The woman who aggressively questioned UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage during the ITV debate yesterday has admitted that she was not selected as a member of the general public and that ITV invited her on due to her hosting of a black community-focused podcast.
Imriel Morgan, the “CEO and co founder” of the Shout Out Network and blogger at the Huffington Post, told radio host Jon Gaunt during his Talk2MeRadio show that she was not selected as a member of the general public, and that she believes there is a right-wing media conspiracy to push images of coloured people up the Google image search rankings for the phrase “EU migrants”.
When asked by Jon Gaunt as to whether ITV did any background checks of her, or her “clear political agenda,” Ms. Morgan admitted to having been hand picked by ITV.
“What kind of checks did they do on you, did they ask you about Shout Out, did they ask you about articles you’ve placed on the Huffington Post or not?”
“No they did not,” replied Ms. Morgan, adding: “They reached out to me via the podcast though so it’s not as if they didn’t do their regular checks.”
“So they saw the podcast, thought ‘this is an interesting woman, different perspective, let’s get her on’ but then they put you on as if you were a member of the [public]”
“…I was a member of the audience who was picked to ask a question”.
“You were a member of the audience but they could have put you on as a representative and as somebody who created a podcast… I’m surprised that they put you on, in the audience, and did not announce that.”
The revelation comes as it was also revealed that ITV hand selected the audience rather than relying on a reputable pollster to ensure demographic representation last night.
And Mr. Gaunt also spoke to her about her employment background.
“As well as doing Shout Out have you got a job at the moment?” he asked,
“Shout Out is my job, I’m the CEO, Chief Executive Officer” she replied.
“So are you earning from it, with only three podcasts, are you making money from it?”
“I’m a freelancer”.
“So you’re not making money at the moment”.
“Not from the podcast”.
“So how do you make money at the moment, from doing journalism?”.
“No, because I’m not a journalist, I’m a freelancer”.
“A freelancer in what… how do you earn your money?”
“Through marketing and social media management”.
Ms. Morgan’s claims to be involved with marketing and social media also calls into question how she doesn’t realise that Google Image Search rankings – which she claimed are racist against coloured people – are time sensitive.
She said that Google Image searches for “EU migrants” turned up more non-white faces than black. But Google Image searches for EU migrants predominantly cite left-wing news sources reflecting on Europe’s migrant crisis, as it is the biggest story concerning the EU and migrants at this point in time.
Breitbart London contacted ITV for comment on their audience selection process. They have not replied at the time of going to publication.
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