How do you explain Piers Morgan?
Until very recently, he was the most (in)famous tabloid newspaper editor in the UK. Outspoken, never far from trouble a rogue, but theres something about Piers you cant help but like. And thanks to this popularity, he had no trouble becoming a TV presenter when (some would say inevitably) he got the sack from the paper for publishing photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq that later turned out to be fakes.
He was doing well as a presenter, too. Until he went live.
This week, he made a cock-up that will surely go down as one of the greats. Keep in mind that this man was a newspaper editor. Viewers tend to take what comes out of his mouth as reliable news.
Todays Independent gives a great report of what happened. In brief Piers thought they were doing a camera test so, for a laugh with the cameramen, announced that Al Qaida were planning a terrorist spectacular to disrupt the US election. Nobody laughed. In fact, an off-camera voice chose that moment to inform Piers that they were live. Morgan appeared startled and only had time to say: “Good morning! On today’s show…” before time ran out and viewers were taken back to the chat show he had interrupted for what was supposed to have been a trailer for his own programme.
When his show began 15 minutes later, the embarrassed Piers apologised. “I want to put everyone’s minds at rest. I don’t know anything, so if any of you are worried that I have any inside information about any terrorist attack, I don’t. I hope that clears that up. We were just having a little private conversation. It’s nothing new – there have been loads of rumours and speculation but I’m sure nothing will happen. Trust me, nobody tells me anything any more.”
