Sometimes I’m a little alarmed at the people I find myself agreeing with – or defending, which is not necessarily the same thing. This morning I’m alarming myself because I find myself defending Piers Morgan.
When I look at a picture of Morgan, or watch him on TV, he irritates me. There’s something smug and smiling about the man, a sense of entitlement that circles his head like so many invisible little birds, to the point where I’m tempted to lift something and hit him a crack. I don’t, of course. I’ve more respect for my TV.
And yet this morning I find myself agreeing with and defending Morgan. Inside the last day or so, he has viewed That Interview and said he “didn’t believe a word” of what Meghan said. The result was over 41,000 calls of complaint to the television station. Since then, Morgan appears to have quit the show, and has said “On Monday, I said I didn’t believe Meghan Markle in her Oprah interview. I’ve had time to reflect on this opinion, and I still don’t.”
I wouldn’t agree with that. I’m reasonably confident Meghan spoke the truth at various points in her interview; but her claim to have contemplated suicide I found unconvincing. So I said “I don’t believe her” in my last blog. Now I find myself on the same page as Morgan, a man who irritates the hell out of me.
I’m going to make a guess: most of those who protested at Morgan’s words would consider themselves liberal. Maybe they’re not but I’m guessing they are. Which means they have freed themselves from the iron dogmas of yesteryear, when priests beat the hedges and ditches in search of courting couples and people who didn’t go to Mass or lived together out of wedlock were denounced. All that is gone. People now think for themselves, and argue the right of others to do likewise.
Which, if you’re logical, would mean you accept the right of people to express their views in public. You mightn’t like those views but you would insist they have a right to speak their mind. So why then is Morgan being pushed off his place on TV? Why, for that matter, was my mild little “I don’t believe her” responded to so sharply?
Maybe because suicide is such a scourge, such a despairingly painful feature of life here and just about everywhere, that the topic must be approached with care that you don’t hurt those affected. To that I’d give my 100% support. But to go beyond that and argue that I must always believe anyone who says they contemplated suicide must be a step too far. I could say now “I’ve contemplated suicide” and that would be a lie. So it is possible that Meghan wasn’t speaking the truth. Of course it also possible she was speaking the truth. But I’d still insist that I have the right to believe her or not believe her as I wish, and to say so.
Even further, I believe anyone who claims to be of a liberal perspective must allow Piers Morgan or anyone else to state their opinion, even when – especially when – those opinions clash with your views.
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” – that’s what Voltaire is claimed to have said (although actually he didn’t), and it’s a sentiment I’d completely agree with.
Because that’s what free speech is about. Otherwise, we replace the hedge-thrashing parish priest with the liberal dictator.
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