Let’s open with: Piers Morgan can suck off a dead dog. Great, now that’s over, let’s explain why! Weeee!
Let’s start with some very basic definitions:
a) Free Speech is contextual. Yes you are free to say whatever you choose. Piers did that, and bully for him. However, free speech is not a Get Out Of Jail Free card. Consequences of your free speech are something you need to weigh and consider – especially when you are being paid by someone else to speak, and even more especially when the platform that was given to you to speak on isn’t your own personal structure. His stance that he is “defending” something is just an excuse for bad behavior, behavior that is regulated by the people who manage British broadcasting.
Is it ok that Piers doesn’t like black women? Sure, that’s allowed. The same way I don’t like bigoted white guys with big mouths. Is it ok for him to say that he thinks someone is lying about their feelings? Again, sure. Everyone is allowed to judge. Was he allowed to say that as part of his paid job as a TV show host? Yes, he was. And the conclusion to that – is that the show is also allowed to say “Yeah, no, your lack of judgement in deciding what to say on our show means that we don’t want you any more, because you don’t just represent you, you also represent us. Bye.”
b) Truth is not something that is “owned”. Regardless of who says it, I’m not buying the turn of phrase: Your/My/His/Her truth. Truth is fact based. It’s what the courts use to judge, and what the news should be composed of. Some examples of truth are: video of a man being murdered, a strip chart from a seismograph, or the fact that gravity is real. These are truths. To say someone has “their” truth is somewhat of a perversion of what truth is. Truth is meant to be singular while the experience of truth (or reality if you prefer) is interpreted by the person experiencing it. When we both watch the video of the man dying, the man is still dead at the end but our understanding of why it happened may be different. That doesn’t make it “my truth”, rather it makes it “my experience”. Truth and experience are not equivalent. Piers calling Meghan a liar is not anyone’s truth, it’s his opinion and nothing will make it factual.
Now that the definitions are out of the way we can return to the fact that Piers has made a career built on hate. It’s a hell of a way to make a living, but some people have even run nations on that principle, so we know it works. The thing is, it always backfires, and the oddly unbalanced reality is that more people will respect someone who is respectful rather than a bigoted fuck-nugget who believes that their right to expression outweighs the impact it has on others.
Sure Piers, you have the right to express yourself, and I (and many others) have the right to despise you for it. If that’s what floats your boat well then, well done for you. Well done indeed.