Rupert Murdoch has been hitting the social media scene lately, his latest run on Twitter targeting Piers Morgan in what Murdoch later tweeted was a mistakenly negative shot at the former CNN editor . Given the nature of the tweet, however, many are finding it difficult to see how the Piers Morgan bash could be read differently.
As the Vox points out, the official Twitter account for the billionaire media mogul are often a source of calamity for the News Corp owner . Today’s shots at Piers Morgan are no different. According to Murdoch, Piers Morgan was “once talented” and is now “safe to ignore.”
Piers Morgan seems unemployed after failing to attract any audience in US. Seemed out of place. Once talented, now safe to ignore.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) September 10, 2014
The tweet was flagged by several in the media and screen capture copies were made before Rupert posted an apology.
Did not mean to hurt Piers Morgan. Piers a friend and a legend. — Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) September 10, 2014
That apology falls a bit flat, however, given the digging nature of the original diss, but Piers Morgan, for his part, seemed to take it in stride.
At least @rupertmurdoch still follows me – so I don’t feel completely ignored.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) September 10, 2014
Many comments and responses to the tweets from both Rupert Murdoch and Piers Morgan were also fun and sometimes harsh. Several asked Murdoch, on his retraction, “what dirt Morgan has” on him. Responses to Morgan’s tweet were mostly supportive from fans, though the digs also came with statements like “Rubbernecking a wreck like the rest of us” (referring to Rupert’s post) and “@piersmorgan shut up old man”.
Morgan was a controversial host on CNN , hosting his own show, Piers Morgan Live. The show was canceled in February and Piers soon left CNN altogether. The show’s ratings were reportedly very low since a peak after several shows on the gun control debate propelled Morgan to stardom for his controversial views. Piers Morgan also hosts a series in the United Kingdom called Life Stories , now in its twelfth run, and Morgan has made it clear he believes that the Britain’s Got Talent ratings drop was directly related to his leaving , implying that he is ready to return to the reality show.
The Hollywood Reporter put the tweet series in context along with Murdoch’s tweets about the Scottish independence movement and Morgan’s sarcastic responses to them. The back-and-forth seen in that context can explain Murdoch’s semi-retraction of his statements about Piers Morgan.
