February 27th, 2014:        “Piers Morgan Live” was canceled by CNN this week and when I saw the headline I thought, “It’s about time.” I think this situation provides a few counterarguments to ideas discussed in class that I would normally agree with, but they help explain why the show ended up being bad for CNN’s business.

We talked about how Americans want to be entertained rather than informed and that points of view have always been around in the media (though I’m not quick to call Piers Morgan journalist). I have no doubt that as an interviewer, Morgan attempted to entertain us with his arguments and controversial points of view on his show. Normally, I’d say that conflict is entertaining, and it’s often a news driver, but Morgan used it in the wrong way and his opinions backfired. How? He made the mistake of creating conflict between himself and the viewers. He talked to us in a pedantic way about our country’s touchy issues like gun control. I agree with what David Carr wrote about the situation. No one likes to be lectured, especially by an outsider, and it wouldn’t surprise me if most his of dwindling audience thought, “Why is this British man telling us Americans how to run to our country?” as I couldn’t help but do. There was a petition on whitehouse.gov to deport Morgan and it reached over 100,000 signatures (about a fifth the number of viewers some nights during the show, not exactly the best for a primetime spot)!

It just shows that even the big media conglomerates are not guaranteed an audience just because they have control of TV spots. CNN has to worry about its audience and revenue as much as a newspaper. Viewers bring revenue just like readers do, but if there’s no one to watch or read the advertisements, a new business plan has to be made, and I find that’s what CNN is working on by canceling “Piers Moran Live.”