Piers Morgan on Defensive at Phone Hacking Hearing

Piers Morgan was in the hot seat today in Britain's phone hacking inquiry, but the CNN host refused to play along. He got grilled via video from the US on one point in particular, notes AP: If he didn't engage in phone hacking, how did he manage to hear a voicemail left by Paul McCartney on Heather Mills' answering machine? Morgan, who wrote about the voicemail in detail in 2006, refused to say how he came to hear the tape. "I'm not going to start any trail that leads to the identification of a source."

Morgan served as editor of two British tabloids years ago, the News of the World and the Daily Mirror after that. It's his stint at the Daily Mirror that seems to be drawing the most attention, notable because that tab is not owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, reports the New York Times. The scandal to date has largely been confined to Murdoch-owned papers. Morgan has steadfastly denied hacking a phone, asking anyone to do so, or knowingly publishing any story based on hacking. (More Piers Morgan stories.)