> Did you look at the basicConfig documentation before raising this issue?

This seems like an attempt at victim blaming. But yes, I did. In fact, this is now the third time I've looked at that page - once before raising this issue, once before my previous reply, and now. I note that your example and nothing like your example is anywhere on that page. The word "encoding" doesn't appear anywhere on the page either. Sure "stream" is on there, but then you need to know about streams and make the association with logging which I apparently don't. You have to remember not everyone has your level of proficiency in the language. In fact, most Python users don't.

Lets put this another way - is there a reason NOT to have Unicode logging as the default? Clearly Unicode was important enough for Guido-et-al to decide to throw Python 2 under the bus.
I've listed the advantages of changing it, what are the disadvantages?