ah, I might have been getting those two mixed up
you're right, it's talk tv that's tumbleweeds
(
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Wed 18 May 2022, 3:40,
Reply)
They're both very bad. Talk TV has had a much bigger marketing spend,
yet is faring the worse of the two. Farage on GB is consistently beating Morgan on Talk in terms of ratings. That's very worrying for Talk, because say what you like about that cunt Morgan, but he is a big time TV star, Farage ain't. Personally, I think Talk's problem is, as far as I can work out, is it's just a televised talk radio show 95% of the time, with endless idiots phoning in, and people don't want to watch a radio show.
(
Prufrock Lucifer, son of the morning!, Wed 18 May 2022, 13:16,
Reply)
I know piers gets a lot of hate, some of it deservered
or deserved if you prefer
but I think his biggest problem is not him being a bit of a nob, it's him not being a big enough one. He initially fawned a bit over trump and was given opportunities in the US because of that relationship, but in the end he's never going to be one of these "drunk the kool aid" ranters like hannity or carlson. So he's left in this no-mans land where all sides hate him. He recently tried to claw back a bit of credibility by asking trump some unexpected curlers, not exactly frost/nixon but at least he was trying, so the trumpistas have turned on him too. And people who watch because they like getting told the world is going to hell in a woke handbasket won't get there fix from him either. He's a decent though not spectacularly good interviewer who unsuccessfully courted the right without really being one of them and now is friendless in the middle on a shitty channel no one watches
(
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Wed 18 May 2022, 14:21,
Reply)
I think you’re being unreasonably reasonable.
Morgan was handed the ball with a prime time news show on CNN. It was very high profile under Larry King, and although the ratings weren’t amazeballs, it was respectable. He alienated his audience with his snotty, superior, know-it-all bollocks, most famously on gun control, but also more generally. After a while it was clear the ratings slide wasn’t just the underdog struggling to fill big shoes, it was his negative charisma.
By some fucking fluke Morgan won Celebrity Apprentice with Trump. Who’d have guessed an egotistical cunt would get on so well with a self obsessed shit? This made them old mates or BFF or whatever when Trump became president. He cynically, venally and ruthlessly exploited this connection to put himself in the spotlight. In order to do so he basically completely turned a blind eye to the insanity of Trump.
Plus there’s the autobiography where he LITERALLY explains how to hack a phone. Of course he breezily says he never did it. If you go and watch the episode of HIGNFY where he basically threatens to continue to have hacks and paps stalk Ian Hislop, but henceforth with more subterfuge, after Hislop calls him out for doing it, that breezy denial is transparently implausible. He wasn’t joking, it was a threat to continue. He was having the tits hacked off of loads of people.
Then there’s Viglen and the fake photos purporting to be British soldiers torturing people.
He’s an utter piece of shit. So it unnerves me when bits of his schtick resonate. But he doesn’t mean any of it. It’s all calculated as to what can get him front and centre. Nothing else matters.
(
Prufrock Lucifer, son of the morning!, Wed 18 May 2022, 21:13,
Reply)
fair play, but these are mostly good reasons why the left hate him, and with the gun control and deciding to ask trump some non-softball questions the right see him as not a fellow traveller
I just wonder which demographic he appeals to? Perhaps he was going for a larry king style, but king was personable and consistently landed a-list guests from across the spectrum, so he had that "insomniac baby-boomer looking for unchallenging entertainment with guests they actually recognise" demographic. Piers, like you said, can be smarmy and superior, and now only d-listers want to be interviewed by him. I doubt trump will come back, though you never know
(
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Thu 19 May 2022, 0:16,
Reply)
Don’t worry mate, he’s got Sharon Osbourne on speed dial.
He got a free ride on phone hacking and the fake photos from most on the left as he was always seen as a legit cheerleader as editor of The Mirror. I really don’t see him as Left or Right. He’s a shameless chameleon and an astonishing attention seeker. There’s a lot of bluster, but no gravitas. He’s not an intellectual, he’s not a wit, but he is loud, like an empty vessel.
TBH, I’m not all that keen on the guy.
(
Prufrock Lucifer, son of the morning!, Thu 19 May 2022, 20:53,
Reply)