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Media
OfCom let Burley off for making Pandre cry
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 27 April 2010
Now, presumably you all remember that classic telly moment where useless Sky News host Kay Burley made Peter Andre cry on live TV?
He was there to plug some project or other (I’m guessing a terrible album or a tedious reality TV show), but she wanted to talk about his former missus, and the chance Katie Price’s then very new husband Alex Reid might adopt his kids by the former glamour model. Seemingly genuinely upset by the suggestion, a teary Andre asked to end the interview. To be fair to Burley, a journalist whose achievements could be written on the back of a postage stamp, she did manage the very rare feat of making her viewers feel sorry for faded jungle star.
So much so some 880 people complained to media regulator OfCom. But they have just ruled that Burley didn’t break any broadcasting rules with her questioning, because apparently British TV laws don’t have anything to say about making Peter Andre cry.
The regulator said in its ruling: “It was understandable that the presenter focused on the human interest angle of the [Price/Reid] wedding by asking Andre for his reaction, and how it would impact on his children”. It said Burley was “probing and persistent” but that “she remained overall measured in tone throughout and did not put inappropriate pressure on Andre for a response”.
It also noted that Pandre was a c’leb with lots of experience of handling the media (which is a polite way of saying “he’s made millions by turning his private life into a TV soap opera”) and that he had “previously talked candidly and frequently in public (including in television programmes) about his relationship with his former wife and his children”.
