Piers Morgan, the Duchess and the Dame: did ITV fire the wrong person?
Piers Morgan, March 2021. (Alamy)
Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, has ruled that Piers Morgan should never have been sacked by ITV as presenter of Good Morning Britain for telling viewers that he didn’t believe a word of Meghan Markle’s confessional interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which she claimed that joining the royal family had made her suicidal. The chief executive of ITV, Dame Carolyn McCall, gave the presenter the choice of a public apology or resignation, after the Duchess of Sussex allegedly demanded Morgan’s “head on a plate”. He chose to walk. Now the speculation is that he will get his job back. In the curious case of the presenter, the Duchess and the Dame, it now looks as though ITV fired the wrong person.
The Ofcom ruling is significant, in part because it runs to 97 pages of finely balanced arguments that weigh the right of presenters to express strongly held opinions against the sensitivities that surround mental health. The fact that the regulator has come down firmly on the side of free speech will embolden other broadcasters to extend the boundaries of what is permissible when commenting on the news. In particular, newcomers such as GB News will welcome the opportunity to move Britain in the direction of the less regulated American broadcasting regime.
Piers Morgan himself may justly feel vindicated by Ofcom’s view that, while his remarks about the Duchess were undeniably “potentially harmful and highly offensive”, they were sufficiently challenged by his co-presenter on the programme, Susanna Reid, and by other contributors for balance to be preserved within the meaning of the law. The fact that a record 54,000 complaints were received undoubtedly influenced Dame Carolyn’s decision to rebuke Morgan and, in effect, force him to leave the show. So did the fact that a member of the royal family wrote to her personally, pointing out that they were both mothers. But objections from a small minority of viewers should not outweigh the right to criticise public figures. Nor should the media cave in to pressure from the rich and powerful. Meghan Markle is quite capable of dishing out criticism of others; she should learn to take it.
None of this means that anything goes on television, nor that it is open season for those with mental health problems to be mocked or dismissed. To be fair to Morgan, that is not what he was trying to do. What he said on air was: “I don’t believe a word she says, Meghan Markle. I wouldn’t believe her if she read me a weather report.” He was not thereby belittling people with postnatal depression or invalidating people of colour. He wasn’t even sneering at those who struggle with celebrity and the scrutiny that comes with it. This was personal. Piers Morgan doesn’t trust Meghan Markle. It was open to her to sue him and ITV for disseminating remarks about her that were quite possibly defamatory. But then her claims would have been tested in court. Evidently the Duchess did not relish the prospect of being cross-examined in the witness box by a silk who would have been, shall we say, less sympathetic than Oprah. So she did not sue. Instead, she went straight to his boss. Given what has now occurred, it might have been better for all concerned if she had refrained from pulling strings and let it go. But that is not her style. Meghan never forgets and certainly never forgives.
The ruling leaves Dame Carolyn with an awkward dilemma. Does she eat humble pie and give Morgan his job back? He says he will only return if ITV apologises to him. It should probably do so, as the best way to draw a line under the affair. But a price must be paid by the person most responsible for turning a robust exchange on breakfast television into a fiasco for ITV. Piers Morgan says he was “specifically hired by ITV to present Good Morning Britain and express strongly held opinions”. He adds: “I was pretty disheartened to discover that I suddenly wasn’t entitled to.” The CEO made a judgment call. It turns out to have been the wrong one. Dame Carolyn McCall should do the honourable thing. She should fall on her sword.
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