First came these revelations that UK troops had been engaged in abuse of Iraqi prisoners - a story broken by the publication of photos in The Daily Mirror. Next came the arguments. Denial after denial from the army; the Mirror and its editor, Piers Morgan, standing by the authenticity of the photos and the story itself. The army and government seemed to be struggling uphill against the public torrent of suspicion and disgust.
But then, suddenly, Morgan and The Mirror were struggling to insist that the story was true even though the photos might have been faked. The army was joined by the Ministry of Defence in London which proclaimed the photos as categorically faked. It sought apologies.
And then, last night, Piers Morgan, Editor of The Daily Mirror, was sacked.
It's thought that his departure was the result of pressure from some of the paper's American stakeholders. It was swift: he was escorted from the building with no time to collect his coat. And his paper's presses were rolling an apology: SORRY... WE WERE HOAXED.
I don't think the focus should be on Morgan (although there are plenty of journalistic obituaries out there as I write). Abuses have happened. The Army's police have today arrested 4 suspects. Morgan stood by a story, maybe too strongly; maybe it's right he should go.
But I wonder whether an editorial head was really necessary. I wonder whether 'invisible' Government pressure was brought to bear - all the more invisible since the demise of Alistair Campbell's openly hostile attacks. I wonder whether The Mirror, a partisan, risk-taking paper in the spectrum of the UK's national free press, has simply been the latest media victim of a war which has caused a level of international and national diplomatic trouble and hotheadedness never seen before.
And I wonder, in the case of those prisoners in Iraq or the case of the Mirror here at home, whether it's all an eye for an eye, or just the way things happen.
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