It was only last week that the BBC found itself at the centre of a social media storm, apologising for mistakenly playing footage of LeBron James in its coverage of the death of his fellow basketball star Kobe Bryant. Paul Royall, editor of BBC News at Six and Ten, took to social media to apologise for the mix up, tweeting that the 'human error […] fell below our usual standards on the programme.'
Once again however the broadcaster has found itself treading the same waters. On Monday, footage of Labour MP for Battersea Marsha de Cordova - Labour’s Shadow Minister for Disabled People - speaking in the House of Commons was aired on the BBC, but the accompanying strapline named her as fellow Labour colleague and MP for Brent Central, Dawn Butler.
Butler was quick to respond, pointing out that mistakes like this are caused by a lack of diversity in British newsrooms.
'.@BBCNews @BBCPolitics I love my sister @MarshadeCordova but we are two different people. Marsha is amazing and deserves to be called by her own name. Diversity in the workplace matters it also helps to avoid making simple mistakes like this [sic],' Butler tweeted.
Echoing Butler’s statement, de Cordova tweeted: '.@BBCPolitics @BBCParliament This is what happens when the media does not represent the society it reports on. Representation matters. Diversity matters. This cannot continue [sic].'
Butler and de Cordova's comments have since sparked furious debate on social media about diversity in British media – or, rather, the lack of it. A debate further reinforced by coverage by the Evening Standard, who mistakenly used a picture of a third Labour MP for Streatham and Shadow Immigration Minister, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, when covering the story.
'Clearly there's no threshold of shame for @BBC to keep demonstrating an ineptitude worthy of an institutionally dysfunctional organisation projecting bias & feeding negative stereotypes. Black. People. Are. Not. The. Same. [sic],' tweeted lawyer and women’s rights activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu after the story broke.
'BBC mistakes Marsha de Cordova for Dawn Butler. Standard reports said mistake and then compounds it by using a photo of Bell Ribeiro-Addy which they say was incorrectly captioned by Getty. So all these media organisations lack people who can tell one Black woman from another? [sic],' tweeted reporter and BBC 5Live contributor Lorna Cooper.
'"Mistakes" like this don’t just keep happening... [sic],' tweeted political columnist Aleesha Khaliq.
Once again, the BBC apologised for this latest mistake, tweeting to both de Cordova and Butler: 'We sincerely apologise for this mistake. Sometimes we incorrectly identify MPs at the moment when they stand to speak. This error was immediately corrected on screen.'
So, what is the BBC doing to stop mistakes like this happening again? In October 2019 the broadcaster appointed TV presenter and campaigner June Sarpong as their first director of creative diversity and promised to appoint at least two BAME members on every senior leadership group by the end of 2020. As of yet though, it appears that they have a lot of work to do.
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