Selective Amnesia

The editor of The Mirror newspaper - Richard Wallace - gave a bizarre performance yesterday at the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking - and wider standards in the press and media.

For some reason Richard Wallace appeared to suffer from 'selective amnesia' over a sensational story -  sensational for The Mirror anyway - about an affair betwen the England football manager - Sven Goran Eriksson - and some minor media celebrity called Ulrika Johnson.

Apparently this tawdry little tale became an award winning scoop - yet the Mirror editor admitted that it was “possible” that the source of the story - came from intercepted  voice mail messages.

Richard Wallace further conceded that phone hacking "might well have been undertaken" on a wider scale by reporters - when he was the tabloid paper’s showbusiness editor.

And Richard Wallace also admitted that illegal phone hacking practices might have occurred in the newsroom - without his knowledge - while former editor Piers Morgan was in charge.

Now call me daft - but I think I've worked all that out for myself - so why do we need a marathon public inquiry to tell us what is already perfectly obvious?

But what is impressive is how all the key witnesses remember only what they want to remember - and have a big problem with everything else.

Richard Wallace conceded that the SGE story was a really big scoop - and that he would have queried the source to ensure he had the facts straight.

Yet he went on to say:    

"I don't recall the exact nature of it but it was from within the showbusiness department. It could have come from anywhere really.”

So there we have it - on the key points and questions no one remembers a thing - especially those at the top.

Which is very convenient - but entirely predictable sadly.

Lord Leveson should just cut to the chase and start producing his report - because we don't need another year or so - of this nonsense.