Piers Morgan is used to shouting down others, but he seemed rather rattled when faced with a taste of his own medicine.
The former Mirror editor was presenting a segment on Good Morning Britain concerning the ‘celebrity threesome’ story that has been reported in full in the US and Scotland, but has up to now been the subject of a court injunction in the UK.
The Court of Appeal has now ruled that the injunction can be lifted, pending further legal action, and that could lead to media outlets from these shores finally revealing the names of the celebrities involved.
Former MP Dr Evan Harris was the guest up against Morgan on the GMB sofas. He’s the Joint Executive Director of Hacked Off, which campaigns for a free and accountable press. And one would assume they’d both be preaching from the same hymn book.
But Harris was keen to stress the importance of balance within the media, and differentiate between stories that are in the public interest, and those that delve salaciously into the private lives of individuals. Former tabloid editor Morgan was clearly in his crosshairs.
Things got pretty heated when Harris brought up the forthcoming second part of the Leveson Inquiry, and suggested Morgan had a “vested interest” in the reporting of this latest story. He even referred to the Mirror’s alleged hacking of private phone lines and accused Morgan of being either “incompetent” or “involved” as the former editor.
As you see below, Morgan was on the ropes as Harris went in for the kill…
Ooof Evan Harris slaps down @piersmorgan #Whittingdale pic.twitter.com/zk1KrnPUB8
— JP (@jpublik) April 18, 2016
A chastised Morgan took to Twitter following the tete-a-tete, paying Harris a back-handed compliment/front-handed insult…
Enjoyed our chat @DrEvanHarris. You were just as odious, irritating, agenda-fuelled & absurdly hypocritical as I hoped. Come back soon. @GMB
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 18, 2016
A longer video of the heated debate can be seen below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWhn06pwVyE
