The Morgan Machine: How Piers successfully hacked the outrage industry

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It’s unclear whether Morgan was aware at the time that the assertion could cost him his job – but on Tuesday, after he stormed off the Good Morning Britain set in an altercation with colleague Alex Beresford, it was announced that Morgan’s reign over ITV breakfast television had come to an end. “Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain,” the broadcaster said in a scant statement. This would only generate more content – a month after Morgan dehumanised trans people by comparing them to penguins, Good Morning Britain ran the segment: “Should Piers Morgan be sacked for his views on gender?” By the rule that all publicity is good publicity, ITV’s strategy was working. As journalist Tim Adams has pointed out, while Good Morning Britain’s far more establishment alternative, BBC Breakfast, maintains a stronghold on live television viewership, it emits a fraction of the “noise” online.