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14th Jun 2017

Sky News reporter criticised over ‘inappropriate’ comment live on air to Grenfell Tower survivor

Poor choice of words

Tony Cuddihy

We’re sure that journalist Mark White regretted this immediately.

Everybody says stupid things from time to time, and it’s tough covering breaking news on a major tragedy, but journalist Mark White will likely wish he hadn’t made this comment to a 12-year-old schoolboy live on Sky News on Wednesday morning.

White was interviewing the boy and his grandmother, who had both escaped the inferno in the Grenfell Tower block, before remarking: “So no school for you today then.”

Awkward laughter could then be heard (though from the clip below it’s not clear who was laughing), before White added, “Well, it has a plus side I guess.”

https://twitter.com/Geordie_Paul_UK/status/874866701887836160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewswire.storyful.com%2Fstorylines%2F*%2Fstories%2F170003%3Freferred_from%3DTrends%26channel_id%3D203%26context%3Dchannel%26referrer_type%3DChannel%26referrer_id%3D203

Several people criticised White’s comment, although others suggested that he was simply trying to lessen the impact of the tragedy on the young boy.

https://twitter.com/TottenhamStevie/status/874856723177230336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewswire.storyful.com%2Fstorylines%2F*%2Fstories%2F170003%3Freferred_from%3DTrends%26channel_id%3D203%26context%3Dchannel%26referrer_type%3DChannel%26referrer_id%3D203

https://twitter.com/iNdepthPhoto/status/874861057130541056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewswire.storyful.com%2Fstorylines%2F*%2Fstories%2F170003%3Freferred_from%3DTrends%26channel_id%3D203%26context%3Dchannel%26referrer_type%3DChannel%26referrer_id%3D203

Others were more sympathetic.

https://twitter.com/running_good/status/874872041014513664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewswire.storyful.com%2Fstorylines%2F*%2Fstories%2F170003%3Freferred_from%3DTrends%26channel_id%3D203%26context%3Dchannel%26referrer_type%3DChannel%26referrer_id%3D203