For years Larry King hosted the CNN show that is now helmed by British import Piers Morgan. Now King has opened up about his replacement and his pronouncement is not very flattering. King thinks Morgan makes the show too much about Morgan.
For those who remember, Larry King was more about being a conduit for the guests to entertain and enlighten viewers. His idea, perhaps an old fashioned TV ideal, was to make the show less about Larry King and more about the guests his viewers tuned in to watch.
King was old school in that way. We never learned much about the life or personal opinions of Jack Parr or Johnny Carson when they were hosting the Tonight Show, either. Those two icons let the guests speak and made their shows about the entertainment. For the most part, Larry King modeled himself on that classic version of the TV interview show.
But Larry King was quick to point out that Piers Morgan isn’t like that at all. Morgan is more about Morgan than he is about the guests, King said.
“I never gave opinions,” King said of his own CNN show. “Piers gives his opinions. The show is a lot about him as much as the guests… He’s so different from me,” King lamented.
King also worried over the state of TV today, saying, “It’s not the quality that counts anymore. It’s how loud did you yell, how vituperative can you be.”
That describes well Piers Morgan whose recent shows have been filled with him yelling over guests, calling them “stupid” and “dangerous,” and advocating for his purported better and wholly foreign concept of how America should work compared to what we have had for over 200 years. All the while Morgan gives lip service to “civility” and after calling guests names tells his audience that he “values” everyone’s opinions as if just saying it excuses his behavior.
King may often have had a boring show but at least he wasn’t such a jerk to his guests. Yes, King was old school in that way. Courteous. Apparently that is something with which Morgan is unfamiliar. King understood real civility. Not the faux civility Morgan perpetrates on his audience.
So, what does Piers Morgan say about all this. In his typically perspicacious way, Morgan stampeded to his favorite medium for instant communication. On Twitter, the Brit Tweeted the following bit of eloquence: “Zzzzzzz.”
See. Morgan’s so smart and civil he didn’t even need all 140 characters.
Politico wanted to give Morgan a second chance to elucidate a bit on his “Zzzzzzz” Tweet. In response, Morgan referred them back to his Tweet.
More proof that Piers Morgan is fast becoming this decade’s Jerry Springer.
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