Does Piers Morgan suck ass or is it just me?
- Thread starter babemagnet
- Start date
The man's achievements shouldn't be measured by his final year. Larry hosted CNN's King Live for 25 years, so what if his ratings plunge in his last year, all things must end. He smashed cable ratings throughout the years, once brought in 16.5million viewers for one single show in the 90's. Ya I doubt Morgan will be around 25 years from now, let alone 5.
Piers Morgan is one of the most annoying twunts I've ever seen on TV. I find Clarkson quite odious but never have I seen somebody as enamoured with themself as Piers.
From Wikipedia.
Feuds
Ian Hislop
Morgan appeared as a guest on the satirical news quiz Have I Got News for You in an episode transmitted on 24 May 1996.[54] In it, show regular Ian Hislop and Morgan failed to keep their mutual contempt off-screen. Hislop accused Morgan of having him (Hislop) followed and having his house watched. The conflict escalated and at one point the host, Angus Deayton, asked if they wished to go outside and have a fight. Later on, guest panelist Clive Anderson confronted Morgan commenting "the last time I was rude to you, you sent photographers to my doorstep the next day", to which Piers Morgan retorted, "You won't see them this time." Hislop commented "He is charming isn't he", and Morgan replied, "Don't try the popularity line with me, Hislop", before appealing to the audience: "Does anyone actually like him?" The audience responded loudly in favour of Hislop.[55]
In 2007, Hislop chose Morgan as one of his pet hates on Room 101.[56][57] In doing so, Hislop spoke of the history of animosity between himself and Morgan and revealed that after their exchange on Have I Got News For You (which was shown as a clip), Morgan's reporters were tasked with trying to get gossip on Hislop's private life (including phoning acquaintances of Hislop), and photographers were sent in case Hislop did anything untoward or embarrassing while in their presence. Neither the reporters nor the photographers succeeded. Hislop also revealed that Morgan had attempted to quell the feud in an article in The Mail On Sunday, saying, "The war is over. I'm officially calling an end to hostilities, at least from my end. I'm sure it won't stop him carrying on his 'Piers Moron' stuff."[58] Hislop, who had been engaged in work on a First World War documentary at the time, responded by asking "s that an armistice or an unconditional surrender?" Although the show's host Paul Merton agreed to put Morgan into Room 101, he was comically rejected as being "too toxic", even for Room 101.[56][59]
Jeremy Clarkson
In October 2003, journalist and television personality Jeremy Clarkson reportedly emptied a glass of water over Morgan during the last flight of Concorde.[60] In March 2004, at the British Press Awards, Clarkson punched Morgan three times in a clash over The Mirror's coverage of his private life, and accusations that Clarkson did not write for his column in The Sun himself.[60] Morgan reported on a rapprochement with Clarkson in the epilogue of his book, Don't You Know Who I Am?.
Madonna
In December 2010, Morgan announced to the Daily Express that he will not be scheduling Madonna to appear on Piers Morgan Tonight. Morgan reportedly told the British newspaper that, while he wanted to get U.S. President Barack Obama and Mel Gibson on his show, he wasn’t bothered about Madonna. Morgan said, "She is so boring. She is too vegan for TV. We have Lady Gaga now so Madonna is banned from my show.” In response, Madonna's publicist quipped, "Madonna doesn't know who Piers Morgan is but she's a big fan of Lady Gaga."[61]
Alan Sugar
In December 2010 Morgan had an ongoing Twitter argument with Alan Sugar, which resulted in a competition to see who could attract more followers by Christmas Day.[62]
Criticism
Morgan has attracted criticism particularly for his TV work, with claims he is "smarmy," "arrogant," "self-satisfied," and "too full of himself"[63][64]. His show on CNN, Piers Morgan Tonight, has been described by Hank Stuever as "droning," "unnecessary," and "rubbish."[65]
Phone hacking allegations
In July 2011 it was alleged by political blogger Paul Staines that Morgan published a story while knowing it to have been obtained by phone hacking while editor of the Daily Mirror in 2002.[66] Morgan is also alleged to have close ties with the Rupert Murdoch family and defended them in the media against suggestions that they were more involved in the News International phone hacking scandal than they claimed.[67] Morgan described in a 2006 article he wrote for the Daily Mail how he had heard tapes of messages that Paul McCartney had left for his wife, Heather Mills, on her mobile phone. Morgan wrote that "Stories soon emerged that the marriage was in trouble - at one stage I was played a tape of a message Paul had left for Heather on her mobile phone. It was heartbreaking. The couple had clearly had a tiff, Heather had fled to India, and Paul was pleading with her to come back. He sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang "We Can Work It Out" into the answerphone."[68] He came under criticism for his "boasting" about phone hacking from Conservative MP Louise Mensch, who has since apologised for these accusations.[69]
During Morgan's tenure as editor, the Daily Mirror was advised by Steven Nott that voicemail interception was possible by means of a standard PIN code. Despite staff initially expressing enthusiasm for the story it did not appear in the paper, although it did subsequently feature in a South Wales Argus article and on BBC Radio 5 Live in October 1999. On 18 July 2011 Nott was visited by officers of Operation Weeting. The Daily Mirror's publishers Trinity Mirror declined to comment when approached by The Independent for its article of 6 August 2011.[70]
On 20 December Morgan was a witness by satellite link from the United States at the Leveson Inquiry.[71] While he did "not believe to the best of my recollection" that phone hacking had occurred at the Mirror, he admitted to listening to the voice mail left by Paul McCartney for Heather Mills, but refused to "discuss where he was played that tape or who played it - it would compromise a source."[71] Appearing as a witness at the same Inquiry on 9 February 2012, Mills was asked under oath if she had ever made a recording of Paul McCartney's phonecalls or answerphone messages and had ever played it to Piers Morgan or "anybody else", she replied: "Never."[72] Mills told the inquiry that Morgan was "a man that has written nothing but awful things about me for years and would have relished telling the inquiry if she had played a personal voicemail message to him."
