Twitter criticizes Piers Morgan’s misleading praise of the late Larry King. King passed away today at the age of 87 due to unknown circumstances.
Piers Morgan received some heat on Twitter for a tweet that Larry King pays homage to with an unusual choice of anecdote. King, a major figure in late-night television broadcasts, died today at the age of 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Ora Media, King’s production company, did not specify the cause of death. At the end of December, King was diagnosed with COVID-19, for which he was treated with supplemental oxygen. King’s son Chance Armstrong has confirmed the departure of the media giant.
Morgan, also a well-known TV personality, has hosted a number of his own shows, including Piers Morgan Live and Good morning Britain, which he currently presents with Susanna Reid. The British talk show host is notorious for making disrespectful jokes and jokes in public forums that often miss the audience. Throughout different periods on popular reality shows such as America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent, Morgan was involved in a series of controversies and feuds that earned him a reputation as a sad and challenging public figure. Morgan was a particularly unpopular character on social media and was regularly the target of the Twitter verse controversy.
Along with others who pay tribute to King’s legacy, Morgan tweeted a somewhat strange anecdote about the late talk show host that Twitter users were investigating. In his honor, Morgan said King was a ‘hero of [his]”but the praise continued with a strange story about a conflict between the two broadcast anchors. Here is the controversial tweet in question:
Larry King was a hero of mine until we dropped out after I replaced him at CNN, and he said my show was “like watching your mother-in-law go over a cliff in your new Bentley.” (He has been married 8 times, so a mother-in-law expert). But he was a brilliant broadcaster and masterful TV interviewer. pic.twitter.com/1JsXeeZYEk
– Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) 23 January 2021
Critics have observed some oddities in Morgan’s tribute that were very harsh and disrespectful. Some have noted that the story centered on Morgan and specifically emphasized his own career success over King’s, despite King’s unequivocally impactful legacy:
Imagine that you are making someone else’s death over yourself.
– Ryan Knight 🌹 (@ProudSocialist) 23 January 2021
Piers Morgan is a professional troll. There is no barrel he will not scrape to attract attention, and we must all ignore him collectively.
– Talia Lee 🏳️🌈 (@Eelailatan) 23 January 2021
What’s the point of this tweet? Could you not simply say that he was a brilliant broadcaster and masterful TV interviewer and that it was a privilege to follow him on CNN? Would it have been so difficult?
– Paul Gundlach (@PaulSGundlach) 23 January 2021
Others dispute Morgan’s choice to share an indirect quote from King, who may be seen as the host in a bad light. After replacing Morgan’s show King’s on CNN, he recalls that King compared watching Morgan’s version of the show to ‘watching your mother-in-law go over a cliff in her new Bentley.’ In turn, Morgan takes a look at King’s complicated marriage history, a joke that Morgan later claims King would have appreciated.
Despite what some consider a boring eulogy, Morgan includes a lovely photo of the professional peers together and ends the tweet by acknowledging that King was a “brilliant broadcaster and masterful TV interviewer”. Morgan has previously tweeted jokes that users found unsearchable, and it is possible that his intent with this tweet was purer than they are perceived to be. Morgan recalled a time when King cruelly roasted him was perhaps meant as a sign of respect. Responding in kind by roasting King’s multiple marriages was hopefully intended as a friendly rib made in good faith. It’s unequivocal Piers Morgan‘s “joke” was at least badly tuned.
Source: Piers Morgan/ Twitter
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