CNN host Piers Morgan a phone hacking whiz? Witness implies so

Piers Morgan has long insisted that, in his days as the editor of a London tabloid, he didn’t order or condone his reporters hacking into cellphones to get scoops about celebrities.

But a British TV personality told a special inquiry Wednesday that Morgan seemed to have some very specific knowledge about how to access other people’s phone messages. Morgan, now the host of a nightly talk show on CNN in the U.S., also joked about overhearing a phone conversation between a pair of celebrities, Jeremy Paxman testified before the British government panel investigating journalism ethics.

The BBC's Paxman recalled telling Morgan during a 2002 lunch that he was wholly unfamiliar with phone hacking. "He then explained the way to get access to people's messages was to go to the factory default setting and press either 0000 or 1234,” Paxman told the so-called Levenson inquiry, “and that if you didn't put on your own code, his words, 'You're a fool.' "

The testimony by the British news anchor was not the first to suggest Morgan might have had familiarity with unethical practices during his time at the Daily Mirror.

Last December, a former Daily Mirror journalist told the same inquiry that phone hacking was considered a "standard journalistic tool" at the tabloid once run by the CNN host. One-time business columnist James Hipwell said he believed that hacking by Mirror reporters was a daily routine.

In the more recent testimony, Paxman said the discussion about hacking began when Morgan teased another lunch guest, one-time weather woman and TV personality Ulrika Jonsson, about her affair with the manager of England’s soccer team, Sven-Göran Eriksson.

“Morgan said, teasing Ulrika, that he knew what had happened in conversations between her and Sven-Göran Eriksson, and he went into this mock Swedish accent,” recalled Paxman.

“Now I don't know whether he was repeating a conversation that he had heard, or he was imagining this conversation. ... It was a rather bad parody.”

Morgan last year denied that he ever listened to phone messages between the TV personality and sports celebrity.

Paxman said he didn’t know whether the conversation Morgan parodied actually occurred but that it made him uncomfortable because he felt Morgan verged on bullying Jonsson.

Morgan’s response to the latest testimony came via Twitter: "Right -- that's the last time I'm inviting Jeremy Paxman to lunch. Ungrateful little wretch."

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--James Rainey

twitter.com/latimesrainey

Photo: The name of CNN host Piers Morgan, once editor of the Daily Mirror tabloid in London, has come up with some frequency at an inquiry into unethical practices by the British press. Credit: Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

C-SPAN's Brian Lamb, master of nonpartisanship, stepping down

Brian Lamb, the onetime news reporter who built C-SPAN into a cable television mainstay and a bastion of political nonpartisanship, announced Monday that he is turning operation of the outlet over to two of his top lieutenants.

Lamb’s 33-year tenure as creator and guiding force behind C-SPAN covers the period from the early days of cable television to the current multi-channel universe in which most channels apply considerable spin to their subjects.

Lamb, 70, said he plans to continue hosting “Q&A,” his Sunday interview program, to take a teaching job and to advise his two successors as executive chairman of the C-SPAN board. The new chief executives, Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain, have both worked at the outlet since the 1980s and served together, most recently, in the twin roles of president and chief operating officer.

'This American Life' retracts Daisey story on Apple and Steve Jobs

Public radio's popular weekend feature program “This American Life” on Friday retracted one of its most popular stories — about conditions for factory workers who make Apple products in China — and prepared to devote its entire program this weekend to an account of how the report misled listeners.

"This American Life" founder and host Ira Glass said in a statement that performer Mike Daisey had lied to the “This American Life” staff when producers tried to fact-check his detailed, firsthand account of meetings with Chinese workers who make iPads and other products.

The radio host said Daisey manufactured characters and settings in his report, drawn from his acclaimed stage performance, “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.” Glass said the fabrications came to light when Rob Schmitz of public radio's “Marketplace” tracked down Daisey’s Chinese interpreter.

The interpreter reportedly said that Daisey had concocted not only small details but some of the more dramatic moments in the piece, including reported meetings with child laborers and with a man whose hand was mangled as he made iPads for the Apple supplier Foxconn. The interpreter said those accounts were concocted.

The ironies of the story and its reversal were many, including this one: Daisey admitted in the radio program to a subterfuge: He told the interpreter he would pose as various American businessmen, to gain access to factories.

“And she says, ‘You will lie to them,’" Daisey says at one point in the monologue. “And I say, ‘Yes Cathy, I'm going to lie to lots of people.’ " After initially balking, the interpreter, who went by the name Cathy Lee, went along with the ruse, Daisey said.

Daisey said his mistake was not the stories he told but the fact he presented them on a news program like “This American Life.”

“What I do is not journalism,” Daisey said Friday on his blog. “The tools of the theater are not the same as the tools of journalism. For this reason, I regret that I allowed ‘This American Life’ to air an excerpt from my monologue.”

In his own statement, Glass said: “Daisey lied to me and to This American Life producer Brian Reed during the fact checking we did on the story, before it was broadcast. That doesn't excuse the fact that we never should've put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake.”

