May 24, 2022
The text appeared on the news channel just after 09:30 on Tuesday morning
The BBC has apologized after a message appeared on the news channel saying “Manchester United is scum”.
The text accidentally appeared on the news bar at the bottom of the screen, while broadcasting news about tennis just after 09:30 on Tuesday on the English-language news channel in Britain.
Later in the morning, presenter Anita McVeigh apologized to all Manchester United fans who may have been offended.
She said the error occurred when someone was learning how to turn on the news ticker, and was “typing random things”.
Another message appeared on the tape saying: “Rainy weather everywhere.”
“A while ago, some of you might have noticed something quite unusual on the newsfeed that runs along the bottom of the screen, where there was a comment about Manchester United, which I hope Manchester United fans are not offended by,” McVeigh told viewers.
She added: “Let me just explain what was happening: Behind the scenes, someone was practicing learning how to use tape and putting text on tape, so he was writing random things that weren’t serious and that comment came up.”
“So I apologize if you saw this and were offended as a Manchester United fan.”
“But that was definitely a mistake and wasn’t meant to be shown on screen. So that’s what happened. We thought we’d better explain it to you.”
An official statement to the BBC added: “There was a technical glitch during training with our demo tape, which went live for a few seconds.”
“We apologize for any off-air offense,” he added.
BBC anchor and Manchester City fan, Clive Merry, tweeted, “He has nothing to do with this!!” With a hashtag bearing the name of his team, after City won the Premier League title last Sunday.
Manchester United fell from its level in recent seasons and missed the Champions League, after it finished sixth in the English Premier League.
The new coach of the team and former Dutch club Ajax coach, Eric Ten Hag, is the fifth permanent coach of Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.