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They are the media executives who would top any industry poll for flair, talent and ability to inspire staff. It seems remarkable that both are out of a job in remarkably similar circumstances - though Dyke as editor-in-chief of the BBC was a long way removed from the initial offending action.

In Dyke's case, there was time for farewell emails, impromptu banners and emotional scenes. Morgan was escorted from the building by the company secretary and was not allowed, after eight years as editor, to return to the editorial floor to say goodbye to his colleagues. What did they think he was going to do - insert more dodgy pictures in the next issue of the Daily Mirror?

The greatest similarity between the two enforced departures was that both media executives were casualties of the need to apologise for reporting flaws in coverage of the same story - the war in Iraq.

In the case of the BBC, does anyone now doubt the UK was taken to war on a false prospectus? As the Daily Mirror continues to point out, it will soon be 400 days since the launch of the Iraq war, and where exactly are the weapons of mass destruction, even those that couldn't be deployed in 45 minutes? And as Piers Morgan will continue to argue in the coming months, just watch the court martials of members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment to see whether the substance of the 'hoax' pictures is true or not.

Morgan will also wonder why he alone among editors who have been hoaxed over the years, after publishing in good faith, was escorted from the premises.

The signs are that Trinity Mirror's top brass panicked in the face of concern among shareholders that the paper's reputation would be damaged.

Some even want reassurance that the Daily Mirror has proper editorial processes in place.

What do institutional shareholders know about editorial processes? What gives them the right to think they should be consulted on such matters?

They do not even seem to know where their best financial interests lie.

They will realise that sacking Piers Morgan was not such a clever idea when it becomes apparent how difficult it is to replace him - assuming Kelvin MacKenzie is having too much fun with radio to be enticed out of retirement. The City geniuses who helped to unseat Morgan also thought it better to have a banker with no previous experience of television as chairman of ITV rather than Michael Green, who helped create the business.

Michael Grade will begin finding out this week that it will not be easy to pull a successor to Greg Dyke out of the hat.

The terrible truth for Dyke and Morgan, however much money they already have or end up with, is that they have lost jobs they loved and that there is absolutely no going back.

They can contemplate their memoirs, and in the case of Piers, the television cameras undoubtedly beckon. But neither will be able to return to anything like their former glory or influence.

This will be a matter of great regret long after panicking BBC governors and Trinity Mirror apparatchiks have long been forgotten.

Both Dyke and Morgan will be able to relax this summer and watch the attempts to find replacements with anything like half their flair in the almost certain knowledge that no politicians will either apologise or resign over the issues that brought them down.

- Raymond Snoddy is media editor of The Times

30 SECONDS ON ... PIERS MORGAN

- Morgan's editorship of the Daily Mirror kicked off in spectacular fashion in 1996 when he approved the headline 'Achtung! Surrender! For you Fritz ze European Championship is over'. He subsequently apologised.

- In 2000, Morgan managed to keep his job after he admitted buying shares two days before his City Slickers staff tipped them in the paper. The Slickers were sacked.

- Groomed by ex-Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, Morgan scored some great scoops. Last year the Mirror's Ryan Parry wrote an explosive story about his two months undercover at Buckingham Palace.

- After September 11, Morgan vowed to take the Mirror back to its campaigning, left-wing roots. This strategy led to the paper's stance against the Iraq war, and ultimately to the story that led last Friday to Morgan's removal from the paper's Canary Wharf offices.