Piers Morgan has been accused of ‘targeted abuse’ towards a freelance television producer, in an open letter to ITV.
The letter, which has now been signed by nearly 1,200 UK media professionals, calls for the broadcaster to condemn all forms of bullying and to investigate the allegations against the Good Morning Britain presenter.
The criticism comes in the wake of a Twitter exchange between Piers and a former researcher on his chat show, Piers Morgan's Life Stories. On Thursday, Adeel Amini revealed he would not work on the program again, after asking his own followers to share what jobs they would refuse based on the company or host’s ethics.
Piers was quick to respond to the snub, blasting Adeel’s credentials before his Twitter audience of over 7million people.
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'Hi Adeel, you spent precisely two months working on Life Stories in 2010 & judging by your CV that was the pinnacle of your TV career,' he wrote.
'So you really don’t need to worry about getting any more job offers from me because I’d rather employ a lobotomized Aardvark.'
Hi Adeel, you spent precisely two months working on Life Stories in 2010 & judging by your CV that was the pinnacle of your TV career. So you really don’t need to worry about getting any more job offers from me because I’d rather employ a lobotomised Aardvark. https://t.co/uZjmNwVeYjFebruary 18, 2021
The offensive Tweet was met by a surge of backlash, with many journalists and producers accusing Piers of professional misconduct. The letter, penned by an anonymous group of freelancers and addressed to ITV CEO Carolyn McCall and ITV’s Director of Television, Kevin Lygo, doesn’t hold back on its objections to the TV personality's questionable behavior.
'Like many within our industry, we have been appalled by the online conduct of Piers Morgan in directing targeted abuse towards a freelancer. Morgan, with 7.7 million Twitter followers, has repeatedly targeted and tagged a former staff-member in derogatory posts,' the letter reads.
The group also alluded to the past failures of ITV to appropriately deal with the misconduct of their on-screen talent, 'As freelancers working within television, we feel a responsibility to speak out against bullying and harassment wherever we see it, including from on-screen personalities who are all too often poorly reprimanded for unacceptable behavior and abusive conduct.'
In a Tweet posted earlier today, Piers dismissed the open letter as ‘beyond parody’ and insisted, ‘I am the victim’ because it was Adeel who initiated the discussion. He also accused its signatories of ‘victim shaming’ him and declared he would be taking the matter further with ITV.
