CraigWills' posts, page 8

The Sky News Thread

Some of you may have seen in the Granada Reports thread but worthy of a quick mention here that Gamal Fahnbulleh has done his final shift at Sky News this morning and is moving to ITV Granada.

What an absolute gentleman in broadcasting this man is! @SkyNewsGamal bringing in 2021 with his final show @SkyNews - Gamal you will be hugely missed by all the team. @GranadaReports is lucky to have you! pic.twitter.com/ZLrlQURPCu

— Sarah-Jane Mee (@skysarahjane) January 1, 2021

Big loss for Sky I’d say, although great move for him. I’d have liked to see him take on a regular weekday daytime spot on the channel. I wonder if there’ll be any new faces presenting slots; with Gamal going and Kay ‘away’. Speaking of presenters it’s been nice seeing Nick Quarishi presenting daytime slots recently (as well as doing some overnights) he’s a good anchor.

The Sky News Thread

A little bit of an odd scheduling decision today and over the coming days. Culture Interrupted at 2pm today and Year in Review at 4pm; meaning the 2-5 shift had one hour of live news. Hardly seems worth the team coming in! Not to mention you’d think that they’d place one of the programmes in the preceding hour or subsequent hour so the non-live documentaries strands were spaced out a bit. Tomorrow the same, with Year In Interviews at 2pm and Culture Interrupted at 4pm plus FYI is scheduled at 3:30pm so tomorrow it’s 30 mins of live news in three hours.

That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the prerecorded programmes; the Daily Podcast episode which was filmed in Westminster was a good watch, as I must admit I’ve only dipped in briefly to the podcast itself. But in this day in age when catch up/streaming is widely available plus Sky have a dedicated documentary channel and there’s only a handful of these filler programmes, then it’s my opinion that these things shouldn’t get in the way of live news.

The Sky News Thread

Sky News International (the YouTube feed) has got a filler programme going out right now which is usually to opt out of Sportsline. However on Sky News TV it’s actually Tom Macleod who is providing rolling coverage with the breaking news and sportsline has been dropped.
Seems like a big oversight; I know I few people use the YouTube feed for on the go viewing.

Kay Burley off air for 6 months

Samantha Washington is back on air today, Sky News Today 12-2. First time since the Burley birthday bash.
Just thought I’d note that she’s now back on air.

Vicar of Dibley lockdown specials

I haven’t watched these episodes yet, but did come across the Alice/Emma tribute on Twitter. I suppose there’s maybe a discussion about Emma’s death being at a much younger age and somewhat unexpected. Whereas as pointed out Frank, Owen & Letitia and the respective actors are at older age where the unfortunate death of the actors while immensely sad is with regret to be expected. I do agree the pretence that these characters would be alive and well maybe stretching it, but I suppose without doing so the specials are left with just Hugo, the Vicar and David. Has Gary Waldhorn appeared in any specials?

Kay Burley off air for 6 months

Although she probably is the most high profile person on Sky News, however I’m guessing that they thought ‘Sky News Presenter’ was enough. Although I would have added in her name in that script, unless a deliberate attempt to avoid.

Kay Burley off air for 6 months

But while I do agree with what your saying. Something wider is being lost here. A journalist is there to ask the questions on behalf of viewers. It’s not about a presenter or journalist personally getting an answer to a burning question they have. It’s about the questions the wider audience have. Lines have been a bit blurred recently with Kay Burley, Piers Morgan ‘grillings’ becoming tabloid headlines. But this hasn’t ever been about getting an answer for Kay or Piers, or them pushing any agenda, it’s the viewing public of Sky News or ITV getting the answers or lack of answers depending on your point of view. Can guarantee most of the journalists who ‘went after’ Dominic Cummings following his trip to County Durham did so not for a personal agenda but because it was the issue of the day that viewers were angered by.

