The troubling treatment of Piers Morgan

It is the duty of journalists and broadcasters to be sceptical, particularly to claims made by the rich and powerful. Before yesterday that wasn’t a controversial point. But the pushing out of Piers Morgan from Good Morning Britain, purely because he says he doesn’t believe a word that comes out of Meghan Markle’s mouth, suggests we are in a brave new world. When certain claims are made, even by the most privileged, it is apparently now our duty to swallow them or to shut up.

In the wake of that explosive Oprah interview, in which the Sussexes said they were hounded out of the royal family by racism and Markle shared her struggles with mental health, Morgan was having none of it. He said he ‘wouldn’t believe her if she read me a weather report’. Later, after outcry from mental-health charities, he clarified that mental health is ‘extremely serious’ and that anyone suffering should seek help, but that he still questioned the ‘veracity’ of Markle’s account.