Today’s cult of celebrity by association - which means those who are Slebs because they know other Slebs - has one supreme exponent, and that is former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, still labouring under the pretence that only he is responsible for increasing the ratings of ITV breakfast offering Good Morning Britain, and labouring under the further pretence that he can ever get those ratings above the BBC competition.
Morgan wants the world to know that he is so famous, and indeed so disgustingly rich, that he can justify telling the organisers of I’m A Celebrity that he will only go on the show if they pony up five million used notes first. He is so well-connected and loud with it that he not only secured an interview with Cristiano Ronaldo, he filled his Twitter feed with plugs for the interview, and otherwise banged on about it ad infinitum, and indeed ad nauseam.
On top of all that, The Great Man is never backwards in coming forwards to not only offer his opinion on any subject that he knows nothing about, he also wants the world to know that his opinion is, more or less, equivalent to absolute fact. So it is that he has weighed in on the Whipps Cross University Hospital row from earlier this week.
That row kicked off after alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was confronted by a concerned parent whose seven-day-old daughter had been admitted to the hospital after falling gravely ill. Omar Salem did not make any secret of his political affiliation, but that did not discount the fact of the matter: his daughter was very poorly and he was not happy about the hospital’s clear lack of resources.
But what mattered to Morgan was setting up a diversion. And so it came to pass that he told his adoring followers “This ludicrous sack Laura Kuenssberg campaign just about sums up the pathetic, fact-devoid, hysterical tribalism that now infests political debate. You can’t get more impartial, or superbly professional, than [Laura Kuenssberg] - so leave her alone, you ignorant bug-eyed bullies”. No thanks, I don’t want to look over there.
Ms K has recently been carpeted for her lack of impartiality, and her pointing out Salem’s Twitter handle, which resulted in him receiving all manner of abuse, much of it racist, is a matter of record. But on went Morgan: “Strident pro-Labour anti-Brexit activist (by his own bio admission) grandstands with Boris to score cheap political points rather than be with his sick child. Pathetic”. If Morgan had been in that position, he’d have been strident, too.
Does being “pro-Labour” discount the fact that his child is unwell? Does “anti-Brexit” do likewise? No and no. Salem has been “with his sick child”, as Morgan puts it, for some time. His taking a couple of minutes to make sure someone who could do something about the state of the NHS got the message is hardly desertion.
Piers Morgan is being far more “strident”, as he puts it, in his partiality than Salem. He is prepared to back any fellow journalist, no matter how badly their standards slip, and no matter how far he drifts off to the right - and drift off to the right is where he’s at right now.
Condemn a Prime Minister who just suspended democracy? Advocate for better NHS resourcing? Nah. He’s all right Jack. He goes private, and he don’t care.
Piers Morgan is a disgrace to his profession. But you knew that already.
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4 comments:
I notice that James O'Brian is also managing to blame Corbyn for people calling out BBC bias towards the Tories! Nice long rant on LBC, seems we're all morons for distracting attention away from bojo and attacking poor old Laura K who's just trying to do her job (wah, sob, poor media luvvie etc)
Centrists just can't help themselves, can they?
This incident - the original one in the hospital - has been turned into a great win for the Tories by their pals in the press and their army of Twitter/Facebook bots spreading dis-information (the microphone / belt!)
Such has been the interested in Omar being a "Labour activist" (if you're right wing) or the actions of the BBC & Laura (if you're left!) that the two rather more important points of the confrontation have been completely lost - no doubt as was the intention.
These being:
1) The obvious under funding of the NHS raised by the father of a 7-day old baby (or "Visiting a relative" as some media have re-phrased that!).
2) The blatant lie Johnson told about his visit NOT being a publicity stunt and then denying there were press there whilst being filmed and photographed, by the press.
Not to mention that he's very clearly doing the rounds of photo ops with the public services (Note the Johnson & Army photo on the front of the Tory-graph today, and the previous Johnson at school, and the Police background ones)
All in all, Cummings must thing this was a job well done.
Morgan hasn't "drifted off to the right".
He has ALWAYS been far right because that's what subsidises his existence.
Like all of his type he is an empty-headed buffoon with a loud voice and no discernible principles or talent.
He's a front man for everything wrong in our society and culture. Media are full of them. Disgusting low life people without a trace of decency in them. The outward signs of a nation in serious decline.
The press omerta - like when the Graun's Roy Greenslade kept on excusing Mazher Mahmoud - sees the usual suspects like Isaby, Moron, Tetley-Brewer, and yes, even James O'Bigmouth dashing to defend poor only-doing-her-job Laura from people criticising her with words. I cannot for the life of me imagine why these brave protectors of victimised journalists everywhere seemed so quiet when gay, Northern left-wing NUJ member Owen Jones was literally physically attacked.
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