Two of Britain’s best known international exports, the much-loved author JK Rowling and the much-derided television personality Piers Morgan, are locked in a very public duel on social media this weekend. And, even by the permissive standards of Twitter, the ferocity of the personal insults flying between the pair has been unusual.
Morgan accused Rowling of being “superior, dismissive and arrogant�, and the writer attacked what she described as the “fact-free, amoral, bigotry-apologism of [a] celebrity toady�.
The political grudge match began when Rowling, now known almost as well for her liberal social values as for creating Harry Potter, tweeted to tell her huge army of fans how much she had enjoyed watching Morgan being attacked by a forthright panel of commentators in an argument about the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency on the popular American current affairs discussion show, Real Time with Bill Maher.
“Yes, watching Piers Morgan being told to fuck off on live TV is exactly as satisfying as I’d always imagined,� she wrote, linking her 9.5 million Twitter followers to an online clip of the show.
Fellow guests on the Friday night edition of HBO’s Real Time had been angered by Morgan’s suggestion that there would have been little practical difference between a Clinton presidency and the Trump regime.
The host, American comedian and critic Maher, said Morgan was wrong for suggesting that Clinton and Donald Trump were as bad as each other, arguing: “Do you think Hillary Clinton would have a cabinet with Betsy DeVos and fucking Rick Perry? They wouldn’t have a Muslim ban, they wouldn’t be feuding with everybody in the world, they wouldn’t be doing this shit with Russia. Are you crazy?�
Morgan replied that there was no Muslim ban, prompting his fellow panellists to jointly tell him to “fuck off�.
The Australian comedian and commentator Jim Jeffries then jumped into the fray: “This is what you do, Piers. You say ‘he’s not going to do this, he’s not going to do that’. He went on to compare Trump to Adolf Hitler. Morgan then accused all his fellow panellists of becoming “hysterical�.
But the tone of the battle that ensued online later between Morgan, a former editor of the Mirror and judge on Britain’s Got Talent, and Rowling was even more heated.
When Morgan spotted Rowling’s tweet, he replied: “This is why I’ve never read a single word of Harry Potter.�
Instead of ignoring the jibe about her work Rowling picked up the cudgels: “Because you had a premonition that one day the author would roar with laughter at seeing you called out for your bullshit on live TV?�
Morgan defended himself again by arguing that everything he had said was factual, adding: “If you think screaming ‘F**K OFF!!!’ at me changes that, then you’re mistaken.�
Rowling resorted to questioning his journalistic integrity: “Would you like a couple of hours to mock up some pictures of refugees carrying explosives to substantiate your position?� she asked.
The row then became still more personal when Morgan said that Rowling’s attitudes were the reason why Brexit and Trump had both won support at the polls in Britain and America. “The superior, dismissive arrogance of rabid Remain/Clinton supporters like @jk_rowling is, of course, precisely why both campaigns lost,� he wrote.
Later Rowling warned Morgan that his sycophantic attitude to Trump would be his downfall. “If only you’d read Harry Potter, you’d know the downside of sucking up to the biggest bully in school is getting burned alive.�
The sparring partners have previous form. In mid-November Morgan was rude about the premiere of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a film written and produced by Rowling, on Good Morning Britain, the ITV morning news show he presents. “Can’t wait to not watch that either,� he said blankly to his excited co-presenters, Susanna Reid and Charlotte Hawkins.
Rowling had previously attacked Trump as a “bigot� following his election as president, while Morgan had quickly gone on the record about his friendly relations with the new White House incumbent.
JK ROWLING
Age 51
Twitter followers 9,568,434
Full name Joanne Rowling
Born Yate, Gloucestershire
Academic smarts Degree in French and classics from Exeter after secondary school in Sedbury, Gloucestershire
Literary clout As JK Rowling and crime writer Robert Galbraith, she is Britain’s bestselling living author, with sales in excess of 238 million and a personal fortune of £600m, making her the joint-197th richest person in the country. She also wrote the screenplay for the hit 2016 film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
PIERS MORGAN
Age 51
Twitter followers 5,490,406
Full name Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan
Born Newick, East Sussex
Academic smarts Prep school, then comprehensive schools in Sussex before going into local newspapers
Literary clout Pop music and celebrity journalism for the Daily Mirror, before an eight-year period as editor of that paper ended in 2004 under a cloud after the publication of faked photographs of Iraq “torture victims�. He has published books on the private lives of the stars, the story of Take That, and four volumes of autobiography.
