BBC apologise for airing Christian's sweary rant – at 7am!

Posted by heatworld on Friday 06 Feb 2009

Filed under: Christian Bale

Oh dear. Things aren't going too well for the BBC at the moment, are they? First off there was the disaster of Sachsgate, followed by Chris Moyles' comments about Auschwitz – and now they've only gone and broadcast some very naughty words well before the watershed. And by "well before", we mean, "a good 14 hours before". For some unknown reason, the BBC decided to play viewers of BBC Breakfast a clip of Christian Bale's now infamous sweary rant, with all those F-words left in place. The clip, that went out live on air at just before 7am this morning, was faded out after just a few seconds, but even that wasn't quickly enough to avoid several expletives slipping out. The two Breakfast presenters were quick to apologise, telling viewers the wrong version of the rant had been played by accident, but that was all too little too late for some shocked members of the early-morning audience. "In view of all the controversy about the language on television this is extremely careless," points out Mediawatch head John Beyer. "I am glad they very quickly apologised, but I think it is extremely careless that it even happened in the first place." The BBC have confirmed that they've received over 50 complaints already, while Ofcom have also recorded some calls on the matter. The BBC Breakfast team have since said of the incident, "A technical error led to us broadcasting an unacceptable swear word. We are sorry for any offence caused." A technical error? Was the beep-adding man snowed-in or something? Are you shocked and appalled by the BBC's latest blunder, or is this yet another hoo-ha over nothing that awful?