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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Sometimes a little justice is done

Once upon a time, I read an article in the Financial Times, which used the slightly peculiar phrase “resigned voluntarily” about six times in the article. Essentially, some CEO had in fact actually decided to leave his job in order to spend more time with his family genuinely of his own accord, and this was such a remarkable thing that the FT felt the need to explain over and over that he had not “resigned” in the usual way (ie been sacked).

A case in point today. Piers Morgan, the editor of the Daily Mirror, ceased to be the editor of the Daily Mirror. The Sun reports that he “resigned” upon the photographs that the Mirror had published purporting to show abusive treatment of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers being proved to be forged. The Mirror itself reports that Morgan “resigned”. The media section of the Guardian reports the truth: that Morgan refused to apologise in any way to anybody, and upon making this refusal clear to Trinity Mirror’s chief executive, Sly Bailey, he was escorted out of the building by security. Given the dreadful way in which the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment and the British army in general have been libeled in these circumstances, it would have been nice to have been there to cheer the security guards on yesterday. In any event, some of the Samizdatistas did get a certain amount of pleasure out of it later.

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I particularly like the way the Mirror has the words “Newspaper of the Year” above the banner headline.

And as another observation, the Chairman and Director-General of the BBC and the editor of the Mirror have now all lost their jobs due to their organisations essentially lying in order to make their case of opposition to the Iraq war. It really is not impressive on their part.

A shame we can’t get the editor of the Guardian as well though.

24 comments to Sometimes a little justice is done

  • Some “media analyst” bloke was on Sky News earlier pointing out that the BBC top brass and now a national newspaper editor had all “resigned” over the Iraq war “while government ministers were all still there”. Sounds like wagons being circled to me.

  • And Morgan’s line — that while the photos may have been fake, the “essence” of the stories that accompanied them was true — sounds very Gilliganesque. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy…

  • Percy Dovetonsils

    I must give them credit for the front page – bet you won’t see The Boston Globe do that over their own Iraq/porn scandal.

  • is it true that the Mirror were “hoaxed” (by someone else”) or did they “deliberately fool themselves”?

    Any way since they will presumably be naming sources now – fraudulent contracts do no need to be honoured its time for the sweep stakes on which organisations the photographers belonged to.

    One will have been a member of SWP methinks

  • Julian Morrison

    The teeshirt poking fun of Che isn’t bad either. Where’d you get that from?

  • Snorre

    Resigned? That’s funny, the news at 21 (here in Norway) clearly said “got the boot”.

  • He was “resigned”
    City code for sacked!

  • Julian:

    The teeshirt poking fun of Che isn’t bad either. Where’d you get that from?

    Well, to hell with my modesty. I designed it: top of the page, left column.

  • Mike G

    And a fine T-shirt it is, I have two of them (for me and a friend) that I just got.

    I think the untold story here is who hoaxed the Mirror. To read the press accounts the photos appeared by Immaculate Deception. It is very hard to avoid the inference that they are avoiding admitting that they were fabricated on premises, which means at the order of the editor, presumably. But I have to think that the swiftness and firmness of Morgan’s sacking reflects the fact that the board absolutely would not stand for that, and acted as soon as that was established to their satisfaction.

  • The story is that the Mirror was told the yarn and said something to the effect that it would be worth more with pictures and lo pictures appeared.To me this is as bad as faking the pictures themselves.
    It would have only cost the Mirror a few quid to get an expert to give the pictures the once over.

  • The fate of Piers Morgan, and before him, the BBC top brass, encapsulates for me something I’ve been trying to articulate for a while. After 9/11, I discovered that most of the people I’d considered as political allies disagreed with me completely as to the next steps to take, and I felt the sudden loss of my political label as failure: the politics had failed, it hadn’t coped with events, provided a path to follow. But now that same politics, the politics of the BBC and the Mirror, appears to be failing them, pushing them into decisions that let them down, making them support falsehoods, back the wrong horses, give space to the wrong voices. (You can see why I’ve been struggling to articulate this!) Its gravity has failed and its passengers are being flung off by the forces of what’s really going on.
    Roger Simon says that video of Saddam’s Abu Ghraib will be put on public view shortly: if that’s true, the process I’m trying to describe can only accelerate.

