Sky News: Presentation Discussion

According to this post by phil-g on TV Forum at the time, Sky weren't exactly shy about the fact that they hacked John Darwin's email.

http://www.tvforum.co.uk/forums/post575961#post575961

In other news, Kay Burley just read out an email from a viewer about the hose pipe ban and then stopped in the middle and said "I won't read that little bit. That's a little bit more racist that I was expecting".

Sky arent covering Mr Cole leaving but BBC News are...

I was just about to say the same thing, They seem to be being more interactive today reading out lots of tweets, emails and people replying to her blog, I know a lot of people don't like Kay but I think she does a good job, she can add some funny comments and her interviews can be quite entertaining at times which is nice every now and again

https://twitter.com/#!/ColeySky

I like the bit where after the first sign of criticism he mentions that his wife died of cancer. Classy.

Looks like the first mention of the hacking won't be until the newspaper review, I guess Sky are taking the line that its not a story as, in their view, others have broken the law in pursuit of the public interest before and will do so again. I still think they should have mentioned it on air, just spelled out the facts of the story and read out some of Ryley's statement.

Anna Botting has just tweeted that The Guardian's Dan Sabbagh, who co-authored todays email hacking story, has pulled out of appearing on the Press Preview tonight.

Lively press preview there - Anna B v Emma B.

Made for good television.

Wonder what the half eleven slot will bring with this latest hacking story?

Well the other guest at 11.30pm was The Times Executive Editor Roger Alton, who was fully supportive of Sky News. Now I'm full of respect for Anna Botting, but it did seem as if she was ganging up a little on Emma B, who seemed to be trying to find the middle ground in her argument. She was suggesting that this wasn't a significant enough story to warrant the hacking of an e-mail, and Botting kept pushing her for an example of a story for which it would be appropriate. Certainly a little heated.

Not a huge surprise. I think I am right in saying Alton is on the editorial board for Sky News Arabia, so I guess he would approve of such activity at that network? It is a shame Dan Sabbagh pulled out as then Anna playing the 'pro-Sky News' role would have been more effective against someone who presumably knows this story inside out.

I am in two minds on this - I appreciate Sky's robust response (particularly calling out The Guardian's double standards) and clearly there are some cases where journalists may have to break the law in the name of the 'public interest' (whatever that is). John Ryley's blog was well argued and well written and its nice to see Sky executives (or Sky News executives I should say, Jeremy Darroch seems cautiously quiet) standing behind their journalists rather than throwing them under a bus.

However I find it a bit odd that they thought this story was worth breaking the law for. If 'canoe man' qualifies as being in the public interest then so does a heck of a lot else. If it becomes apparent that this tactic has been used in other stories then they will have a serious problem and BSkyB will be placed in a scenario where decisive action will have to be taken. The statement today said they 'do not take such decisions lightly or frequently' but I don't think (and maybe I'm missing something) they categorically stated that no further hacking had taken place outside these two stories.

However, as a great admirer of Sky News, I hope this is the end of the matter.

I see Sky have thankfully scrapped the horrible 15 minute format for bank holidays and are instead running far more comprehensive 30 minute bulletins from 10am today

I agree with this to a tee. Every major broadcasting company has been involved in scandals over the years. It will be interesting to see how this affects Sky in the long run, but their general quality of news reporting is invariably to a high standard. The idea to hack into the emails of criminals was made by people at the top of the company, so I doubt the faces we see on screen on a daily basis had a lot (if anything) to do with this.

but sadly they still have it on weekends