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Gullible onlookers thrilled by the sudden appearance of Piers Morgan on The Mall. 28/04/2011

Suddenly a ripple of excitement went through the pre-weddingcrowd, and there in front of them with a CNN camera crew was disgraced ex-Daily Mirror editor, former talent show panelist and world-class egotist and professional sycophant Piers Morgan - the great "superstar" signed up by CNN to replace Larry King on The Tonight Show. Morgan has found it difficult to find newspaper work in the UK following his insider-dealing scandal a few years ago which resulted in him almost losing his job and escaping jail by the skin of his teeth. It was his use of faked photographs during the Iraq war which finally got him sacked.

A hundred cameras clicked as he smirked and waved at the crowd behind the barriers. He wanted the crowd's cheering on his audio track, which he cued as needed by raising one arm. The crowd duly obliged. Piers even applauded himself at one point. Suddenly the filming stopped and the suddenly not-friendly Piers Morgan went into a huddle with his producer. Next thing we knew was several policemen physically pushing people away because Piers Morgan didn't want any scummy people actually in the background of his piece to camera - even though The Mall was packed with good-natured, very well behaved people all having gentle fun which they'd made great sacrifices for, thereby robbing him of his rightful place at the Centre of The Universe.

From Wikipedia: In 2000, he was the subject of an investigation after Suzy Jagger wrote a story in The Daily Telegraph revealing that he had bought £20,000 worth of shares in the computer company Viglen soon before the Mirror's 'City Slickers' column tipped Viglen as a good buy.Morgan was found by the Press Complaints Commission to have breached the Code of Conduct on financial journalism, but somehow kept his job. The 'City Slickers' columnists, Anil Bhoyrul and James Hipwell, were both found to have committed further breaches of the Code, and were sacked before the inquiry. In 2004, further enquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry cleared Morgan from any charges. On 7 December 2005 Bhoyrul and Hipwell were convicted of conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act. During the trial it emerged that Morgan had bought £67,000 worth of Viglen shares, emptying his bank account and investing under his wife's name too.

In 2002, the Mirror attempted to move mid-market, claiming to eschew the more trivial stories of show-business and gossip. Morgan rehired John Pilger, who had been sacked during Robert Maxwell's ownership of the Mirror titles. Despite such changes, Morgan was unable to halt the paper's decline in circulation, a decline shared by its direct tabloid rivals The Sun and the Daily Star.

Morgan was fired from the Mirror on 14 May 2004 after authorising the newspaper's publication of photographs allegedly showing Iraqi prisoners being abused by British Army soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment. Within days the photographs were shown to be crude fakes. Under the headline "SORRY.. WE WERE HOAXED", the Mirror responded that it had fallen victim to a "calculated and malicious hoax" and apologised for the publication of the photographs.

...Just thought some of you might appreciate some background on this great, decent man who makes a career sitting in judgement of other people. Maybe this is why some of you experience the flesh on the back of your neck crawling every time you see his smirking face on TV. Mine certainly does. I'm not a fan. Could you tell?

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches