Read Piers Morgan Online

Authors: Emily Herbert

Piers Morgan (7 page)

‘Piers Morgan remains the editor of the
News Of The World
under the terms of the contract,’ was the stiff statement from the company. But it was no good; his heart was no longer in it and Piers wanted out. The
Mirror
executives themselves were determined to get their man; they announced that Myler would continue to edit the paper until he was able to take up the appointment. Clearly, it was just a matter of time.

Meanwhile, over at the
Mirror,
there were concerns among the staff on the ground, too. Piers had spent most of his professional life on the
Sun
and the
News Of The World,
both Conservative supporters. The
Mirror
, on the other hand, was Labour through and through. Previously, he had also admitted to voting Tory and his new staff expressed alarm that he might try to impose his views on them.

‘The big fear is for the left-wing leanings on the paper,’ revealed one journalist, who refused to be named. ‘There must also be worries that we’ll be going downmarket with
more kiss-and-tell stories. Although we’re a tabloid at the lower end of the market, we’ve always managed to cover the serious news in a way our readers would understand.’

But there was no backing out: Piers was on his way. Then came another slew of headlines about his youth because, at the tender age of thirty, he would now become the youngest editor of a daily newspaper. At the same time, the
News Of The World
finally accepted the fact that he was leaving and appointed the paper’s deputy (Phil Hall) as editor in his place.

In the event, Piers became editor of the
Mirror
less than two months after he tendered his resignation from the
News Of The World
and lost no time in making his presence felt. And, while he made it clear that he would deliver a serious news agenda, he also had that extra sense so crucial to any editor to know exactly what his readership was really interested in. And so, in November 1995, when Diana, Princess of Wales did a completely unprecedented and, at that time, extremely shocking interview with Martin Bashir on BBC’s
Panorama
, he pulled out all the stops. Here was the Princess of Wales talking about the ‘three of us in the marriage, so it was a little crowded’, asserting she wanted to be ‘the Queen of People’s Hearts’ and saying that Prince Charles shouldn’t become king. The appearance caused a complete sensation, made divorce from Charles inevitable – at the time they were only separated – and was
front-page
news for almost every newspaper.

The
Mirror
really went to town; the next day, sixteen pages were set aside for news (as opposed to features,
columns, sport and so on) and every single one was devoted to the Diana interview. Piers himself declared it to be the biggest story he had ever reported and said the blanket coverage was completely unprecedented – it certainly was that.

Indeed, he came in for a lot of stick for making that particular issue of the paper, the ‘Diana’ issue (before numerous ‘Diana’ issues in the wake of her death), but the fact is he was right. When he joined the
Mirror
, it had lost its identity to a certain extent. Once a solid,
working-class
newspaper, the readership it used to represent was no longer the same. Margaret Thatcher had made large sections of the working class considerably better off; it was no good assuming ‘working class’ automatically meant ‘left wing’, and the paper no longer seemed to know who it should appeal to. For the years preceding Piers’ arrival, it appeared to position itself as a left-wing version of the
Sun
, but that didn’t work either. And so he started to give the paper a desperately needed shot in the arm.

The fact is that at the time everyone in Britain was obsessed with Princess Diana and, increasingly, with celebrity, too. But Piers was savvy enough to realise he could combine that enthusiasm with the paper’s left-leaning political stance and make it a lively journal of its own. It was only towards the very end of his tenure that he began to misjudge his readership, mainly by failing to support British soldiers in Iraq. For the best part of the next decade, he was to make the
Mirror
a serious player on the block.

As ever, his timing was spot on: a month or so after
he stepped into the editor’s chair at the
Mirror
, another mid-market tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch (
Today
) closed. Its readers had to go somewhere and, for a fair few of them, that outlet was the
Mirror
. At the same time, the
Mirror
also picked up some of the more experienced
Today
staff. One was the
Today
features editor Tina Weaver. In 2001, she became editor of the
Sunday Mirror,
a mark of the quality of staff coming on board.

