BBC Admits Fraudulent Controversy
The BBC creatively edited a sequence of video clips to give the impression - widely reported yesterday - that Queen Elizabeth had "stormed" out of a photo shoot with Annie Leibowitz. The trailer showed a confrontation, then the Queen apparently stalking out.
Only the clips were reversed - the "stalking" part was shot as the queen walked to the shoot in the first place. The BBC admitted its fraud.
A trailer released yesterday for the forthcoming BBC1 documentary series A Year With The Queen gave the impression that the monarch had abruptly halted the photoshoot when Leibowitz asked her to remove her crown.
Scenes of the pair clashing over the request were followed by footage of the Queen walking down a corridor and telling her lady-in-waiting: "I'm not changing anything. I've had enough dressing like this, thank you very much."
But the footage was actually filmed as the Queen made her way to the sitting.
The BBC said: "In this trailer there is a sequence that implies that the Queen left a sitting prematurely. This was not the case and the actual sequence of events was mis-represented.
"The BBC would like to apologise to both the Queen and Annie Leibowitz for any upset this may have caused."
Reversing the clips to manufacture a controversy is a page straight out of the Michael Moore handbook of fauxtography. This is really not a minor thing. That the BBC would send out something so easily proven to be false says rather more about their editorial standards than they realize.
By Ted Goldman, Thursday, 12 July , 2007 @ 8:03 am
BBC Editorial fraud should result in firing those responsible. Depicitng the Queen of England in such a despicable manner was intentional and malicious.
Or is a disingenuous “apology” sufficient?
Sun Valley Ted
By sam, Thursday, 12 July , 2007 @ 3:03 pm
This is hilarious. Didn’t Monty Python do this sort of thing on the BBC in the early 70’s? I wonder if the people responsible have names like Cleese, Palin, Idle, et al?