BBC news were forced into a mortifying apology after running the line “Manchester United are rubbish” along its breaking news ticker!
Viewers spotted the bizarre gaffe at 9.35am on Tuesday morning as it ran alongside other stories, as the headlines were being broadcast on the sports bulletin.
More than two hours later, the station was forced to explain themselves as to why such a gratuitous error was displayed following a training exercise.
The newscaster said “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.”
“I hope that Manchester United fans weren’t offended by it.” By way of an explanation, she added: “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, not in earnest. That comment appeared, so apologies if you saw that and you were offended and you’re a fan of Manchester United, but certainly that was a mistake. It wasn’t meant to appear on the screen so that was what happened. We just thought we’d better explain that to you.”
Clip of the ticker in question.pic.twitter.com/EQXIBVJBz1
— Rob O'Hanrahan (@RobOHanrahan) May 24, 2022