Meanwhile, Piers was proving his doubters wrong by putting in fifteen-hour days, roaring around the office and shaking the place from head to foot. ‘It’s great fun,’ he told the UK
Press Gazette.
‘I have inherited a brilliant team of journalists. I was a writer myself and I know how egos have to be pandered to. The
Mirror
is a great institution and they are a great team, raring for battle.’

That appreciation cut both ways: journalists were really beginning to warm to him.

Piers had the ability to take the political adjustment on board, too. Far from imposing right-wing ideas on a paper that would have been hard-pressed to accept them, he was somehow at one with the mood of the country. The Conservative Government, led by John Major, was in its dying embers and Britain was desperate for change. The country was beginning to fall in love with Tony Blair and New Labour, and Piers was there to guide them as they did so.

‘I never had particularly strong feelings [about politics] either way,’ he told
Campaign
. ‘This time I do – I do feel this Government has let down the country. One of the
reasons I came to the
Mirror
when I did was the impending election. We hadn’t had the
Daily Mirror
supporting a Labour Government for a very long time and I think it will have a very positive effect on sales.’

Indeed, he lost no time in giving his latest newspaper a makeover. He started to pursue a far more serious news agenda than previously, and hired a slew of new writers, including Jo Brand, Victor Lewis-Smith and Tony Parsons, who, at the time of writing, still has his own column. But he also trusted his instincts, which meant a huge focus on the National Lottery and, of course, the royals. Diana, in particular, could make the front pages just by changing her outfit and was still one of the most potent selling weapons any paper has ever had at its disposal. And that
Panorama
interview simply made the whole story more gripping still. Recently, Diana had been cornered in the street by some paparazzi who goaded her so much that she finally broke down in tears – pictures that the
Mirror
ran, and for which they were heavily criticised.

Meanwhile, Piers was having none of it. ‘Some people are sick and tired of reading about them [the royals], but a lot of people are still fascinated,’ he told the
Guardian
. ‘The broadsheets have been running reams on it too, because it’s a constitutional issue. In the case of Princess Di, it would be pretty hard for her to expect too much privacy, given that she went on television to spill the beans about her private life. I’m sure she weighed up the significance of that, and realised that her continual protestations of privacy would have a hollow ring.

‘Everyone got worked up about that video showing the paparazzi behaving badly. I could never have condoned that behaviour but nor am I going to join the ranks of newspaper critics. The photographers were caught by surprise when Diana began to run and they ran after her. I firmly believe that her breaking down in the street had nothing to do with that – that’s why we took the decision to publish the picture of her crying. I felt it was indicative of her state of mind and it was a pretty powerful image.’

Of course, just eighteen months later, Princess Diana was to die after the car in which she was travelling with her then boyfriend Dodi Fayed was forced to escape a paparazzi in hot pursuit, but no one yet realised quite how much she was having to suffer from the rogue element.

It had been a controversial decision, though: over at the
Sun
, the pictures did not appear in the paper, and its editor pointed out that Diana should really have some form of protection whenever she went out. Piers remained as pragmatic as ever. ‘We’re all beginning to ask whether there’s royal overkill but the circulation figures suggest otherwise,’ he declared.

He was determined to maintain his credentials as a serious editor, too. The British Government had recently announced a knife amnesty, as a result of which 40,000 weapons had been handed in. Piers decided the
Mirror
should support the campaign and produced a front page with a picture of a man’s head with a knife sticking out of it.

‘I felt it was the most powerful image to back the campaign,’ he explained. ‘We were given the picture by this man and encouraged by him to use it. The idea that you could have a knife through the back of your head and survive was astonishing. Sales were pretty good on that day. We had some strong reactions and I published them in a letters special.’

Other antics at the time included branding the then Home Office minister Ann Widdecombe ‘Doris Karloff’ – a nickname that stuck for years.

