Burley's "bruise" blunder

Last Wednesday, Sky News presenter Kay Burley sparked controversy after comments she made live on air regarding “quite a bruise” that she noticed US Vice-President Joe Biden had on his head.
“What’s happened to his head? I’m sure that’s what everybody’s asking at home,” she said.
“It looks like he’s walked into a door,” she told Sky’s Washington correspondent, while they discussed Mr Biden’s speech.
The two spent time offering opinions as to what the mysterious mark could be. They even came up with the suggestion that, as Mr Biden had just returned from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the most likely explanation was that he had sustained an injury whilst there.
So, what was the “bruise” on Mr Biden’s head? Well, last Wednesday being the Christian feast of Ash Wednesday, Mr Biden’s “bruise” was simply the ashes he had received earlier that day, a similar “bruise” to that worn by millions of Christians around the world to mark the beginning of Lent.
Ms Burley came in for furious criticism for her ignorance and insensitivity. For me, it highlights just how in-tune and aware every journalist needs to be of what is going on in the world around them. You certainly don’t need to be some religious fanatic, but a journalist and especially a journalist working with such a huge organisation as Sky News, should surely have been aware that the day was Ash Wednesday. Even if she wasn’t a practising Christian (which she later said she actually is), as a journalist she had a professional duty to be aware of the day, just as a journalist should know when Ramadan begins or when Yom Kippur falls.
The clip of her making the comments is extremely embarrassing, as anyone watching can clearly see, being the day it was, that Mr Biden has ashes on his forehead. Wouldn’t anyone watching a Hindu speak know that the coloured dot on their forehead (the “bindi”) was part of their religion, and not a mark they received when they “walked into a door”?
At the end of the clip, having obviously been informed of her mistake, Ms Burley cuts across Mr Biden’s speech to tell us that she is a “very bad Catholic” and that she now knows it is Ash Wednesday. “I hang my head in shame,” she said, before cutting to a commercial break. While her comments were obviously extremely insensitive to Christians, the incident clearly highlights the importance of journalistic accuracy. Does any journalist want to be forced to clarify stupid mistakes they have made live on air? It shows the importance of clear thinking for all journalists, even in the extremely pressurised environment that is Sky News.
As an experienced journalist, who began working for her local newspaper when she was just 17 and is now almost part of the furniture of the Sky newsroom, surely Ms Burley has been around long enough to know that she shouldn’t blurt out the first thing that comes into her head without considering it first.
For her, the faux pas is one in a long line of events that has landed her in hot water. She was recently accused of causing Peter Andre to break down in tears during a live interview, and was widely criticised for questions she asked the wife of the man convicted of the2006 Ipswich murders. Her suggestion that Mr Biden was possibly involved in some sort of incident at the Winter Olympics also provoked anger, as she jokingly suggested he may have been participating in the luge event (just days after a Georgian participant died in a horrific accident while practising on the luge track.)
For all us aspiring journos, it highlights just how careful we should be when writing an article, or making a piece for radio or television, to ensure that our work is correct and properly thought through, so as to avoid experiencing Ms Burley’s humiliation. KF