Piers Morgan's departure

So they lied.

Despite their strong protestations that they told the truth, the mirror photos were faked.

What is completely inexcusable, however, is Piers Morgan's refusal to admit the mistake or to apologise.

He was clearly negligent in his duty to ensure that the photos were not faked, not only in the national interest, but also in the international interest. The effect that this will have had for british troops in iraq, and also the opinion of the Arab world as a whole is irreparably damaged by the actions of the mirror, despite a front page apology.

Good riddance I say!

 

To be fair, our problems of miscommunication with the moslem world go far deeper than stupid tabloid headlines and faked photos.

 

Piers Morgan

I'm in agreement with Isaac - publishing the photos without 100% knowledge that they were genuine was grossly irresponsible and will put British lives at risk in Iraq, never mind the damage done to our already poor reputation amongst Arab states.

His comments since were awful as well, first his insistence that the pictures were genuine despite some of the rather glaring inaccuracies, then trying to weasel out of responsibility for the images when they were shown to be fake by saying they were just an 'illustrative portrayal' of what is going on. Then refusing to apologise after being proved so wrong - that probably made his position untenable, hence his sacking.

Some people I know who were anti-war and still are, applauded Morgan for drawing attention to the issue of prisoner abuse, regardless of whether the photos were real or not.

But despite the issue of prisoner abuse being one of importance IMHO, the way it was done with photos presented as actual abuse, rather than any recreations (and to be honest I don't think tabloid dramatisation 'recreation' images would be acceptable), was a dangerous strategy that has done our international reputation much harm and made the job of our soldiers much more dangerous.

 

All he had to do was to put the word "Reconstruction" , "Artists Impression" or other such label within the photographs and at a stroke he could have bypassed a good bit of this debate and prehaps concentrated upon the question of what did happen in this and other prisions. On the box last night I watched a cleric using some of the Mirror's photographs to both justify the execution of the Americian and as the reason for further action against westerners. The fact that Piers Morgan has been removed from the Mirror and that these pictures were not true will not I fear sway this cleric from his intended path of action.

Well done Piers

Auric

 

They printed their apology on the front page, then inside....



LMAO...'we've been forced to concede defeat, but we're still right and you're still wrong'. I thought the response of this very anti-war would be to try and bring the spotlight back on Blair & Bush, indeedover the whole affair many of the people I have spoken to on the issue have done the same. The Mirror has apologised, but not without trying to get the government to do the same.

 

100% in agreement. The damage is done. It's shameful that Piers Morgan did not apologise. On yesterday's news, the BBC showed footage of various "leaders" using these images to recruit more volunteers to their cause. How many more British casualties will result from this is anybody guess.

Very regretable.

 

Joel - I agree that the problems are rooted deeper, but the very public nature of this incident makes it paticularly serious.

Al Jazeera and other arabic channels will no doubt have given the images and original scandal a great deal of coverage. How much will be given to the apologies and piers morgan's sacking? How much will they be heeded?

And not for a moment do I believe that it is only arabic media that are guilty of this. The presentation of the western media of the actions of others is always very critical, and rarely critical of the actions of western nations. Certainly our media does seem to try hard at stirring up anti-islamic and anti-arabic sentiment, perhaps not consciously, but subconciously in the presentation of "us and them".

Piers Morgan has always struck me as an arrogant, jumped up little <insert your choice of name here>, and this is borne out by his actions up until the moment that he was sacked and escorted from the building.

As much as people may be critical of him, at least Michael Moore is prepared to go ahead and look critically at his own society. Maybe he presents an opposite extreme, but the balance is so far in the other direction that it is needed. Who knows where the truth lies?

 

i find in this thread yet more justification for my vow to avoid the news at all costs. i don;t buy a paper, the local rags get the entertainment section extracted and binned and tv news gets turned off asap if at all possible. the world is a shite-hole, i'm not sure which is sicker, the fact that this kind of abuse may go on, the fact that someone faked such abuse or that such abuse can be used as leverage in political wrangling. but on the whole it's a pretty ****ed up situation.
cheers


julian