ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall has made her views known on the Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield queue jump saga and the public petition that followed. The chief executive has defended the This Morning presenters and said the TV hosts were safe in their jobs.
The established presenters faced a backlash following pictures of them at Queen Elizabeth II's lying-in-state prompted some to accuse them of jumping the queue.
She said: "Honestly, nothing. Honestly. They did have accreditation. Lots of people saying they didn't. They were sent by This Morning to do a piece for September 20, which ran", reported Birmingham Live. Continuing: "They were to interview people inside and outside. They didn't displace anyone in the queue. And they've been very misrepresented, actually.
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"And that's why we made a statement. Unusually, we made a statement to say all of those things. But it does show you how things spread and how misinformation just spreads. And it is really horrible for them." She added: "I think they're highly relevant and still very topical, and I think the majority of their viewers love watching them.
"But there is a very shrill kind of voice against and it will hurt them." She said: "They did not do anything wrong. They were with loads of other broadcasters, many of whom you know, and they were with lots of press journalists."
Dame Carolyn added that she had texted both and that they were not "feeling great". She added: "It's hard. You imagine yourself in the eye of the storm like this, where you're trying to say you've done nothing wrong and all the noise around you is saying that you have. It's difficult to handle."
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