue in the Face. Julian Henry says the same, Coulson apparently has to lose his current job for the same reason he lost his  last  job or else presumably the Guardian will keep writing articles about him.

    Hell, forlornly looking for Tory division, they have even roped in ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie for a piece.  Seven articles today about Coulson not being destroyed by a Guardian scoop? 
    Isn’t that overkill? The scoop, such as it was, really boils down to
    the payouts which happened long after Coulson’s tenure.  It wasn’t news
    that voicemail hacking and worse happened on Coulson’s watch.  That is after all why he resigned last time.

    http://order-order.com/2009/07/13/guardian-get-over-it/

  • andrew slack

    Jeez, Jimmy, you really are a troll aren’t you! Quoting a thread from 2009 doesn’t really refute my main comment about your previous post. Only last week Guido posted a thread pointing out apparent discrepancies in James Murdoch’s evidence before a Parliamentary Select Committee. He’s also posted threads criticising Rebekah Brookes.

    Like all lefties, you conveniently forget about the threads criticising Murdoch and are selective with your “facts”.  That’s typical leftie practice. That and “answering”  questions and comments that are NEVER made in order to divert attention from the main point of conversation whilst giving the impression of addressing those points.

    Be honest, you have a specific political point of view and seem to visit every blogsite that doesn’t share your world view in order to impose your message. However, selectively chosen “facts”, and attempts to ridicule and belittle contradictory views is not grown up reasoned argument.

    The good thing about Guido’s blog is that he prints the derisive and abusive comments made about him and opposing viewpoints. That’s a lot more than many left wing blogs (and I include The Guardian’s “Comment Is Free” blog) who supposedly campaign for free speech yet censor or refuse to accept counter arguments.

  • Anonymous

    So where is that proof again? Where are those recordings? Hmm?

  • Jimmy

    Guido defended Murdoch up to the point it became untenable, since then he’s been trying to divert attention.  But what’s the point in arguing?  Anyone who wants to see how “fair and balanced” he is can look for themselves rather than take your word or mine.

    “you have a specific political point of view”

    Indeed I do, but I’m not sure whether to be more annoyed by being called “Marxist” or being called “British”.

    “attempts to ridicule and belittle contradictory views is not grown up reasoned argument.”

    It’s fun though.

    If it’s any comfort, and to be fair to him, I get modded more on CiF than I do on Guido.  There’s no political filter it’s true and you’ll see the most vile racist and reactionary views in the comments, but given his current crusade you’ll find he’s quite touchy about his own past.

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