These come hours after a Fox News affiliate in California claimed “Obama Bin Laden” had been killed. Tory MP Louise Bagshawe and blogger Harry Cole have also fallen victim to this spoonerism.
There’s something about the Murdoch media empire today.
Hat-tip: Ben Archibald and Jon Slattery
As military action gets under way in North Africa and the Mediterranean, broadcasters have entered The Day Today mode. At Sky News defence correspondent Niall Paterson has mastered the gigantic wall display but there seem to be one or two problems with the touch-screen “Skystrator”:
“This will have to do for a submarine. I haven’t got one.”
Cue Charlie Brooker.
Teased in the Members’ Lobby by a Labour MP yesterday, Sarah Teather didn’t seem to be taking jokes about an early morning ambush by a TV news crew in the spirit in which they were intended:
MP: “Watch out, Sarah, Sky News are behind you!”
Teather: “F*** off.”
With a future change of career looking more likely, one assumes Sarah would try to keep her options open.
Her career in pantomime is over before it began.
In his conference speech yesterday, David Cameron praised 97 year old activist Harry Beckough for his service to the Tories down the years. As Guido has observed, Sky News ran a less than smooth live interview with Beckough, in which Kay Burley oscillates between patronising the nonagenarian (“you didn’t have 24-hour news when you first started!”) and getting her facts wrong, including confusing Attlee chancellor Stafford Cripps with some kind of WWII military regiment from the West Midlands.
Scrapbook has tracked down the video:
The segment got off to an inauspicious start with Beckough, not realising he was “live on the tele”, asking Burley “Wait a minute, who are you?”. It deteriorates from there:
KB: OK just to tell you about the deficit and all that sort of stuff in a second, we’re trying to sort out a couple of chairs…
HB: Wait a minute, who are you?
KB: Harry you’re live on the tele. You didn’t used to have 24 hour news when you first started in politics did you?
HB: No.
KB: Now you were mentioned weren’t you. Can I just remind our viewers first of all what was said about you then we’ll have a quick chat. This is Harry Beckough and we heard from the Prime Minister…
HB: Beckhough! Like ‘rough’ or ‘tough’.
KB: Right ho. Just say that again, Beckhough?
HB: Hough.
KB: Hough, Beckhough, there we go.
HB: In Yorkshire. Hough. As in piece of land.
KB: Oh I see. OK. Born in 1929, is that right? Were you born in 1929?
HB: No. I was born in 1914.
KB: When did you join the party?
HB: 1929.
KB: Fine. And you fought for the Stafford Cripps? Is that right?
HB: I didn’t fight for him, I fought against him.
This isn’t the first time Burley has been unprepared for an interview.
David Babbs and Peter Andre can permit themselves a wry smile this evening. You should watch the buildup for context but the action is at around 2:00 and 3:40 :-
Telly gold.
It’s good to see the Twitter stream on a manhunt for “Britain’s most wanted”, as Sky News keep shouting at us, being used for random banter (albeit in error) between journalists. After a Scrapbook reader grabbed a copy of this journalism anomaly it was swiftly removed from the list of updates on the continuing search for Raoul Moat.
Makes a change from Kay Burley terrifying the locals!
Hat-tip: Sam Cudworth
UPDATE 10 MARCH With more than 10,000 views in one day, this little video has gone viral!
UPDATE 11 MARCH Dave’s “hairbrush moment” is now the 3rd most viewed YouTube video in the world and is due to crack 40,000 views barrier later today.
Living up to an airbrushed version of yourself must be hard going. It’s therefore reassuring to see that Dave has been taking hairstyling tips from former US presidential hopeful John Edwards: never allow a live camera to compromise the status of your barnet. There was no mirror to hand but Dave gets extra points for improvising with the Sky News camera lens.
As Paul Waugh tweeted earlier:
Scrapbook has managed to track down some video!
The look on Dermot Murnaghan’s face sums it up: cringe!
UPDATE 16:35 Hats off to MyDavidCameron for this tweet: “Cameron in need of a hairbrush, not an airbrush!”
As a good Catholic schoolboy, Scrapbook thought walking round with burnt bits of palm leaves smeared on his forehead was most entertaining. The practices of Ash Wednesday were evidently lost on Sky News’ Kay Burley this week as she proceeded to speculate at length as to why US vice-president Joe Biden “looks like he’s walked into a door”. Burley even joked that bruising may have resulted from a sporting accident on his visit to the Olympics in Vancouver.
You can almost see her wincing off camera as she apologises (scroll to the beginning to hear the initial gaffe)!
That’ll be ten Our Fathers and five Hail Marys, Kay.
Hat-tip: Huffington Post
