I have a feeling that Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch is going to be getting an angry call if he hasn’t already.

On Tuesday evening, Piers Morgan’s new show, which will appear on a new network called TalkTV (owned by Murdoch), put out a promo for an interview with Donald Trump billed as the “most explosive interview of the year.” To bolster that claim, the video shows Trump and Morgan squaring off, ending with a demand to “turn off the camera” and Trump allegedly storming off the set.

Further, The New York Post, which is owned by Murdoch as well, specifically reported that Trump angrily walked off in the middle of the interview.

****BREAKING NEWS****
👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/WdJnPJyMwG

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 20, 2022

But while it does appear there were some contentious moments involving the 2020 election, a new report from NBC News claims to have proof that Trump and Morgan did end things in a friendly way. That directly counters the editing of the promo and the prior reporting on the incident by Murdoch’s various properties.

WASHINGTON — An audio recording obtained by NBC News appears to show that former President Donald Trump’s highly publicized interview with Piers Morgan did not end with Trump storming off the set, as edited promotional video clips suggest.

Instead, according to the recording, which was provided by Trump’s spokesman, the two men thanked each other and laughed at the conclusion of the interview for Talk TV, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Talk TV, which is set to debut Monday, teased the interview — billed as “the most explosive interview of the year” — in a video summary that is dramatized with cinematic music and portrays Trump as being angry about the content of questions Morgan asked. The video and the alleged walkout were reported in an article by the New York Post, which is also owned by News Corp.

We don’t have the actual audio yet, but if NBC News is saying it exists in a write-up that defends Trump, you can take it to the bank. That’s not an outlet that is going to run cover for the former president in any way. Quite the contrary given the history between the two.

I want to personally apologize for writing up the promo as presented as well. Even though I know Piers Morgan is a leftist hack, I thought I could trust that a Murdoch-owned property wouldn’t outright lie about something as big as an interview with Trump, especially given the two have always been friendly. What is the world coming to? Past that, I sincerely hope the Post, even though they are also owned by Murdoch’s conglomerate (and you would think had inside information), just made an honest mistake here and wasn’t part of a scheme to promote this interview as something it wasn’t.

Further, if the promo is this badly edited, you can expect the full-length interview to be just as bad. Obviously, Trump and Morgan did get into it about the 2020 election. That much is true because even selective editing can’t invent those exchanges, and those heated moments will headline things. But if they shook hands after the interview ended and both men walked away happy, it should not have been presented as otherwise.

This has shades of the Leslie Stahl interview with Trump for 60 Minutes some years ago, and the response should be the same: Stop giving these garbage interviewers the time of day. They are either going to bait you or they are going to lie about you. There is no scenario where things are actually handled fairly. And as I said in my previous write-up, do not discuss the 2020 election with these people. They are always going to use it as fodder to falsely paint those with legitimate concerns as dumb and lacking an argument. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened here. There is nothing to be gained by continuing down that road with the media.

Like with the Stahl interview, the primary issue is with the network for being dishonest. But the secondary issue remains the choice to give these interviews in the first place. If the mainstream media are “fake news,” and by and large, they are, then live that out by making these outlets sit on the sidelines and seethe. Besides, the most effective interview Trump has done over the last half-decade was with Dave Portnoy. Those are the types of interviewers he should give his time to. Not Piers Morgan, Lester Holt, Lesly Stahl, or the rest. At some point, if you keep walking into traps, you can no longer complain about the traps.

It’s going to be very interesting to see who Trump blames here once he makes an official statement. Is it going to be Morgan or Murdoch – or both? Fox News, which is wrapped up in this indirectly via ownership, will likely also have to assure the former president they had no knowledge of the incident. Heck, I’m still astonished that it happened at all. Why would Newscorp want to burn a bridge this important over a cheap stunt for a chump like Piers Morgan? There have to be some corrections coming.