Sleepyheads?

Since election night on Thursday and the endless squabbling to determine just what the hell is going on, it seems some of our well-loved news people are getting a bit tired. You’d think that the weekend would have been the perfect time for TV presenters to get some kip seeing as that nothing is happening except for the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems having marathon meetings and phone calls – not much to see really.

But nope – the likes of Nick Robinson and Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC and Sky’s Adam Boulton and Kay Burley are determined to be the first to give you, the viewer, the latest developments. However, while the BBC has to keep a straight face and take part in reports and interviews with a sense of objectivity, Sky News gets a bit more of a free rein to say what it likes. Being owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation means that some frequently accuse Sky News of being biased towards a conservative outlook.

On Saturday afternoon Kay Burley decided it was either her time of the month, she was exhausted beyond rational thought, or quite fancied the poor protesting sod she was interviewing. Not only was Burley, who has been on Sky News since 1988, constantly being factually incorrect, she was just down-right bullying the protester who was hanging out in London with a bunch of folks who don’t want Nick Clegg to ‘sell out’ to the Tories. The protesters had ruined an earlier Kay Burley interview by shouting all over her, so this looked to be a somewhat unprofessional revenge act.

Later that day, the protesters came back and shouted, ‘Sack Kay Burley, watch the BBC!’ and ‘Sky News is shit!’ Very amusing. It may look like Jeremy Paxman is being a bully in his interviews, but he has method to his madness on most occasions.

Which brings me to earlier this evening, when Adam Boulton clashed with former Labour communications director (or spin doctor, whatever you prefer) Alistair Campbell not long after Gordon Brown announced that he was to resign. Perhaps Boulton was tired, perhaps he still remembered the little tiff they had on election night, or perhaps he really was completely fed up with Campbell being utterly slimy and “provocative”. On the clip below skip to 3 minutes in and watch it get heated. Adam Boulton loses it when he’s accused of being upset that David Cameron hasn’t succeeded in becoming the Prime Minister, screaming, “I’m fed up of you telling me what I think!”

So, was the interviewer right to jab at Campbell live on air and lose his rag, or was it just shit journalism?