British television personality Piers Morgan blasted the American cable network CNN after the network unexpectedly canceled an appearance to promote his new book Wake Up on Brian Stelter’s Reliable Sources program on Sunday. Morgan claims that the cancellation is due solely to his recent criticism of American media’s refusal to investigate the Hunter Biden scandal.
Morgan is currently a co-host of Good Morning Britain in the United Kingdom and an editor-at-large for the DailyMail.com. Morgan hosted a prime-time show on CNN in the United States from 2011-2014.
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During an appearance on Fox and Friends on Friday, Morgan was shown a montage of various journalists, including CNN’s Jake Tapper, completely dismissing the corruption allegations against Democrat nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter, which were highlighted in the New York Post. Morgan called the media stonewalling of the scandal, “hyper-partisan.”
“At the very least these journalists are revealing themselves to be hyper-partisan,” Morgan said. “Because, let’s be completely clear: if you swapped Hunter Biden’s name for Donald Trump Jr., do you think all these journalists would be talking in the way they are about these New York Post revelations?”
Morgan sees smoke, if not necessarily fire, with regard to the Biden scandal. And he believes that the allegations need to be run down — no matter where they might lead; especially due to the fact that neither of the Bidens involved have denied either the existence of the laptop or the reality of the emails.
“From where I sit as a former newspaper editor I’ve seen them run day after day after day revelations from Hunter Biden’s laptop, they say, with emails between Hunter Biden and various business associates. And as we sit here today talking, I don’t believe either the existence of that being Hunter’s laptop or the veracity of those emails has been questioned. Nobody on the Biden side has denied that it’s his laptop or his emails.”
Morgan went on to question the media’s integrity.
“Isn’t the basic fundamental duty of any journalist on any media organization to at least look at the allegations, and if they haven’t been denied, work on what they say?”
Just hours after Morgan made the remarks, the Sunday interview on CNN to promote his new book had been canceled. Morgan announced the cancellation on Twitter. “UPDATE: After [the Fox and Friends] interview aired, my book-promoting appearance on CNN’s @ReliableSources this Sunday – which they had pursued me for weeks to do – was abruptly canceled.”
Stelter denied that the cancellation had anything to do with the Fox and Friends interview: “We had to make multiple changes today to fit in a newsmaker: the exec editor of the AP. Yes, I wanted to book you a month ago, and hope we can still have that conversation. As you know, TV booking is complicated and ever-changing! But there’s no conspiracy afoot.”
Morgan, a former winner on Donald Trump’s reality show Celebrity Apprentice has a relationship with the president but has been very critical of Trump at times as well. The British television host noted that CNN was just fine having him on when they felt assured that he would be negative about the president.
“Maybe they were worried I wouldn’t bash Trump as they wanted, and that’s what my book is all about – illiberal liberals who want to cancel anybody who doesn’t suit their agenda,” Morgan said.
On the bright side, Morgan’s dust-up with CNN allowed him to mend fences with the president. Mr. Trump had previously blocked Morgan on Twitter, presumably over some criticism of White House policies.
“Just had a 25-minute chat on the phone with President @realDonaldTrump from the White House. His last words? ‘Piers, I’m going to win.’”
Morgan continued to argue that, despite the possible consequences, the Hunter Biden laptop story is too big for the mainstream media to simply ignore.
“[The allegations] deserve to be investigated,” Morgan told The Daily Mail. “The liberal skewed media seems to have taken a view that if they investigated…the Democrats may lose the election.”
“That’s a political calculation, not a journalistic calculation. If a story like that breaks, they’ve got to investigate,” Morgan concluded.
Of course, that’s the way it should be. Journalists should follow the story no matter where it takes them. But, unfortunately in America, we’ve grown used to a “news” media that propagandizes for one political viewpoint instead of reporting actual news.
