Yahoo News Carol McGiffin says 'epidemic of offence' makes it quite hard to work in TV now
Loose Women star Carol McGiffin says it's 'quite hard' to work in TV now because of an 'epidemic of offence' but that she won't 'pander to people who are perpetually offended'.
The broadcaster and radio presenter spoke to Kate Thornton on White Wine Question Time, reminiscing about a recent tour they had done together, and comparing it to 'the old days' of the daytime panel show when they regularly appeared together and 'things were so much freer'.
McGiffin, who said she still had a 'great time' and a lot of fun on Loose Women, added: "We could talk about things that you just can't talk about anymore. And the way we'd talk to each other was completely different to what we can do now.
"Because you've just got this epidemic of offence. Everyone's just offended by everything. And it's hard. It's quite hard to work in telly now."
WATCH: Carol McGiffin on offending people and her problems with cancel culture
The presenter, who returned to the Loose Women panel in 2018 after five years away, said she thinks very carefully about what she says in public.
McGiffin also said there was a thin line between the people who are offended 'and the people that you have offended', with some people just being 'offended by anything, even if it's not directed at them'.
She told Thornton that if she had said something about a person and they were offended, she would apologise but that 'people would be offended now' by the way panellists on the daytime show used to talk to each other and 'insult each other beyond belief'.
McGiffin, who also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2013, said: "It doesn't matter that you're not offended. And it doesn't matter that I'm not offended. Someone else is offended on your behalf. And you're forced to apologise to them, I think it's completely wrong.
"That's the definition of cancel culture. That's what it is. And you can't pander to those people. You can't pander to people who are perpetually offended. They're looking for offence."
Thornton said on a live show where people are hired to have an opinion, 'every day is a tightrope between flying and dying by cancellation'.
She then asked if there was a time she wished she had or hadn't spoken up, with McGiffin answering that before 'recent times' she didn't know if there had ever been a time when she'd not said what she wanted to say.
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Though she did say 'it's not so easy any more' but that she would stand by everything she said.
"No one is going to tell me to apologise because I can back up everything that I say," McGiffin said.
WATCH: Carol McGiffin on surviving breast cancer, her age gap with husband Mark, and her issues with social media and privacy
