Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan ( O'Meara; born 30 March 1965) is an English broadcaster, journalist, and former editor of the News of the World (1994–1995) and Daily Mirror (1995–2004) tabloid newspapers. He was a co-anchor of the ITV Breakfast programme Good Morning Britain from 2015 to 2021.

Quotes

1994–2003

  • [Did he enjoy his first year as editor of the News of the World?] Very much. It's been a very interesting year. At my age, I probably wasn't expected to survive, but I'm glad to be still here. Oh, if you don't mind, I'd rather not be seen in the photograph with a drink in my hand, if you don't mind
  • [As editor of the Bizarre feature in The Sun newspaper] I became the Friend of the Stars, a rampant egomaniac, pictured all the time with famous people - Madonna, Stallone, Bowie, Paul McCartney, hundreds of them. It was shameless, as they didn't know me from Adam. The Sun had had a bad time, after losing an action with Elton John, but this was harmless and funny. The publicity people from the record companies were all in on the joke.
  • [On his promotion to editor of the News of the World] I got a call one day, asking me to see Rupert Murdoch in Miami. I suspected it must be something good, but I never expected this. I was flabbergasted.
    Obviously, Kelvin [MacKenzie] had helped, but you have to realise I was filling the column five days a week, running it like a mini newspaper. I had a staff of four and my own budget. I had been offered promotion, as features editor of the Sun, but turned it down, feeling I wasn't ready yet to be a faceless executive.
  • [On revealing a pop star's adultery] If X is singing about love and marriage, and sleeping with the nanny, then he deserves to be exposed.
  • I've always made it a strict rule in life to ingratiate myself with three categories of people: newspaper owners, potential newspaper owners and billionaires.
    This is a despicablle, shameless but often successful modus operandi that hasn't to date done me much harm.
  • Tony Blair is a decent man who genuinely thinks what he is doing is justified. But when he sees men such as George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld smirking and boasting as they announce their Shock and Awe offensive, we hope he understands why we believe we have been dragged into something we should have been fighting tooth and nail to stop.
    • “Troops are heroes, the war's insane”, Daily Mirror (21 March 2003)

2011–2023

  • As I left, Jimmy Savile came up to me. "Your TV shows are BRILLIANT!" he exclaimed. "And as I’ve been in the telly business for 50 years, you can take that as an informed view." I’ve always loved Jimmy Savile. (Mail on Sunday "Night and Day" column, 2009)
  • The Jimmy Savile scandal grows more horrific by the minute [...] I never met him... (Mail on Sunday column October 2012)
  • There is a type of snobbish, pompous journalist who thinks that the only news that has any validity is war, famine, pestilence or politics. I don't come from that school. I certainly appreciate those kinds of stories. I've certainly devoted a lot of time on my show to them. But I also have a much broader spectrum of what I think is interesting, relevant, current or newsworthy.
  • [On the fake photos of British troops abusing Iraqi prisoners for which he was fired as editor of the Mirror] I refused to apologize or accept that we had necessarily been duped. I still don’t accept it — I’ve never seen the evidence
  • Don't chase women, they will chase you… They are like horses in a pasture: if you don't go drooling over her, she is going to want to know why.
    • Shooting Straight: Guns, Gays, God, and George Clooney, Simon and Schuster (2013), p. 144
  • Liberals have become utterly, pathetically illiberal and it’s a massive problem. What’s the point of calling yourself a liberal if you don’t allow anyone else to have a different view? You know, this snowflake culture we operate in, this victimhood culture that everyone, has to think in a certain way, behave a certain way. Everyone has to have a bleeding heart… You say a joke 10 years ago that offended somebody you can never host the Oscars… So what’s happening around the world? Populism is rising because people are fed up with the PC culture. They’re fed up with the snowflake culture. They’re fed up with everyone being offended by everything… They just want to tell people, not just how to lead their life but if you don’t lead it the way I tell you to. It’s a kind of version of fascism.
  • The liberals get what they want, which is a humorless void where nothing happens, where no one dare do anything, or laugh about anything, or behave in any way that doesn't suit their rigid way of leading a life. No thanks.
  • He [Prince Harry] demands accountability for the press, but refuses to accept any for himself for smearing the royal family, his own family, as a bunch of callous racists without producing a shred of proof to support those disgraceful claims.
    He also says he's on a mission to reform the media, but it's become clear his real mission, along with his wife, is to destroy the British monarchy, and I will continue to do whatever I can to stop them.
    Merry Christmas.
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