Diss a Piers

**Bryn** · 10-03-21, 13:30

Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

Comments welcome regarding omnipresent TV presenters and media people complaining about freedom to express views being "stifled".

What, Jeremy's climate change denying brother? What a wasted Imperial College education. Or is it another nasty spoilt brat you have in mind?

**french frank** · 10-03-21, 13:34

Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

Comments welcome regarding omnipresent TV presenters and media people complaining about freedom to express views being "stifled".

They are perfectly free to express their views - but not on UK broadcasting platforms which are subject to Ofcom regulations, in this case the 'harm and offence' rules. I've mentioned before that I am always amazed at the bias ('liberal' and 'conservative'

) shown openly by US news 'anchors'. I imagine Morgan saw himself in the same position. But why should people already in privileged positions be given more 'clout' than others when it comes to influencing public opinion? An open question.

**eighthobstruction** · 10-03-21, 15:13

....any of them who fancy a hot or cold beverage can come around any time after 0900hrs for a chat....I am forensic in my questioning prone to sarcasm, a wide knowledge without having ever read Hello magazine (not even at dentists)....we could even do 2 room negotiation (lounge and kitchen)....twist and turn misread/on the button/shout down/roasting....I'm up for it....COME ON book a seat on my sofa....

**kernelbogey** · 10-03-21, 15:42

The Disser did a pretty good job. PM just seems to me an opinionated bully: deserved all he got from Beresford and more.

**Serial_Apologist** · 10-03-21, 15:45

Originally posted by french frank View Post

They are perfectly free to express their views - but not on UK broadcasting platforms which are subject to Ofcom regulations, in this case the 'harm and offence' rules. I've mentioned before that I am always amazed at the bias ('liberal' and 'conservative'

) shown openly by US news 'anchors'. I imagine Morgan saw himself in the same position. But why should people already in privileged positions be given more 'clout' than others when it comes to influencing public opinion? An open question.

The closest analogy I can think up is of a sort of ideological constant irritation factor: someone who has been charged with coming in and repeatedly turning on the gas for heating a saucepan of milk which you have just switched off for fear of it boiling over, thereby distracting you from doing what you know you have got to get on with doing, and thinking about why and how you go about it. You know vaguely who is paying the one tasked for doing this, and in some instances have evidence, but persuading others of this is proving difficult if not impossible.

**kernelbogey** · 10-03-21, 15:50

Diss a Piers
Morgan: a suitable case for treatment
You pays your money and you takes your choice

**french frank** · 10-03-21, 16:04

Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post

The Disser did a pretty good job. PM just seems to me an opinionated bully: deserved all he got from Beresford and more.

That's a good point in this case. Beresford said what he thought too and Morgan couldn't take it. Walking off shows there was something seriously wrong with the situation. No kind of professionalism there.

**french frank** · 10-03-21, 16:07

Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

The closest analogy I can think up is of a sort of ideological constant irritation factor: someone who has been charged with coming in and repeatedly turning on the gas for heating a saucepan of milk which you have just switched off for fear of it boiling over, thereby distracting you from doing what you know you have got to get on with doing, and thinking about why and how you go about it. You know vaguely who is paying the one tasked for doing this, and in some instances have evidence, but persuading others of this is proving difficult if not impossible.

I just don't know enough about Morgan and the way - over a range of issues - he has reacted. BUt bis reaction to being publicly criticised said enough for me this time.

**kernelbogey** · 10-03-21, 16:10

Originally posted by french frank View Post

I just don't know enough about Morgan and the way - over a range of issues - he has reacted. BUt bis reaction to being publicly criticised said enough for me this time.

Interesting and well-written piece by Mark Lawson on the PM phenmenon.

**Serial_Apologist** · 10-03-21, 16:14

Originally posted by Bryn View Post

What, Jeremy's climate change denying brother? What a wasted Imperial College education. Or is it another nasty spoilt brat you have in mind?

I knew Piers Corbyn slightly, at one time. He was in a rival nominally Trotskyist group to us, one with very literalist claims on the sacred texts. He was also involved in CAMRA - the Campaign for Real Ale - one of the few radical initiatives to achieve success in the late 1970s! This was before his forming an alternative weather forecasting operation based on sunspot activity. He was interviewed on one of a series of TV programmes asking what became of the radical Left, and I remember him outlining The Transitional Programme, initially hesitantly, and then more-or-less reciting its Forward verbatim.

**Katzelmacher** · 10-03-21, 16:33

Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

I knew Piers Corbyn slightly, at one time. He was in a rival nominally Trotskyist group to us, one with very literalist claims on the sacred texts. He was also involved in CAMRA - the Campaign for Real Ale - one of the few radical initiatives to achieve success in the late 1970s! This was before his forming an alternative weather forecasting operation based on sunspot activity. He was interviewed on one of a series of TV programmes asking what became of the radical Left, and I remember him outlining The Transitional Programme, initially hesitantly, and then more-or-less reciting its Forward verbatim.

I love the concept of the Transitional Demand.

Sadly, the most successful Transitional Demand in British history (ie, Brexit) is an avowedly right-wing one.

**french frank** · 10-03-21, 16:39

Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post

Interesting and well-written piece by Mark Lawson on the PM phenmenon.

Thanks, kb. I'm more in the picture now. I agreed with:

"Then he’ll go, and he will probably go down in flames because that’s what he always does" and:

"severely testing the rules of impartiality imposed by the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom …"

It just seems to me that, weighing the 'good' with the 'bad', in the end he's a bully and a bighead.

**gradus** · 10-03-21, 17:05

Mr Morgan is an excellent self-promoter and I doubt that Beresford or anyone else really riled him enough to walk out, likelier that he is already in negotiations with GB News and close to a new deal with them, but who knows.

**french frank** · 10-03-21, 17:14

Originally posted by gradus View Post

Mr Morgan is an excellent self-promoter and I doubt that Beresford or anyone else really riled him enough to walk out, likelier that he is already in negotiations with GB News and close to a new deal with them, but who knows.

And they won't care about his journalistic professionalism - just how big an audience he can pull in with his antics!