  • GCooper

    Mike G writes:

    “But I have to think that the swiftness and firmness of Morgan’s sacking reflects the fact that the board absolutely would not stand for that, and acted as soon as that was established to their satisfaction.”

    Not exactly. The board of Trinity Mirror knew damned well what Piers Morgan was doing all along and “Sir” Victor Blank, Chairman of TM, no doubt, thoroughly enjoyed seeing his shareholders’ money being used to support a Leftist cause.

    What precipitated Morgan’s defenstration, aparently, was pressure from those very shareholders: a bit late in the day one might think, in view of what Morgan’s increasingly hysterical polemics were doing to the sales of their prime assett.

    Of course, what really should have happened was that both the odious, arrogant Morgan and Blank should have got the push.

  • You mean you doubt the integrity of a major media outlet? I am shocked, shocked I tell you!

  • Walter Wallis

    One wonders, especially after the oil vouchers revelations, whether some of these activists are motivated by more than passion, like either blackmail or bribery.

  • Paul Marks

    As I (and many other people) predicted the photographs proved to be fakes.

    I do not like Mr Morgan or the B.B.C. people. I have never supported the war, but I must admit various leftists losing their jobs (including the dictator of Iraq losing his job) is a good thing. I do not think that this means the war was a good idea – but I do welcome these developments.

    As for the Daily Mirror being “Newspaper of the Year” – it has had those words on its front cover for several years (I suppose every year a group of media people vote for it in some contest).

  • Walter Wallis,Saddams money hasn’t been found and Ira has an enormous fighting fund.I think it is time to follow the money.

  • Walter Wallis,Saddams money hasn’t been found and Iran has an enormous fighting fund.I think it is time to follow the money.

  • David Mercer

    It’s always time to follow the money, how the hell else can one find out what’s really going on?

    Alternate methods of bull-shit puncturing welcomed, but following the money is the only proven sure way.

  • Johnathan

    Good points. Morgan was forced out, from what I read in the Sunday press, partly because of falling Mirror sales in the north-west of England, home of the Royal Lancs. Rgt. Also, a number of major shareholders are said to have put pressure on the board.

    More generally, it has been a pretty terrible time for the lefty press: The BBC resignations (Hutton et al); Morgan, and let’s not forget, Howell Raines and the New York Times’ Jayson Blair scandal.

  • Paul: I certainly wasn’t trying to argue that the fact that these people have had to resign proved the case for the war, or anything like that. I do however think it says something about the intellectual (and moral) bankruptcy of the loudest voices who did oppose the war. There certainly was and is an intellectually coherent case against the war: however the “anti-war” movement on the whole demonstrated a woeful inability to argue it, or even to understand it.

  • I do however think it says something about the intellectual (and moral) bankruptcy of the loudest voices who did oppose the war.

    Oh come on. Piers Morgan was either a knave or a fool for publishing these obviously fake photographs. But surely even the most ardent supporters of the war must concede the enormous moral and intellectual bankruptcy of Blair on this. The case for war was obviously trumped up, there are no weapons of mass destruction, launchable either in 45 mins or 45 years. These photographs in the Mirror were obvious fakes but they are as nothing compared to the pup we were sold in the case for war. Starting this utterly unecessary war in the first place, based on a pack of lies, is what has put soldier’s lives at risk, not photographs in the Mirror. When is anyone going to resign over that?

  • Byna

    Hey Paul, you always have to be carefull what you say, facts on the ground might catch up with you.

    Byna

    Sarin Nerve Gas Round Found, Partly Detonated in Iraq (Update1)

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  • Byna,

    I’m amazed that you have the lack of shame to even try to make this fatuous point.

  • battery

    What precipitated Morgan’s defenstration, aparently, was pressure from those very shareholders: a bit late in the day one might think, in view of what Morgan’s increasingly hysterical polemics were doing to the sales of their prime assett.