So no government minister will turn around and say “well Kay you didn’t follow the rules” because that’s irrelevant to the point. The issues moved onto whatever the next discussion is. If anyone did say that to Kay, it would be a weak defence, because as the old saying goes, two wrongs don’t make a right. It’s almost like saying an overweight newsreader couldn’t question a minister on obesity policy.

Don’t get me wrong, I think viewers - me included - will laugh next time she has to talk about lockdown restrictions on air, let alone interview someone about it. But I just don’t think it’ll be a huge impact on her ability to challenge others. Viewers may be less forgiving to her, but others will probably have done worse breaches in lockdown!

Kay Burley off air for 6 months

This is where we may have to agree to disagree as I’m aware this thread is perhaps going off topic! But I’m not sure I fully agree with the whole ‘retweets aren’t endorsements’ line. By retweeting you’re sharing it to your followers, I think the retweeter has a responsibility to ensure their RTs are appropriate. Not offensive or spreading misinformation for example. I’d have no issue with retweeting someone mentioning that Sky have removed the following presenters, it’s a fact. My issue comes with language ‘morons’ and the fact we’re getting into opinions on his colleagues behaviour. For me that crosses a line.

To bring this a bit back on topic, Anna Botting had to mention the front of Daily Star on last nights Press Preview. Featuring “some of our Sky News colleagues”. Kevin Maguire was seen have a bit of chuckle as Anna went into the first discussion.

Kay Burley off air for 6 months

No I read the article thank you. The following says that Adam has spoke to The Guardian.



My personal thought is that Adam shouldn’t of done that. Yes he’s not directly mentioned his colleagues there but he’s making references to his own retweets which called his colleagues ‘morons’. And he’s making a wider a point about the implications of their behaviour. You have the right to a differing opinion, mine is that Adam hasn’t shown himself or Sky in a good light. Looks like he’s having a cheap shot at them while there’s a scandal. I hear what you’re saying about further down praising her journalism, but I’m not sure it mitigates it. Personally I don’t feel we need his comment on it, just as much as we don’t need Sarah Hewson’s, Anna Botting’s or Stephen Dixon’s opinion on it. Freedom of speech yes but I feel this is from a professional and employer point of view, where restrain should be exercised.

I don’t really have a problem with anyone at Sky retweeting comments about this story. As you say it’s in the public domain; however tweets referring to them as ‘Morons’ or otherwise being offensive is another line completely.

Kay Burley off air for 6 months

Put it this way, if Adam still has a job following the outburst towards Beth a year or two ago and other on air fracas, then I’d say Burley, Rigby and Washington are more than fine.
That’s not condoning what they did, I think it’s been a big mistake to think this would be ‘okay’. Breaches of regulations or not, it’s not within spirit of following the guidance set out.
But Adam retweeting people using terms such as ‘morons’ and seemingly making comments in one fashion or another to The Guardian is in bad taste. Nothing good to say etc. Not to mention Adam is probably the one person who tops Kay in the Twitter trolling stakes, he should know better than to use the retweet button all too hastily.

Kay Burley off air for 6 months

The perils of naming a show after the presenter! The graphics are a little bizarre really. As mentioned above the average viewer would think it’s a name strap, as we’ve seen in a couple of tweets. Also none of the relief presenters ever mention Kay Burley as far as I can recall, Niall didn’t today and Sarah didn’t yesterday. Niall didn’t get name checked at all today, didn’t introduce himself and no name strap for him either.

Kay Burley off air for 6 months

Well I think that’s a stretch. There’s no suggestion that social distancing wasn’t observed, in fact I imagine there probably was some space between the various guests. Even if it wasn’t, Kay and other Sky staff would have and have been socially distanced on and off screen from hospital staff and patients. And I’d be surprised if there wasn’t some extra checks for all these extra visitors to the hospital today; temperature checks/rapid Covid tests.



Glad Anna mentioned this though - rather than ignore it! Even though, as mentioned above, she didn’t of course get into any details as to why they were there.

It seems Guido Fawkes are going for Inzy, appearing to claim his home is within a tier 3 area.