Listeners downloaded Daisey’s 39-minute report 888,000 times, making it the single most popular podcast in the history of “This American Life.”

Daisey’s one-man show on the same material ends its run at the Public Theater in New York on Sunday. The theater released a statement Friday saying that “we wish he had been more precise with us and our audiences about what was and wasn’t his personal experience in the piece.”

But the theater planned no changes. “In the theater, our job is to create fictions that reveal truth-- that's what a storyteller does, that's what a dramatist does,” The Public's statement said. “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs’ reveals, as Mike's other monologues have, human truths in story form.’

“In this work, Mike uses a story to frame and lead debate about an important issue in a deeply compelling way. He has illuminated how our actions affect people half-a-world away and, in doing so, has spurred action to address a troubling situation.  This is a powerful work of art and exactly the kind of storytelling that The Public Theater has supported, and will continue to support in the future.”

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-- James Rainey

Twitter: latimesrainey

Photo: An abbreviated performance of Mike Daisey's show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" became a huge hit on public radio's "This American Life." Credit: Chris Bennion

Vickie Burns out as news director at NBC4 in Los Angeles

NBC4 news director Vickie Burns, the sometimes-abrasive executive who expanded the station with a digital news station, announced in an email to fellow employees Friday that she was leaving the station after a little more than a year and a half.

Burns' message to the Burbank newsroom said she was making the move of her own accord after discussions with Valari Staab, head of NBC's owned-and-operated stations, and Steve Carlston, general manager of NBC4, formerly known as KNBC-TV.

Several employees have quietly complained about what they said was Burns' sometimes-confrontational management style. Latinos in the news department expressed concern about losing status under the Burns regime. And Staab complained when she took over last year about NBC4's "sloppy" production.

Burns introduced California Nonstop, a 24-hour news and feature station on the outer reaches of the cable spectrum. Understaffed from the start, that initiative got less and less attention in recent months as the news operation refocused on improving core newscasts. Naysayers in the newsroom depicted California Nonstop as just part of a move to lighter content over more serious news.

Originally from Chicago, Burns said in her email she had "decided to move my career back to my roots," east of the Mississippi River. She talked in her email about pride in a number of initiatives, including California Nonstop and the relaunching of a midday newscast. She also touted a number of awards the NBC affiliate won during her tenure.

Burns had taken over for Steve Lange, another news director who drew the ire of some employees for his focus on light feature coverage. He brought in one of the "Real Housewives of Orange County" cast members to report one story.

One NBC executive in New York said this week that the network's Los Angeles affiliate had suffered from a lack of investment in recent years, a problem that he said should be corrected by Comcast's purchase of the network and the rest of NBCUniversal last year.

The executive, who asked not to be named discussing internal divisions, said former ABC veteran Staab was also determined to bring a harder news sensibility to all of NBCs affiliates. It was not immediately known who would replace Burns.

-- James Rainey

Twitter: latimesrainey

Photo: NBC studios in Burbank. Credit: David McNew / Getty Images

Ryan Seacrest, Joe Biden get almost political in radio chat

When it became clear last month that NBC might turn to Ryan Seacrest as the next host of the “Today” show, some newsies inside the network groaned. Would the top-rated morning show, once the home of serious news man Tom Brokaw, go irretrievably soft?

NBC has not shown its hand on a possible replacement for Matt Lauer, who has signaled he would like to move on. But Seacrest seems to be letting his interest show.

The “American Idol” host on Monday had Vice President Joe Biden on his radio show for what seemed to be an attempt to bring his gravitas quotient somewhere closer to his Q rating, the latter the traditional measure of the familiarity of public figures.

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Seacrest teed up seven easy questions for the vice president and had listeners call in with another three on the theme of education and college affordability.

Not surprisingly, Biden would not rise to Seacrest’s attempts to get him to pick a preferred GOP opponent for the fall campaign. He also rejected the notion, despite persistent speculation, that Hillary Rodham Clinton might replace him on the Democratic ticket. And he got the chance to call Republicans "Darwinian" when it came to foreclosure; i.e., not so concerned with the feelings of those losing their homes.

Seacrest’s foray into “hard news” won’t evoke memories of, say, Sam Donaldson or Dan Rather. Listeners could hear some "uh-huhing" in apparent assent during the interview. But the host would appear to be aiming at a lower bar — showing he’s familiar with significant issues of the day and avoiding embarrassing gaffes.

Seacrest made his news foray as his biggest perch, “American Idol,” opened last week to relatively disappointing ratings.  The show drew 21.6 million viewers to start its 11th season, still very strong compared with other programs but a shadow of the 37.4 million who watched the 2007 opener.

While the end of the “Idol” phenomenon might not be in sight, Seacrest is savvy enough to be planning a soft landing elsewhere. And "Today" would seem to be on the itinerary if he can manage it. He has signaled his interest in luring other newsmakers on to the radio, including the presidential hopefuls.

Then why not on to some foreign affairs? Who knows who could be next: Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are you listening?

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-- James Rainey

Twitter: latimesrainey

Photo: Ryan Seacrest  Credit: Matt Sayles /Associated Press