Opinions, however distasteful, must never be gagged
MEGHAN Markle’s “closest friend”, Jessica Mulroney has been fired from her TV presenting job after she apologised for a row with a black social media influencer.
The Canadian was then ceremoniously dumped by a string of sponsors for breaching “diversity and equality” standards after she picked a fight with Sasha Exeter.
The sacking of the 40-year-old was confirmed in a tweet by CTV.
Mulroney presented I Do, Redo, a reality show that gives couples whose wedding went badly the chance to have their ceremonies again.
Exeter had shared a 12-minute long video on Instagram revealing she and Mulroney have been arguing behind the scenes and she had shown “textbook white privilege”.
She said Mulroney “took offence” to a call to action she posted last week urging other bloggers to voice their support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Exeter claimed Mulroney had threatened her during an argument about “speaking up” against racism that had left her “paralysed in fear”.
She claimed the TV host, who attended Meghan’s wedding to Harry, told her: “I have also spoken to companies and people about the way you have treated me unfairly.
“You think your voice matters. Well, it only matters if you express it with kindness and without shaming people who are simply trying to learn. Good luck.”
Following Mulroney’s sacking, she said she has “decided to step away from my professional engagements at this time.”
Before her firing, she had been well used to asserting her influence as Meghan’s unofficial mouthpiece.
It has transpired she attempted to influence a Sunday newspaper in favour of the Duchess of Sussex while also being accused of disrespecting the Duchess of Cambridge on social media which was later removed.
How ironic, then, as a selfappointed Instagram heroine known for repeatedly calling Meghan’s detractors racist bullies, she has now been accused of bullying herself.
Up until the unseemly spat Mulroney had revelled in her unrivalled status as the world’s most famous best friend, using it to elevate her career. But as she has now found to her cost, the minute anyone thinks they have so much influence they can manipulate the press, the next can they can become the main news themselves.
Life sure comes at you fast.
But as shameful as Mulroney’s alleged behaviour has been there are more worrying takeaways from the spat. Exeter made clear she was not calling her a racist but she too had been left deeply offended.
And what more perfect and pervasive environment could an influencer use than to express such feelings than social media itself.
Such sites allow people to call out anyone who disagrees with them. They are both guilty of that.
Foolishly Mulroney became entangled in a fight in which she threatened to throw her own influence around in a malicious way, and it backfired on her spectacularly.
But this ever-growing culture where people take offence to a level in which they want people or careers destroyed should concern us all.
We are all offended by some things. I’m offended by people who, because no other ginger in my family exists, constantly say my mum’s 1972 milkman is my father.
Does that give me the right to prevent others from expressing their opinions? Of course, not.
Unless offence breaks the law or incites physical harm, a person’s ideas being controlled or silenced because someone somewhere might not like to hear them is just plain wrong.
Is that really the world we want to live in?