Broadcaster caught out inserting fake video – again – and ex-BBC journalists have said such an error is almost impossible
The BBC has been caught presenting video of a military parade fly-by as footage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Full Fact confirmed that the video broadcast on the Breakfast programme yesterday as showing the invasion was in fact 2020 footage of a fly-past as part of a parade in May 2020.
The BBC claimed the footage was ‘used once briefly in error’ and that it had spoken to staff about the importance of checking what they are showing.
This is not the first time this has happened – and not the first time the ‘error’ excuse has been rolled out to cover it. In 2019 when Boris Johnson’s shambolic performance at that year’s Remembrance Day service insulted veterans, the BBC inserted a clip of Johnson from three years earlier to hide it – and then claimed it was an error.
But ex-BBC journalists accused the broadcaster of lying, pointing out that old footage has to be specially ordered from the corporation’s archive and makes using a clip by accident ‘near-impossible’.
Such a procedure would surely apply to two-year-old film of a military parade.
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