CNN cancels Piers Morgan's anti-gun prime-time show

CNN has announced that it is ending anti-gun British journalist Piers Morgan's prime-time talk show amidst dismal ratings.

From coverage by Reuters:

A source at CNN said network president Jeffrey Zucker had made the decision to cancel the show following a series of discussions with Morgan about its future.

Morgan, 48, could not immediately be reached for comment but acknowledged in a New York Times interview published on Sunday that as a Brit he did not always connect with American audiences, a problem that showed itself in the program's ratings.

"It's been a painful period and lately we have taken a bath in the ratings," Morgan, a former editor of the Daily Mirror tabloid in Britain, told the Times.

The talk-show host had infuriated conservatives during his three-year run on CNN with frequent discourses on gun control.

He was the subject of a petition drive by Americans seeking to have him deported for on-air comments he made following a December 2012 shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

"Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarizing, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it," Morgan told the Times.

"That's run its course and Jeff and I have been talking for some time about different ways of using me," he said.

According to the article, a date for the final broadcast of Piers Morgan Live on CNN had not been determined and a spokeswoman did not immediately say if Morgan would remain at the network in any other role.

For his part, it appears Morgan has not learned his lesson, and responded to Tweets from viewers expressing excitement about his departure with yet another threat to law-abiding American gun owners:

I wouldn't get too excited @NRA - I'm not done with you yet. #GunControlNow

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 24, 2014

Last summer Buckeye Firearms Association Legislative Chair Ken Hanson took on Morgan in a discussion about the Association's George Zimmerman Second Amendment Fund which was established to replace Zimmerman's firearm after the DOJ ordered it withheld after a not guilty verdict. The broadcast earned a Tweet from George Zimmerman's older brother, Robert:

.@piersmorgan STILL doesn't understand acquittal OR self-defense. Ken Hanson of @BuckeyeFirearms is a great man.>> http://t.co/WWWgVn7ONz — Robert Zimmerman JR (@rzimmermanjr) July 31, 2013

As John Lott points out in his post-mortem op-ed on Morgan's show, it was worth putting up with Morgan's rude behavior to appear on the show.

"Morgan’s yelling was doing far more damage to himself than he did to his guests," Lott observes. "And while Piers might have been doing 80 to 90 percent of the talking, such a diehard gun-control audience would possibly hear a couple of facts during my appearance that they had never heard before. Support for gun control has been plummeting, reaching its lowest level since such poll questions began. Part of it is that Americans are realizing gun control doesn’t work and may actually make things worse. But Piers Morgan did his part too: Americans know that the better argument doesn’t require his behavior."

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, and BFA PAC Vice Chairman.