“This is what happens when you live in a country where there is no First Amendment. Insanity, ”wrote Tapper on Twitter on Tuesday. “Governments should have no role in policing news broadcasts.”
“You can tweet to Piers what you think of his comments, that is not what it is about,” he added.
In addition to being factually wrong – Ofcom is technically separated from the government and the British have free speech rights – the comments inspired a quick reaction on both sides of the lake.
“No, Jake, unlike your country, we have real standards for broadcasters and consequences for those who do not,” wrote user @tom_read.
“It’s not insanity,” added Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4. “A democratic choice to regulate the media with a duty to be fair and properly impartial. It prevents TV from taking sides to support or oppose things the way you do in America and maintains a code of standards. “
Some disagreed with different parts of Mr. Tapper’s tweet. Political journalist Josh Marshall questioned how strict the rules really are for the British press, given the long history of lewd press coverage, which Meghan and Prince Harry criticized in their weekend interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“Matters of principle aside, the idea that the UK maintains ‘standards’ in any meaningful sense is hilarious, since its press is notoriously corrupt and flooded with crime,” wrote Marshall.
Others noted that the United States has its own transmission rules, despite extensive First Amendment protections.
“You may want to review what the First Amendment protects and what it does not,” wrote journalism professor Christian Christensen. “We had the Doctrine of Justice in the United States for 40 years, overseen by the FCC, at the same time that we had the First Amendment. A license to broadcast on public waves is a privilege, not a right. “
Eventually, Mr. Tapper noticed the fire in his responses and compared the British response to his comments on the invasion of the Capitol, before thanking the British people for their responses – and the BBC.
On Tuesday, Ofcom, which regulates broadcasters to avoid prejudice and inaccuracies, announced that it would investigate an episode of “Good Morning Britain” on Monday after receiving more than 40,000 complaints from the public.
“Who did you go to? What did they say to you? Sorry, I don’t believe a word of what she said, Meghan Markle. I wouldn’t believe it if she read me a weather report, ”said Morgan during the episode under review.
The following day, his comments prompted one of his colleagues to call him “diabolical”, and Mr. Morgan left the set angrily, although he later returned and softened his position towards the Duchess.
“When we talked about it yesterday, I said, broadly, I don’t believe what Meghan Markle is saying in general in this interview and I still have serious concerns about the truth of much of what she said,” he said. “But let me just state, for the record, my position on mental illness and suicide. These are clearly extremely serious things and should be taken very seriously and if someone is feeling this way, they should receive the treatment and help they need all the time. And if they belong to an institution like the royal family and seek that help, they should receive it ”.
CNN and ITV did not respond to a request for comment fromThe Independent on behalf of their respective networks and presenters.
In a call on Tuesday with reporters, ITV Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said she believed in Meghan completely, according toVariety.
“I totally believe in what she said, that the most important thing with mental health that ITV does and with which it is totally committed is that we support, we make people talk, we listen, we say that everyone should listen and everyone should believe because that’s how you get people to talk, ”she said. “So we are very committed to that.”
During an emotional interview on Sunday with Oprah, Meghan said that the pressures of being a member of the royal family and feeling unsupported seriously affected her mental health, and that she had “methodical” thoughts about taking her own life, but senior officials I told him that seeking help would be a poor optics. In desperation, she says she turned to a confidant of the late Princess Diana, who went through similar struggles.
“Yes, that was very clear and very scary. I didn’t know who to turn to. One of the people I looked for, who was my friend and confidante, was one of Diana’s best friends. Who else could understand what it’s really like inside, ”said Meghan.
“The whole family is sad to hear how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Tuesday. “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be very dear family members,” he added.