News

BBC caught up in another editing scandal

The BBC has been caught up in yet another editing scandal after the 1pm news reportedly altered reactions of the Question Time audience.

Boris Johnson drew a hysteric reaction from the audience after fielding questions on how important it is for people in positions of power to tell the truth.

The Prime Minister said trust is “absolutely vital” to the election, claims that didn’t wash with those at the event.

But when the clip aired on BBC the following day it appeared as if the PM had received a warm reaction for his comments.

Cenotaph gaffe

The BBC say the clip was “shortened for timing reasons” and had been used in previous evening’s news, but it’s not the first time to have happened.

The dubious edit comes just weeks after the broadcasting corporation used an old clip of Johnson at a cenotaph instead of the video of his wreath gaffe.

The old clip was used instead of footage of the bungling Tory leader placing a poppy wreath upside down as the Queen watched.

The broadcaster said: “This morning on the programme we incorrectly used footage from a Remembrance Day service that was not filmed yesterday.

“This was a production mistake and we apologise for the error”.

Upside down

The PM was accused of being disrespectful for placing a wreath upside down.

But this error wasn’t shown on the BBC this morning – with 2016 cenotaph footage being aired instead.

Related: 2019 will go down as the disinformation election

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Published by