| Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty February 24, 2014 Pier-ing into the Abyss of Cancellation Charlie Cooke won't have Piers Morgan to kick around for much longer. David Carr, media reporter for the New York Times: There have been times when the CNN host Piers Morgan didn't seem to like America very much — and American audiences have been more than willing to return the favor. Three years after taking over for Larry King, Mr. Morgan has seen the ratings for "Piers Morgan Live" hit some new lows, drawing a fraction of viewers compared with competitors at Fox News and MSNBC. It's been an unhappy collision between a British television personality who refuses to assimilate — the only football he cares about is round and his lectures on guns were rife with contempt — and a CNN audience that is intrinsically provincial. After all, the people who tune into a cable news network are, by their nature, deeply interested in America. Hey, I'm a fairly big fan of foreign news when something dramatic is happening -- what used to be CNN's bread and butter — but it's not like America doesn't have enough interesting domestic news stories! The issue wasn't that Morgan tried to cover British news to an American audience. The issue was that he kept communicating to an American audience why he thought their country was so bad. CNN's president, Jeffrey Zucker, has other problems, but none bigger than Mr. Morgan and his plum 9 p.m. time slot. Mr. Morgan said last week that he and Mr. Zucker had been talking about the show's failure to connect and had decided to pull the plug, probably in March. "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," he said. "That's run its course and Jeff and I have been talking for some time about different ways of using me." Oh, it's not the accent. Try Charlie Cooke in that timeslot and watch the audience eat up our Beatle. And he's up for it! "This is the perfect moment for 'Charles Cooke Live.' … ProTip: You should actually like — and seek to understand -- the country you talk to, and talk about, every evening." That puts the finger on Morgan's real problem. It's pretty disingenuous for him to suggest that his show's failure stems from Americans being naturally inclined to dislike, distrust, or be disinclined to watch those who hail from the British Isles. We go to James Bond movies, and hand out bunches of Oscars to British actors every year. I own a million T-Mobile phones just because Catherine Zeta Jones told me I should "get more." Americans went ga-ga for the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Who, Elton John, Led Zepplin, Genesis, The Police, and the kids are going nuts for One Direction. Every kid these days grows up reading Harry Potter. We on the right revere Margaret Thatcher. Lots of Americans obsess over Downton Abbey; I obsess over Coupling. We who watch Fox News have been conditioned to think of Stuart Varney's voice as the most authoritative and trusted in economic matters. We've even forgiven the U.K. for the Spice Girls. A few Jolts ago, I noted that every time I get asked, "Can you believe what Piers Morgan said?" my response is… "Yup." Was it something that suggested the Second Amendment shouldn't exist, or that most gun owners were dangerous, unstable, and a menace? Yeah, he's said that kind of stuff before. A lot of times, in fact. He's gotten called out on it many, many times.
That's just who Piers Morgan is. He's not going to change. And he never changed. Instead, viewers changed the channel. Finally, the Good Guys Win One over in Ukraine For now, it looks like the good guys won one in Ukraine. Let me make your morning with this image of a statue of Lenin in Kiev, Ukraine, making an overdue trip to the junk yard: 
Enjoy the ash heap of history, Vladdie! Our John Fund: In Ukraine's revolution, the moment that's likely to be immortalized is when protestors charged police barricades in Kiev's Independence Square ("Maidan") last Thursday, reportedly capturing a number of police troops, only to have dozens of protesters then gunned down by snipers. Even a face-saving compromise brokered the next day by Western diplomats couldn't save President Viktor Yanukovych. His security forces withdrew their support, leaving him unguarded. At 2 a.m. last Saturday, helicopters ferried him and his stooges away from his Michael Jackson–style presidential palace to the Russophone eastern sector of Ukraine. He remains in hiding. And a bit late, the administration is saying the right things. (We'll see if they actually mean them.) Brace yourselves: The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal has some praise for John Kerry: Russia may try to destabilize a new government, and it is already making noises about protecting "ethnic Russians" in the east and Crimea. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this weekend called the victors in Kiev "thugs" and "armed extremists and pogromists." It's good to hear that John Kerry called him twice to warn Russia to stay out. In contrast to Russia, Ukraine has the building blocks for democracy in a functioning parliament, opposition parties and a free media… Now is the time for Europe and the U.S. to help Ukraine get through the rough transition. The EU has never offered membership in a way that would give Ukraine's leaders an incentive and roadmap to reform. The U.S. was a staunch champion of Ukrainian independence in the 1990s, so maybe Bill Clinton can give President Obama a tutorial. If the International Monetary Fund has any useful purpose, it should be helping Ukraine with emergency financing to make up for the $15 billion bailout that Mr. Putin tailor made for Mr. Yanukovych and will surely be pulled. The stakes go beyond Ukraine. Mr. Putin knows that a successful democratic Ukraine would be an inspiration for Russia's reformers, which is why his meddling isn't over and the West needs to push back with diplomatic attention, money, and the prospect of closer economic ties. Rep. Gary Peters vs. the Leukemia Patient Congressman and aspiring senator Gary Peters, all class: While Julie Boonstra of Dexter, Mich., struggles to survive leukemia, she now also has to cope with being called a liar by the Democrat who wants to be her next senator. And the campaign of Rep. Gary Peters is also going after television stations airing ads in which her story is featured, threatening their licenses. The ad by Americans for Prosperity features Boonstra talking about how her insurance was canceled under Obamacare and saying that Peters' decision to vote for the law "jeopardized my health." The ads are airing in Michigan as Peters seeks the Democratic nomination to replace Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who is not seeking re-election. Media organizations investigating the ad's claims note that Boonstra was able to find comparable new insurance under the law… Gary Peters knows what the real problem with our health-care system is: It's those darn leukemia patients who keep popping up in attack ads! Get her, Congressman! Further details from the Detroit News: Boonstra was one of an estimated 225,000 Michiganians who were notified last year their insurance would be discontinued for not meeting new Affordable Care Act standards. Boonstra says she felt betrayed by President Barack Obama's pledge that if you like your plan, you can keep it. During an interview in Walberg's office, Boonstra was frustrated about having to give up the plan she liked. She said she was panicked her former plan would be lost and rattled by the process of finding a new one — including the problems with the healthcare.gov website. She expressed less concern about the overall cost of the new plan. Boonstra said then she believed investing in her health care is important, which is why she chose the high-premium plan that carried no out-of-pocket cost for chemotherapy. Boonstra told The News she wasn't clear how much her overall costs would compare with last year's, but she was preparing to pay more under the new plan. "I just want my plan back, I really do," Boonstra said at the time. "It was extremely expensive and there are things as far as oral chemotherapies that need to be done to reduce the cost. ... But I was covered and I made having a great health plan a priority for me and that was taken away from me." ADDENDUM: The president's schedule this week: "On Monday, the President will meet with the National Governors Association. On Tuesday, the President will hold an event on the economy at the White House. In the evening, he will attend an Organizing for Action event in Washington ... On Wednesday, the President will travel to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for an event on the economy. On Thursday, the President will host an event on his 'My Brother's Keeper' initiative. On Friday, the President will attend a DNC event in Washington." For those keeping score, that's one campaign-style rally in Minnesota that is likely to feature Senator Al Franken and two fundraisers. From Our Sponsor:
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