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I explained to @piersmorgan to his face why I won’t do his panel shows anymore… pic.twitter.com/KuWaXSNaKx
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) March 9, 2026
Rubin rightly remarked that Morgan's provocative show is only "adding fuel to the fire." In other words, in a political climate where tensions are already high and debate is rife with invective and ad hominem attacks, Morgan's show - which is really nothing more than dumb caricatures of liberals and conservatives screaming at each other for an hour - is the last thing America needs.
During the conversation, Morgan didn't really rebut Rubin's assertion, calling it a "pretty fair criticism" and saying that other critics of his show have called him "the Jerry Springer of political debate."
Shortly after the clip was posted, however, Morgan wrote on X that Rubin "won’t ever be doing my show again, in any capacity."
Whatever Dave's politics, I completely agree with him here.
In fact, I've written about the toxic nature of Morgan's show before. Below is an article I wrote in October of 2024. I had it sitting in my drafts, and figured it was timely:
We are 35 days away from choosing our next president. Crazy how fast time flies, eh?I don't need to harp on our societal scourge of hyper-polarization; we all see it. This is not Reagan v. Mondale; according to the legacy media, this is about safeguarding democracy.
When people carelessly say ridiculous things like, "democracy is hanging by a thread," it gives us the impression that things are way worse and way more severe than they actually are. Democracy is, in fact, not hanging in the balance. While there is certainly a lot at stake in November, we'll be fine either way.
Thankfully, we have smart, reasonable people, like the State Policy Network's Erin Norman and Lura Forcum, providing us with thoughtful research. Their 2024 study, Beyond Polarization, is instructive. When I interviewed Erin for a National Review article back in July, she reiterated to me that ideological pluralism is part of our National DNA. "America," she remarked, "is a very large nation that, from the very beginning, was made up of lots of separate communities that had their own traditions and their own ways of doing things.”
If you were to just look on X or other social media, however, you would not see a healthy sort of pluralism. Rather, you would see a people on the brink of civil war. Piers Morgan's YouTube channel is particularly awful. Just look at the thumbnails he chooses for his videos. They capture the most combative points of his program. Often, the thumbnail displays two people on opposing sides of a debate angrily gesticulating at each other and making faces. What's more, many of the guests he chooses to bring on are nothing more than pseudo-intellectual political provocateurs, that are not debating in good faith.
Look at this screenshot of Morgan's YouTube channel. His viewership is high, but at what cost? His channel is, ultimately, a schlocky platform for caustic nonsense.
Need a palate-cleanser? I would highly recommend Mark Halperin's 2Way program on YouTube. Here, Halperin's motto is "peace, love, and understanding." Another thing Halperin often says is that you should make it a point to give people, especially those whom you disagree, "the presumption of grace." This is a marked difference from Morgan's highly divisive click-bait.
Now look at this screenshot of Halperin's YouTube channel:
Big difference, right? The problem, however, are the very disparate viewership numbers: outrage sells.
But high blood pressure sucks. There's no need for it. I fully believe the American body politic to be more than capable of engaging in civil, thoughtful dialectic.
If you're looking for a dose of humor with your civil debate, I would also check out Robert Wright's Nonzero YouTube channel. His episodes with Mickey Kaus are especially rich.
Enjoy, and do send me your podcast recommendations!
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