BBC Apologizes for Interview With Cory Booker Impostor

[Celerity]

The network issued a correction and said it was looking into the matter, calling the interview a “deliberate hoax.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/business/media/bbc-cory-booker-impersonator.html



The BBC has issued an apology and started an investigation after airing an interview with a man who posed as Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. The network said in a statement that the unidentified man was interviewed on the “Newshour” radio program last Friday, adding that the appearance appeared to have been a “deliberate hoax.” The statement said that the BBC had apologized to Mr. Booker and that the company was looking into “what went wrong” to ensure it does not happen again.

The interview aired once, live at 3 p.m. Eastern and mostly in the United States and a few other places around the world, a spokesman for the BBC said on Thursday. A second edition of “Newshour,” which airs at 4 p.m., was also broadcast in the United States and around the world, but without the interview, he said. Mr. Booker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. The BBC spokesman confirmed an on-air apology was made in the “Newshour” program on Monday, but declined to comment when asked how the man was booked for the show and if the company had been in contact with him since.

When the interview aired last week, several listeners tweeted their concerns about the show, featuring the impostor discussing the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. “Listening to the @bbcworldservice Newshour on @wnyc and trying to figure out how they did an entire interview with someone they introduced as Sen. Cory Booker, who I’m pretty sure was definitely not Sen. Booker, and didn’t realize it,” one woman said. At least one other person responded directly to the BBC on Twitter, saying, “I’m not sure who the BBC World Service just interviewed on Newshour about US relations with Saudi Arabia, but it definitely was not Senator Cory Booker.”

Another woman tweeted at Mr. Booker on Friday, asking if the lawmaker had appeared on the program. “Someone sounding nothing like you and without your speech pattern was claiming to be you today,” she said. Mr. Booker, a Democrat, is no stranger to the topic the impostor spoke about. In 2019 he voted in support of resolutions disapproving arm sales to Saudi Arabia. The year before, Mr. Booker called the death of Mr. Khashoggi “appalling” and said he joined colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee to seek sanctions against anyone involved in the “horrific” act.

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[JI7]

1. I'm trying to find a pic or video of the fake one but can't find

it anywhere.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. It's audio, not video

But the BBC removed it from its online archive when they found out they'd been hoaxed. It may not be the kind of thing other people bother recording.

[JI7]

3. I see , I thought they actually had someone on camera . That would have been a lot worse

I was wondering why someone who couldn't recognize him would be doing an interview.

[msfiddlestix]

4. Curious about the content of the interview

What exactly did the imposter say.

[FM123]

5. What a rookie move, you would expect better from an outfit like BBC.