A MESSAGE TO CNN: FIRE PIERS MORGAN
Could anyone ever imagine Walter Cronkite or Larry King telling an invited guest on TV, “You’re a very stupid man, aren’t you?”
Had you watched Larry King’s successor, Piers Morgan on January 8th interviewing Larry Pratt, head of a national gun advocate group, that’s what you would have heard. Regardless of individual views about gun control, no one should be subjected to verbal abuse by a television host. As an interviewer, Piers Morgan could not shine Larry King’s shoes. He invited Mr. Taylor on the show, via satellite, then proceeded to lambaste and interrupting him constantly, including the infamous stab, “You are an incredibly stupid man.” Clearly, Piers Morgan had a personal agenda. Watch the video from the 2-minute mark.
Click here: Piers Morgan Larry Pratt – YouTube
While he’s certainly entitled to his own opinions, Morgan’s job is to ask questions and elicit a point of view from an invited guest, not subject him to denigration and insults. That’s as low class as it gets. I would hope that American viewers are so offended by his outrageous behavior that his ratings plummet and he’s relegated back to England. We the people are not interested in Piers Morgan’s extreme bias on any subject, but to serve as a competent conduit for information. That was Larry King’s credo, and why he was so respected in the industry.
We’ve hit rock bottom in the news industry of the modern era. It’s commonplace these days for television hosts to fire off nasty slurs and insults at guests just because they differ in a political or social issue. Rush Limbaugh called Democrat darling, Sandra Fluke, a “slut” because she basically wants to the taxpayer to pay for her birth control pills. That was a big mistake for Limbaugh which cost him a lot of respect.
MSNBC host, Ed Schultz called his journalistic counterpart, Laura Ingraham a “slut” on radio airwaves, simply because she holds conservative views. And, he kept his job.
Where are the standards of decency? Bear in mind, this is supposedly a professional journalist, commentator.
Listen from the 40 second mark:
Click here: Ed Schultz: Laura Ingraham A ‘Right-Wing Slut’ (AUDIO)
Remember what happened to radio talk host, Don Imus, when he tried to be funny with his “Nappy-headed hos” comment on air. He was unceremoniously fired from CBS.
The worst of all entertainment bottom dwellers, was so-called funny man, Bill Maher on HBO, calling former governor, Sarah Palin, a “c-u-n-t.” That’s in addition to other expletives, like “twat” and “bimbo.” He excuses his ignominious behavior on air as being okay because he’s a comedian. In today’s world, that’s a license for slinging disgusting insults.
If Maher’s a comedian, Jerry Lewis and Johnny Carson are rolling over in their graves. And if insults is his schtick, he should take a lesson from Don Rickles, who never called anyone a dirty name.
Why does he keep his job? Why does HBO tolerate filthy name-calling? Why do people laugh? Why does the public tolerate such repulsive language as entertainment?
This is not a republican/democrat issue, or liberal/conservative. None of this should be tolerated by the listening/viewing public, and those that do are no better than Maher.
Sarah Palin is a national figure, a former state governor with a successful record of public service and she is a dedicated mother and family woman. So she’s conservative, so what? Does Maher think that only liberals are exempt from hostility? If Sean Hannity called Hillary Clinton the same names, would there be any doubt about the repercussions.
The fault is ours. We, men and woman, right and left wingers, blacks, whites, Hispanics, — all of us – are at fault for the deterioration of civility and for the deterioration of the news and entertainment industry. Because we don’t complain. We accept low class entertainers and commentators as normal in today’s world, where they would never have been accepted in the days of Cronkite and Larry King.
As for Piers Morgan, he needs a taste of America backlash. He needs to know that you don’t lure guests on an interview show so you can ambush them with verbal attacks. He needs to know that a good interviewer is able to expose people without attacks, and let the public decide for themselves. But he can’t do that, because he is a poor interviewer.
Piers Morgan needs to be fired.
Howard Bernbaum PE
You are quite right for being indignant, however, I have mixed feelings on the subject. It doen’t take long to determine who are the reputable TV hosts and those who are not. Remember the line. “Those who don’t read the papers are uninformed. Those who do are misinformed.”
Well, for instance, I read the New York Times headlines and banners, occasionally reading the underlying story. I hate the New York Times but feel a need to read it to see what the enemy is up to. I occasionally tune into those people you mentioned for the same reason. However, even the so called good ones are biased and also controlled by their management. I often wonder, why didn’t he ask “so and such?” or why didn’t he correct that obvious mistatement and it occurs to me, because he isn’t allowed to.
One cannot trust any of those fellows and except for some instances of local shows, most “news” shows are opinion fronts meant only for entertainment. A serious viewer cannot trust anything said by the media and the worst examples are interviews of politicians.
I recommend limiting video and newpaper time and research the internet. Even that is not completely trustworth with strawmen planted all over the place. However, a sampling of several different hits soon results in a fairly obvious truth or, at least, a concensus of the possible truth. I suspect that is the closest to the truth we can get in this day and age of totally corrupt people trying to control our every move.
Finally, you have the option of limiting your exposure to these various airtime charlatans. Tis my recommendation.