Interviewing taken a step too far

Being a journalism student I should be admiring the way Sky News television journalist Kay Burley squeezed every ounce of emotion and hidden detail out of pop icon Peter Andre concerning his marriage to Glamour Model Katie Price, the custody of their children and her new love, that of Celebrity Big Brother winner Alex Reid in an interview yesterday afternoon.


The Lancashire born presenter known for her unruly, determined and toughened questioning certainly drove a sword slowly at first, but then damningly into the heart of the Australian, metaphorically of course, when quizzing him about heartfelt matters such as his children.


His appearance on the show was meant to be a question and answer session on his new upcoming album “Revelation”. However, the wise old skills of 49 year old Burley scheduled the interview a day after his ex-partner Katie Price had agreed to wed her cross dressing, cage fighting boyfriend Reid. In addition, during Andre’s time hoisted in front of the cameras, he was asked to comment on a previous interview by Dwight Yorke. The former Manchester United football star, father of Price’s first child Harvey, whom Andre had cared for religiously during their time together, criticised the singer and how he was disrespectful to the footballer. By conjuring up these two factors into the interview it soon became a tabloid slagging match as Andre, despite explaining how he was not allowed to comment on most of the issues for legal reasons, was pushed into a corner and beaten by Burley.


In journalism, interrogation to chisel into the debts of the situation are important and her interviewing skills really break into Andre’s emotions, but here she took it a step to far by exploiting a superstar who had kindly agreed to appear on her show, forcing him to breakdown and halt the interview and she had no mercy for her actions. It’s fair to say that an interviewer has to be tough to scratch under the surface to retain some fascinating stories, but Burley pushed Andre to the maximum and it was definitely not a balanced piece of journalism that we should be seeing, with impartiality seemingly not a word in her vocabulary. Andres defiant stance asserting that ‘no one will take my kids away from me’ will only increase the popularity and respect he earns amongst his many followers, after all he has came out of this celebrity marriage saga with his head held eye.


Journalism is a back stabbing, brute of an industry and Kay Burley clearly follows this mantra in this interview. Ok, she has now drawn attention to herself and there’s not such a thing as bad publicity, but she oppressed a kind, valued person, ungracefully for all his worth yesterday, she should be disgusted with herself.

Here is the link to the interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybiM51194MA