Support 110 years of independent journalism.

5 October 2012

The crashing insensitivity of Kay Burley [UPDATE]

By Alex Hern

Update Via @johnestevens, a new video shows the full context of Kay Burley’s breaking news. 

 

Burley finishes speaking to an expert:

I want to chat to Donna, who we were chatting to a little while ago, hiya.

Hiya.

You’ve heard the news?

Yeah, he’s just said. [gestures off camera, tearing up] I’m sorry.

[A second person approaches]

What’s happened? What’s happened, we haven’t heard.

OK, I didn’t know that you hadn’t heard.

No we haven’t heard.

OK, OK, well. Let me just tell you what we’ve heard from the police, is that it’s now become a murder investigation. . .

Still, this raises questions about the ethics of rolling live news coverage of such a story.

It’s not even the first grossly inappropriate comment to have been aired in this story:

Content from our partners
Solving the power puzzle
The UK can be a leader in pushing the aerospace sector to a sustainable future
Harnessing Europe's green power plant