Mirror's Bush attack angers US shareholder

The Daily Mirror editor, Piers Morgan, has vowed to go on publishing articles critical of US president George Bush despite concern from an American shareholder.
Last Thursday's paper carried a trenchant article by John Pilger which called the United States a "rogue state" guilty of undermining international law. It referred to Bush's administration as a criminal gang which had killed twice as many people as died at the World Trade Centre.

Next day one of the major US shareholders in Trinity-Mirror, the group which owns the Daily Mirror, phoned chief executive Philip Graf to express disappointment at the tone and content of Pilger's polemic.

Tom Shrager of the New York-based fund manager Tweedy Browne, which owns 4% of Trinity, began by stating that he respected the concept of freedom of the press.

He did not threaten to sell Trinity stock, but he went on to say, in the most forthright terms, that his company was very unhappy with the Mirror for publishing Pilger's piece.

He was not available for comment yesterday, although he was reported in the Mail on Sunday as saying: "We made our views known as shareholders. We felt that management should know how we view such editorial material."

Morgan said yesterday: "We will continue to run articles by John Pilger in the current climate, but these shouldn't be misconstrued as anti-American."