Leveson Inquiry: Piers Morgan Has Himself in a Pickle.

He appeared (via video link). He spoke. And now the fallout has begun.

He said quite a few questionable things, like "It's not unethical to listen to voicemail" and "I have very little sympathy with celebrities who sell their weddings for a million pounds - one of the most private days of their lives - and then expect to have privacy if they get caught having affairs. They are the very last people who should be protected by privacy law", not to mention "I feel like a rock star being confronted with a back catalogue of all my worst hits"

But the most controversial segment, the one that's gaining momentum, is how he reacted when questioned regarding tapes of conversations between Heather Mills and Sir Paul McCartney. He "refused to reveal who had played him the recording, or where he was when he heard it." He denied that Mills' phone was hacked by The Mirror, saying "All we know for a fact about Lady Heather Mills McCartney is that in their divorce case Paul McCartney stated as a fact that she had recorded their conversations and given them to the media."

Enter Heather Mills. She has since said: "For the avoidance of doubt, I can categorically state that I have never ever played Piers Morgan a tape of any kind, never mind a voice message from my ex-husband. Piers Morgan is doing all he can to deter the Leveson inquiry from finishing their important job. Morgan is using me as his scapegoat and I would be more than happy to answer any questions that the inquiry would like to put to me. As stated in a press release by my ex-husband, he has never insinuated that I have leaked tapes of him to the media."

Naturally enough, CNN are (finally) wondering who they've hired to host their flaghip talk show. According to Sky News, that have "told him to respond to a denial by Heather Mills that she played him a private voicemail.
And, lastly, let's have a look at what former Mirror reporter James Hipwell had to say of Morgan during his time there as a financial reporter: " 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." And of the magazine's Showbiz Desk: "The openness and frequency of their hacking activities gave the impression that hacking was considered a bog-standard journalistic tool for gathering information."

He also told the inquiry that "Daily Mirror reporters would often delete messages from celebrities' voicemails to stop rival Sun journalists from listening to them."

Back to you, Piers.