A lawyer for Jay-Z said a “legal ultimatum” to talk show host Piers Morgan was necessary and prompted him to take the unusual step of editing an interview with a guest who claimed the hip-hop mogul and his wife, Beyoncé, are engaged in potentially criminal behavior in line with the allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
“Piers Morgan’s irresponsible broadcast filled with lies is so far over the line that a legal ultimatum was warranted,” Jordan Siev, one of Jay-Z’s lawyers, said Friday. “Nobody acting under the guise of journalism can elicit outrageous statements from exploitative situations in an effort to drive clicks, and not have to answer for that.”
Morgan on Tuesday apologized on his daily YouTube show, “Uncensored,” for comments made last week by a guest, singer-songwriter Jaguar Wright, whom Morgan described as a Combs “whistleblower.”
Wright, who has hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok, has used her experience in the music industry to lodge claims against Combs and Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter.
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Combs was arrested last month and will stand trial in May on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has denied the allegations and remains jailed in Brooklyn pending a bail appeal.
The downfall of the Bad Boy Records founder has garnered intense scrutiny as other celebrities and industry associates come forward with accusations of sexual assault and misconduct. Speculation swirls around prominent figures who may have been involved or were aware of Combs’ alleged behavior.
In her interview with Morgan, Wright referred to both Combs and Jay-Z as “monsters.” Morgan asked her why she believes Jay-Z “has been notable for his silence” about the charges against Combs, and she accused Jay-Z of forcing “everyone involved to carry water while he sneaks away without a response.”
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Wright further criticized Jay-Z and Beyoncé as “nasty” and asserted that they have “kept people against their will.”
On Tuesday, Morgan said on his show that Jay-Z and Beyoncé were not present during the interview with Wright to defend themselves, “as I said in the moment.”
After the couple’s legal team contacted him, he added, his program agreed to comply with “a legal request” to edit out the references to them from Wright’s interview.
“Editing interviews is not something we do lightly at a show called ‘Uncensored,’ but like the proverbial cries of fire in a crowded theater, there are legal limits on us, too,” Morgan said, “and we apologize to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.”
An editor’s note on YouTube also said the allegations have been removed and that “we do not edit content unless there is a sufficient legal rationale for doing so and will explain whenever this is the case.”
Wright did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A.D. Carson, a musical artist and professor of hip-hop and the Global South at the University of Virginia, said there’s a greater conversation to be had about the responsibility that influential media personalities and their platforms have to vet information to their audiences who may take what people say at face value.
“I think those people get away with thinking that saying sorry is going to unring the bell,” Carson said. “In a media ecosystem where conspiratorial information goes as quickly and widely as it does, the apology just becomes a part of the conspiracy.”
He added that celebrities such as Jay-Z and Beyoncé have the means to shut down baseless rumors quickly, but he said others may not be as fortunate when they’re swept up in misinformation.
“I worry about the folks who don’t have that ability, who face rumors that can persist and it only eats up the oxygen around their career,” Carson said.
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