I think NPR's Eric Deggans gets at where Piers' Britishness gets in his way: we seem to be approaching the end of a period when the archetypal Englishman on non-scripted American TV is somewhere in the range between "blunt" and "bully" (Simon Cowell, Len Goodman, and Gordon Ramsay are all mentioned, but I'd go back to Anne Robinson being part of the short-lived, big-money, prime-time attempt at The Weakest Link and forward to Mark Labbett on GSN's version of ITV's The Chase.)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/02/25/282507077/are-americans-tired-of-arrogant-british-tv-personalities?ft=1&f=173754155 But I think there is more to it than just his nationality, that gets into who Piers Morgan is as a person. If we'd had Jeremy Paxman coming over and badgering our politicians for giving non-answers, I think it would have turned out differently. There are some subtle bits of how American culture relates to journalists and how it expects journalists to relate to the news that Morgan just never fully understood. American tawdry sensationalism requires a different approach than British tawdry sensationalism. There are other times when he would charge headlong into a sensitive issue without seeming like he fully understood the issue and what the reaction would be; in addition to the guns issues he mentioned to Carr, he's gotten into arguments with numerous LGBT people and organizations for being dismissive of criticism for the way he talks about those issues. -- David J. Lynch [email protected] -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
