Piers Morgan: OMG Stop With the Trans Stuff

Piers Morgan can’t seem to shut up about that time Janet Mock hurt his feelings. So incapable of shutting up about it is he that it’s getting hard to like him at all.

A few weeks ago — decades in internet-time — CNN host Piers Morgan, a liberal who in the past has been vocal in his support of LGBTQ rights, invited trans author and activist Janet Mock to appear on his show to promote her book. After the appearance, Mock and many others took to Twitter to express their dismay over the way Mock was chyroned (“WAS A BOY UNTIL AGE 18”) and some of the questions Morgan asked, which many found disrespectful to Mock and to the trans community in general.

The trickle of dismay, first expressed by Mock on Twitter, became an apoplectic social media tidal wave that included death threats aimed at Morgan. Death threats are a pretty disproportionate overreaction to a chyron that, in all likelihood, Morgan had nothing to do with, and the healthy thing for Morgan to do, for both his mental health and his reputation, would have been to step away from Twitter and let the storm rage as a tempest in a teapot until he could again speak with Janet Mock and straighten things out. Apologize for the misunderstanding. Promise to continue to work to be a good ally for the trans community, to improve. Because that’s what an errant ally would do.

But, that isn’t what Piers Morgan did.

He spent the next day angertweeting at seemingly random detractors, telling Women Action and Media to pipe down and calling other users “idiots.” And that night, he made his entire interview with Janet Mock, an interview that could have been a groundbreaking discussion of how allies of trans people sometimes screw up, a long whine from Piers Morgan about how Piers Morgan is a great man who has been greatly wronged by Janet Mock, who apparently controls Twitter like Disney’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice controlled an army of anthropomorphic brooms. It was all about Piers Morgan’s hurt feelings. It was pretty bad, and Morgan didn’t look great. He vowed to stop giving a platform to trans activists like Mock, took his ball, and went home.

Last night, Mock appeared on The Colbert Report, engaging in an affable interview with the late night host. Morgan responded — again on Twitter — with his typical restraint and grace (LOL). This time, instead of sounding like a guy who was confused about what he did wrong, he just sounded like a straight up asshole.

Judging by his sniveling, vindictive Twitter feed, Piers Morgan is in no position to condemn anyone for whining.

In fact, Morgan’s continued insistence on trying to make his feud with Janet Mock into a way to draw attention back to him is actually a huge turn off to left-leaning viewers who might otherwise find themselves politically aligned with him. The entire world has moved on from Piers Morgan’s tantrum except Piers Morgan who Will. Not. Shut. Up.