Almost 30,000 people have signed a petition imploring Sky News to sack presenter Kay Burley. Her alleged crime? Subjecting Merlin Entertainment CEO Nick Varney to a thorough grilling about his responsibility for the recent Alton Towers tragedy that left 17-year-old Leah Washington without a leg, and four more young people with serious injuries.
Understandably, many people have been left concerned about safety standards at Alton Towers, and other Merlin Entertainment parks, which has now reopened following several days of closure in the wake of the accident. The company’s official line is that safety standards were already adequate, but that they’ve now been made even better. Until more information is revealed, it’s difficult to understand why these additional measures weren’t already in place.
That’s certainly how Kay Burley sees things. She pushed Varney to acknowledge the severity of the incident, even though he was unable to confirm the details, and forced him to admit that safety standards on the Smiler rollercoaster ‘clearly weren’t adequate’.
All in all, the way the presenter conducted the interview could be described as ‘assertive’ and ‘uncompromising’. However, ‘bitchy’ and ‘rude’ seem to be the adjectives people have more frequently reached for.
Indeed, the petition calling for Burley to be fired states: ‘This interview is an embarrassment to Sky News, she was rude and patronising not giving him a chance to explain and when he did get a chance to explain she continued to dismiss his comment, further trying to damage the company thinking she was clever.’
Criticism on Twitter has been equally venomous:
I’ve watched the interview several times in an attempt to understand the outrage, and it seems clear to me that Kay Burley did nothing wrong. You can watch the full segment here and judge for yourself:
Nick Varney is a powerful man with ultimate responsibility for everything that happens at Merlin Entertainment theme parks, including when things go wrong. He agreed to be interviewed on Sky News with one goal: casting himself and the company in as positive a light as possible. The interviewer’s job is to ask challenging questions and avoid letting him use the appearance as a straightforward PR opportunity.
If it had been Jeremy Paxman holding Varney to account, I’m certain that people would have understood the need for a tough approach. The veteran broadcaster is regularly praised for using the same techniques that have made Burley a target of hate.
I’m not the only one to have made this comparison:
It’s hard to see it as a coincidence that Paxman is a man, whereas Kay Burley is a woman. If you doubt the extent to which confrontational behaviour is applauded in men, think about the last high-profile media figure to be the subject of a petition about his job: Jeremy Clarkson. Over a million people called for the Top Gear presenter to be reinstated in his role, despite the fact he was accused of literally punching a junior colleague.
There’s empirical evidence to back up the idea that men are praised and women punished for assertiveness. A study published in 2011 by non-profit organisation Catalyst found that women who asked for pay rises were much less likely to get one than their male colleagues, and that they actually ended up earning even less than women who didn’t ask.
In my experience, the characteristics considered desirable in women – being accommodating, passive and non-confrontational – are also considered to mark people out as unsuitable for leadership positions. It’s a lose/lose situation. Either you’re not competent enough to be given significant power, or you’re a ‘harridan’, a ‘harpy’ or a ‘bitch’.
As a TV interviewer, Kay Burley has fallen victim to a long established trap. Never mind that her approach did actually force Varney to stray from his PR spiel. In the eyes of her critics, it doesn’t matter how effective a woman is if she’s not also ‘nice’.
I’ve got no doubt that Sky News has confidence in the talents of its presenter, and that this petition will fail to achieve its aims. Nonetheless, the fact it even exists is a reminder of the double standards faced by ‘strong’ women in areas traditionally dominated by men.
Update: It’s been correctly suggested that I should disclose that Kadhim Shubber, whose tweet I embedded in the article, is my boyfriend. I also want to make it clear that he made the Paxman comparison before I’d spoken to him at all about the issue.
Enjoyed this? You might also like:
Nobel Prize Winner Says Female Scientists ‘Distract Men And Cry When Criticised’
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.