Can we all stop talking about Piers Morgan and start talking about Alex Beresford?
In Tuesday’s edition of “Good Morning Britain”, someone offered a genuinely bold and emphatic opinion about the controversy surrounding the recent “Oprah With Harry and Meghan” interview and it certainly wasn’t Morgan.
Yes, Morgan was totally diva, leaving the set – and then unceremoniously leaving the ITV program that he co-hosted for six years) – after being criticized on the air for its long duration and by any measure hateful attacks against the former Meghan Markle. Yes, the sight of a man who regularly describes his targets with words like “disgusting”, “despicable” and “shameless” running to hide in the face of moderate criticism was hilarious.
And, of course, he, like so many masters of the vitriol, is now wrapping himself in the cloak of freedom of expression. Troubled in the UK, which has no 1st amendment protections, as it has no 1st amendment, and even in the USA, where “freedom of speech” does not protect you from being fired for making questionable statements – or, as in the case Morgan, to be given the option of apologizing or giving up. (Morgan, who maintains his stated opinion that he does not believe anything Meghan said during the interview, including that she felt suicidal, chose the latter option.)
In fact, we could talk all day about Morgan, his extraordinary ability to fail and what that means in 2021 – but we’re not going because, frankly, he is boring.
Alex Beresford, on the other hand, is the opposite of boring. He’s the guy who came out of nowhere to say what many were thinking, the presenter of the “Good Morning Britain” mood who decided he couldn’t be silent while a woman was repeatedly knocked down.
Even if speaking meant facing the anger of a senior colleague in the air.
On Tuesday, as Morgan prepared to greet Britain with a rant about what it considers to be the traitorous nature of the recent Sussex interview with Oprah Winfrey, and Meghan’s attempt to destroy the British monarchy through racial strife. and false claims of mental health problems, Beresford decided it was enough.
“I understand that you don’t like Meghan Markle,” said Beresford. “You made it so clear several times on this show. and I understand that you have a personal relationship with Meghan Markle and she cut it off. She has the right to interrupt you if she wants to. Has she said anything about you since she interrupted you? I don’t think it does, but you still continue to destroy it. “
At that point, Morgan vacated his seat and stomped out, muttering “I’m done with this” and “you can come to me, but not on my own show.”
“This is just diabolical behavior,” said Beresford, who, like the Duchess, is of mixed race. “I’m sorry, but Piers screams regularly and we all have to sit there and listen – from 6:30 am to 7 pm yesterday it was incredibly difficult to watch, incredibly difficult to watch. That is – you know, he has the ability to come in here and speak from a position that he doesn’t fully understand. “
The incident was so shocking that many viewers believed it had been staged.
It is not the first time that the two men have clashed, however. Two years ago, when Beresford tried to get into general conversation one morning, Morgan closed it off by saying, “You know what, man, you’re taking care of the weather. Your job is the weather. This time, it was Beresford who left the set. “Look at him, the little drama queen,” said Morgan as Beresford left.
Nor is Beresford the first person to question Morgan’s ability, as a white man, to recognize or understand the subtle and constant racism that many believe Meghan faced as Britain’s first member of color royalty. On Monday, British television host Trisha Goddard, who is black, countered Morgan’s accusation that Meghan was playing the race card. “I’m sorry, Piers – you can’t say what racism against black people is and what it is not,” she said. “You can quote all the other things … but leave the racism things to us.”
But Beresford’s answer directly questioned the root cause of the co-host’s continuing criticism of the Duchess – the fact that, shortly after meeting Harry, she had, as he said, “fantasized” Morgan.
This incident is known only because Morgan was so public about it, recounting the friendship with DM that he and Markle started years ago, which culminated in their meeting for drinks when Meghan was in London. As Morgan says, they had fun and then she left, on her way to the party where she would meet Prince Harry for the first time. After that, Morgan, according to his account, heard no more from her, which he considered – as he said on several occasions after his difficult relationship with his father made the news – as proof that she was a social climber of the worst kind.
Instead of, I don’t know, a woman who decided, or was told, that it may not be a good idea to continue talking to a high-profile British journalist as she embarked on what would inevitably be an initial and then highly secret published romantic relationship with a Prince.
Many other members of the press and Twittersphere have complained about Morgan for his relentless and very personal criticism of Meghan over the years, and some have speculated that his roots were revenge. But for Beresford, highlighting the flaw in the camera was remarkably brave. Many people, including millions of viewers of “Good Morning Britain”, are fans of Morgan and agree with his assessment of the Duchess, while Beresford is, as Morgan so gently pointed out two years ago, the climate presenter.
As a person of color, it is understandable that he, like Goddard, found it difficult to remain silent when Morgan accused the Duke and Duchess of shouting “racism” where it did not exist. As Beresford later said in a tweet, “In order for me to do that, I would have to strip my identity.” Born in Bristol, he has been with “Good Morning Britain” since the beginning in 2014 and has spoken on the program before. In 2019, he interrupted the Police Federation president’s argument that Britain needed more prisons to crack down on a wave of stabbings. “But prisons don’t work,” argued Beresford. “I grew up in some of those communities that you’re talking about … if we don’t change the environment, we won’t change anything.”
On Tuesday, Beresford emerged again as an important ally as well as representative voice, with his simple and forceful claim that Meghan had every right to isolate Morgan.
This is what women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community and other groups mean when they ask all of us to speak and speak in real time about the subtle forces of intolerance in the workplace and in society. For years, Morgan appears to have used her interpretation of her experience with Meghan to inform all of her subsequent comments about her – she has turned him into a ghost, so she is an untrustworthy opportunist and all of her actions and statements should henceforth be framed by this characterization.
This is something that many people knew, but only Beresford had the courage to say: Even if she intentionally or inadvertently hurt your feelings, Piers, it does not give you the right to bring her down on various media platforms almost daily.
A woman has the right to reject a man, in any form, for any reason, without fear of being targeted or slandered in return.
Journalistically, the fact that Morgan continues to cover a figure with whom he had a personal relationship and, on his own account, against which he had a personal complaint, is questionable; it certainly gives his criticism the appearance of revenge.
Meghan has many public critics, but Morgan is particularly relentless and malicious. The rejection of her report of having suicidal thoughts – “I wouldn’t believe it if she read the weather report” – drew more than 40,000 complaints to the UK media regulator, Ofcom, forcing Morgan to publicly admit that suicide is one thing serious and he had no way of knowing the Duchess’s mood at any time.
(For the record, when you are being forced by your employer to publicly state that you know that suicide is serious, something went very wrong.)
On Tuesday, Ofcom announced that it was opening an investigation into these complaints, which included one from the Duchess herself. This investigation, and Meghan’s complaint, undoubtedly had more to do with Morgan’s “apologize or leave” ultimatum than Beresford’s challenge in the air.
But it is about the challenge that we must continue talking about.