Joe Hildebrand: What we can all learn from Piers Morgan

The right to be controversial and obnoxious must always be upheld, writes Joe Hildebrand.

There was a sense during Karl Stefanovic’s 60 Minutes interview with Piers Morgan that the evergreen Australian felt like he was possibly interviewing himself in a decade’s time.

Morgan had, of course, departed the hit breakfast show Good Morning Britain after daring to criticise Meghan Markle. Like all great television exits, it was equal parts “resigned in disgust” and “sacked in disgrace”. Most importantly, Morgan ensured it happened live on camera.

Stefanovic’s volcanically anticipated departure from Today was positively mild by comparison – even civilised. Indeed, his subsequent resurrection was perhaps the second most miraculous to occur in the last two-and-a-bit millennia.

Piers Morgan made global headlines when he departed the hit breakfast show Good Morning Britain.

It’s fair to say Morgan won’t be coming back to the ITV network soon. The only question is whether his martyrdom was worth it.

The short answer is “yes”. Whether you like Morgan or not, or agree with him or not, is not the question. The only question is whether those in the mainstream media can express contrarian or unfashionable views without having their jobs held to ransom.

Morgan is a strange fish. As a former first lady noted of a former US president – albeit in a somewhat different context – he is a hard dog to keep on the porch. Perhaps, appropriately, we are now mixing both metaphors and species.

Piers Morgan walks off during live filming of Good Morning Britain.

Morgan went from Sunday newspaper editor to the left-wing Daily Mirror with little more than a how’s-your-father and was then sacked from the latter in far more sensational circumstances, eventually ending up as a televisual enfant terrible on all manner of shows. Over the course of all that he has pissed off pretty much everyone from the left and the right, and everyone else in between. Stefanovic is much more of a gentleman player but, still, his eyes seemed to twinkle at such a prospect.

And so we come back to the heart of Voltaire’s ultimate question: Must we defend the right of people to be controversial, upsetting and even obnoxious?

This new censorious generation of public commentators, politicians and businesspeople may not be sure. But for true broadcasters, true newsmen and women, the answer will always be simple: Yes, yes, yes and, once again, yes.

Joe Hildebrand is on 2GB Nights with John Stanley on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8pm