July 12, 2007

Off With The BBC's Head!

The BBC issued a humiliating apology this afternoon after its promotional video of an upcoming documentary falsely portrayed Queen Elizabeth II as walking out on a photo shoot. The editing strongly suggested that the monarch stormed out of a session with Annie Leibovitz after a disagreement -- but it turns out that the footage was from her entrance, not exit:

The British Broadcasting Corp. apologized to Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday for saying she had walked out of portrait sitting with photographer Annie Leibovitz.

The BBC said a promotional trailer released Wednesday from the upcoming documentary, "A Year With the Queen," showed the monarch arriving, not departing.

That scene showed the queen walking down a Buckingham Palace corridor, wearing a crown and her Order of the Garter robes, and telling her lady-in-waiting: "I'm not changing anything. I've had enough dressing like this, thank you very much."

The Beeb blamed the error on the production company's editors. They also blamed the technicians in the broadcast booth for running the ad. They also blamed the producers for giving the footage back to the BBC. If we wait a couple of more days, the BBC will find a way to blame George Bush and the neocon cabal.

Of course, this does wonders for the credibility of the BBC. They've been using this promotional material to excite viewers about the new documentary. How many people will believe anything in it now, if the producers managed to put together sequences so out of context as to tell an outright lie?

And the best part of this is that the British government forces the Queen's subjects to subsidize this kind of performance. There's more than just a little irony there.

It could be worse. If this had happened a couple of centuries earlier, it wouldn't have been the Queen losing her head over it.

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Comments (8)

Posted by burt | July 12, 2007 6:08 PM

Would that really be worse?

Posted by docjim505 | July 12, 2007 7:47 PM

Isn't this the same BBC that got it so wrong about Blair and Iraq a few years ago? The same BBC that was kicked off HMS Ark Royal when the crew got fed up with the Beeb's slanted coverage of the Iraq war? The same BBC that has been providing almost exclusively negative coverage of our efforts in Iraq for years? That BBC?

If they can't get something as simple as whether or not the queen was making her entrance or her exit straight, how in the hell can we count on them to honestly and evenhandedly report something as complicated as Iraq and the GWOT?

Posted by TomB | July 12, 2007 8:04 PM

Lefticos, pinkos and jerks rom BBC don't deserve attention they are getting. And they are not even real leftists: try Cuban, or Belorussian media.

Posted by pst314 | July 12, 2007 9:24 PM

We should trust the BBC, because it has armies of editors and fact-checkers...to make sure everything is slanted to the left.

Posted by JAT | July 13, 2007 5:30 AM

This is more news worthy than the religious protesters in the Senate. This is MSM fabricating trouble to the tune of their own agenda. BBC = Big Bulls--t Channel!

Posted by Artie | July 13, 2007 6:21 AM

Michael Moore journalism at its best.
Makes me wonder what else gets faked.

Posted by Sabba Hillel | July 13, 2007 7:00 AM

It is, I suppose good for them to be caught like this as it shows everyone how believable they are demonizing Israel. It also indicates how believable they are about apologizing for daring to say the Jerusalem is part of Israel, thanking the Hamas terrorist for "freeing" their reporter, and everything else that they pull in order to destroy the country.

Eventually, even the slowest of their audience will catch on. The most believable thing that they broadcast is probably "Dr. Who".

Posted by lady penelope | July 14, 2007 1:14 PM

What is with you lot and the B.B.C? You seem to have no concept of how it is seen in the U.k.
We like having a institution that belongs to the community. As stated i t has been investigated, and it showed the news lean to the left.
Again,they were 'investigated.' Fox news anyone?
To suggest that we only get our news from the B.B.C and therefore are brainwashed is funny in it's irony.
Tony Blair has made official complaints because he said the B.b.c questioned him too strongly. Labour is left wing and in power. Shouldn't we all kissing his arse then if it state led propaganda channel.
There are no adverts it's non-commerical ,we like watching a footy match without breaks.You can have debates that are able to flow, not 2 minutes of screaming and then 'now for a break'.
Also it isn't just news on th beeb. The corset classic's are sold and lapped up in america,as with the programmes on our royal family.
It was the B.B.C that brought you ,'the office..Wasn;t 'Dancing with stars' big in the U.S?. It's a B.B.C owned format, which you bought . Two of the judges are even the same. We like getting american money and put it towards developing ideas.
We whine about it like we do about the weather,but it is were everyone goes to for big occasions, from ww2 onwards.
You seem to way out in your understanding of this.