John Lott thinks Piers Morgan's ratings suffered because he was rude to his guests

Interesting theory on the cancelation of Piers Morgan's CNN show, brought to us by gun rights enthusiast John Lott, who often appeared as a guest on the program. Lott writes at National Review:

Americans like a lively debate, but Morgan failed one basic rule: to debate the issue itself rather than make everything personal.

For instance, he yelled at Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America: “You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?”

He has referred to me as a “liar” and a “clown” and attacked the shape of my “weird pointy bushy eyebrows” that are deformed because of surgery that I had as a kid to remove a tumor.

"For the record... That's ridiculous. Just ridiculous," Morgan's rep told us in an email when asked to comment on Lott's piece. As for the part about Morgan remarking on Lott's eyebrows: "No comment," said his rep.

Lott has indeed had a contentious relationship with Morgan. He told TheBlaze Blog in 2013 that once after participating in a panel together, Morgan refused to shake his hand (a spokesperson for Morgan denied that).