Piers’ new-style
Mirror
was certainly making an impact, something gracefully conceded by his biggest rival. Stuart Higgins was editor of the
Sun
, which had a higher circulation and was the more successful of the two newspapers, but he did agree that the new editor over at the
Mirror
was making a difference. ‘The paper looks a lot sharper, a lot livelier and more energetic, a lot of ideas going into it and it’s giving us some healthy competition for a change,’ he observed. ‘We’ve raised our game to compete. What the
Mirror
still lacks is the humour that was unique to the
Sun
. No matter how hard it tries to copy the
Sun
, it can’t recreate the humour. Its one advantage is the strong disillusion with the Tory Government. If there is a change of government, the
Daily Mirror’
s fortunes may change.’

Piers’ youth remained an issue – indeed, so much has been made of it that, even now, in his mid-forties, he is still viewed as a very young man – but the Boy Wonder had a few older hands keeping an eye on things, too. Kelvin
MacKenzie, while not exactly hovering over his shoulder, was certainly looking up from his desk where he managed the
Mirror
’s television interests to give the odd word of advice, as were other seasoned industry professionals, including Charlie Wilson (then acting editor of the
Independent
, a stable-mate) and David Montgomery, chief executive of Mirror Group.

Indeed, Montgomery was widely believed to be responsible for spiking a story that would have been vintage Piers: Morgan had been on the verge of buying up the tale of Darius Guppy, as related by the man himself. Guppy and Earl Spencer had been each other’s best man (although they were to fall out spectacularly years later when Darius discovered that Spencer had made a pass at his own wife, something which the Earl denies), but Guppy had been convicted of a £1.8 million insurance fraud and got out of jail in early 1996. Piers wanted to run his take on what had happened to him, but it’s thought Montgomery skewered the deal as it contravened the newspaper Code of Practice, which forbids a convicted criminal from profiting by selling a story. The Countess Spencer fiasco had not been so long ago and clearly all concerned were determined no similar breach of the Code would take place at the
Mirror
. In public at least, Piers toed the party line. ‘The
Daily Mirror
has an absolute policy of not paying money to convicted criminals,’ he insisted.

On that occasion, Piers might have been saved from himself, but, in June 1996, he went too far once more; the
World Cup was on and England were playing Germany, always a potent combination. Of course, the tabloids rose to the challenge: the
Sun
’s headline read:
LET’S BLITZ FRITZ,
while the
Daily Star
ran a picture of England coach Terry Venables in the style of the famous poster ‘Your Country Needs You’.

But Piers went much, much further. His headline was
ACHTUNG! SURRENDER,
followed by: ‘For you, Fritz, the Euro 96 Championship is over’. Inside, it got worse. Another headline read:
MIRROR DECLARES FOOTBALL WAR ON GERMANY
over a pastiche of Neville Chamberlain’s 1939 speech declaring the outbreak of World War II: ‘Last night the
Daily Mirror’
s Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their team from Wembley, a state of soccer war would exist between us. I have to tell you that no such undertaking has been received. Against these evils, I am certain that inside right will prevail.’ All this was illustrated with doctored photos of Paul Gascoigne and Stuart Pearce wearing army helmets and a subheading read:
PEARCE IN OUR TIME.

Other headlines included:
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE KIDDING MR HITMAN?
and
VE ARE NOT FOOLED, FRITZ.
Reporter Justin Dunn was then despatched to Berlin. ‘There is a strange smell in Berlin and it’s not just their funny sausages,’ he wrote. ‘It’s the smell of fear, because deep down, they know we’re going to beat them again.’ And so it went on.

The resulting outrage was massive and immediate: the Press Complaints Commission was swamped with calls, as was the
Mirror
. Sir Bobby Charlton, no less, was none too happy. ‘I really wish they would think before they put all this in print,’ he said. ‘It’s a very difficult thing. It does create hatred, which in 99 per cent of the people is not there.’

Terry Venables was equally unimpressed. ‘It is not just an insult to the Germans, it is an insult to the intelligence of the English people and those who have fought for their country within wars,’ he observed. ‘At the end of the day, it is football, not war. I just hope the fans understand that.’

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