Crossposted on rhizomicon
More kerfuffle from the UK that’s spreading like wildfire on social media. The current top UK trending topic is “sack Kay Burley”, stemming from viewers wanting the Sky News journalist fired after a hostile interview with a protester. Here’s a video of the interview {apologies for the sound quality, the volume does goes up}::
Burley’s tactics make her appear bullying and clearly not impartial. She also has very flawed logic, but the facts and being knowledgeable aren’t her strong suit as she mistook Joe Biden’s Ash Wednesday ashes on his forehead for a bruise. She later apologized. So, Kay appears to be opinionated, a loudmouth, and not too bright—I think she’s angling for a career in American cable infotainment.
Burley is being obtuse on purpose in order to make her point. The protests are about the “first-past-the-post” or winner-take-all method of tabulating seats in Parliament, which has resulted in the current hung Parliament. Kay doesn’t see any point in that as it a fait accompli and that the current party negotiations are democracy in action. She asserts that the people chose a hung Parliament, while the protesters are complaining that the hung Parliament is a product of a “broken” system.
Given social media, the news of this spread virally and the video footage of her exchange was put on YouTube {above}. Adding fuel to the fire, hecklers are interrupting her interviews with chants of “sack Kay Burley, watch the BBC” and this is now making the rounds on YouTube, as part of the “sack Kay Burley” meme.
Ah, a facepalm moment, UK-style.
Song:: Elvis Costello and the Attractions-‘Lipstick Vogue’
Twitterversion:: “Sack Kay Burley” meme goes viral.@skynews journalist hostile towards protester, gets social media backlash.#ThickCulture @Prof_K
Comments 3
Eoin O'Mahony — May 10, 2010
"Why don't you just go home?" Just about sums up Burley's sophisticated analysis of the UK situation. It is not so much that Burley is objectionable because she is not being impartial (Sky News gave up on this years ago) but because she fundamentally misunderstands the very notion of deliberative democracy.
She is not so much interviewing as trying to overcome her own inner conflict about the lack of a clear (ie winner takes all) result in the most recent election.
Kenneth M. Kambara — May 13, 2010
Hello Eoin,
That's for clarifying and I think you're hitting the nail on the head. I was trying to figure out where she was coming from, i.e., if she wants to protect first-past-the-post with the positive implications for the Tories or if she needs to keep things in neat compartments within rigid parameters. I read there were 722 Ofcom complaints, but I'd surmise Sky News execs are basking in their positioning in the "news" market.
Thanks for stopping by.
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