Kay Burley’s New Show ISN’T

Revamps of TV shows are all the rage right now: the BBC has said goodbye to Daily Politics and in its place brought us Politics Live, while over at Sky News (“first for breaking wind”) those viewers not quick enough to switch channels are about to experience a new and not really just reheated offering, honestly, called The Kay Burley Show.

I've got some paint to watch drying, sorry

As the title warns, this will be fronted by the not at all riveting presence of Kay “Surly” Burley, who is in such demand with other broadcasters that she has remained at Sky News for almost 30 years. So what will anyone who stumbles across this offering in its Monday to Thursday 1400 to 1700 hours time slot experience?

“News anchor Kay Burley will host a new show covering breaking news alongside her own perspective on the day’s stories with interviews, ‘quirky offbeat’ stories and ‘spiky’ opinion and debate, Sky News said today” tells Press Gazette, before letting us know “[she] was named broadcast journalist of the year by the London Press Club earlier this year”.

So no chance of actual viewers being allowed to express their opinion, then. But do go on. “She described her new show as a ‘daily, three-hour, live programme where we’ll challenge the status quo with hard-hitting, in-depth interviews and examine the stories behind the headlines, reflecting the views of everyone across the UK’”. Reflecting the views of everyone? Took a poll or spoke to some real people, did she?

But enough. The idea that Kay Burley is ever going to “challenge the status quo” is for the birds. She is the status quo, so much so that she was an ideal choice for former Murdoch water carrier Les Hinton, a spiv of no known principle, to have fielding the questions for his recent book launch at Waterstones on Gower Street, in central London.

Eternal shame. Pass the sick bucket

There, she pointedly ignored the raised hand of Alastair Morgan, who is still doggedly pursuing the unsolved murder of his brother Daniel more than 30 years ago, a crime in which it is suspected the Murdoch press was a participant. She frantically tried to shut down a pointed question from former Sunday Times blagger John Ford.

Then, along with her colleague Beth Rigby, she posed for a sick-making photo with The Great Man. With one of Rupert Murdoch’s former mafiosi. Someone who oversaw four Murdoch titles, at least three of which were being run as borderline criminal enterprises. Someone who made his fortune through being part of a criminal enterprise.

Kay Burley? She some kind of novelty act?

So Sky News are revamping their programme line-up. No-one has a problem with that. The problem comes when the likes of Ms Burley pretend to be outsiders, rather than part of the same terminally corrupt media establishment they claim to be challenging.

Worst of all, when we are told “Sky News has announced a shake-up of its daytime and early evening schedule designed to give the channel ‘more personality’ and give viewers more appointment-to-view shows”, we know it’s failed. And on both counts.

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