BBC viewers were left surprised as a message reading, “Manchester United are rubbish” appeared on the screen during a news telecast. The news outlet apologised for the gaffe later amid complaints from upset viewers.
As news anchor Annita McVeigh was presenting a report on the French Open, the text popped up on the news ticker at the bottom of the screen. It remained on the news ticker for several seconds. Videos and photos of the moment quickly started doing the rounds of the internet. Starting a serious conversation on Twitter, many were left scratching their heads, wondering whether it was intentional or just a mistake.
Errrr… what is going on with the BBC News ticker? pic.twitter.com/fofbiGyMfs
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) May 24, 2022
Soon, the message was removed and McVeigh apologised on air. “A little earlier, some of you may have noticed something pretty unusual on the ticker that runs along the bottom of the screen with news making a comment about Manchester United,” the presenter said, “and I hope that Manchester United fans weren’t offended by it.”
Explaining how the English Premier League club was labelled as “rubbish”, McVeigh said that the mistake had occurred as a trainee was learning how to operate the ticker. “Behind the scenes, someone was training to learn how to use the ticker and to put text on the ticker so they were just writing random things,” she said.
UPDATE: BBC News have apologised.
They say that a trainee was learning how to write text for the ticker and accidentally published them onto the BBC News Channel. pic.twitter.com/OkjPIkJAoo
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) May 24, 2022
She again assured football fans “certainly that was a mistake and it wasn’t meant to appear on the screen.” Viewers noticed another random message on the ticker that read: “Weather rain everywhere.”
BBC later issued another formal statement and added: “There was a technical glitch during training with our test ticker, which rolled over to live programming for a few seconds. We apologised for any offence caused on air.”
While some fans admitted they took the accidental statement with a grain of salt, others criticised the media outlet for poor training processes. The incident happened as Manchester United, a popular football franchise power, failed to impress this season and finished sixth in the Premier League.
