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BBC forced to apologise after bad taste post about missing mum

What were they thinking?

BBC has had to apologise after they tweeted out an “awful” message.

The tweet, that was posted by BBC Look North (EYL), sparked a lot of negative feedback from viewers and was branded “bad taste”.

It read: “When your newsreader @GemsDawson looks like a missing mum… Here’s a link to the story… if you can help find Renata”.

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They were referring to how similar the newsreader Gemma Dawson looked to missing mum Renata, as they both have blonde hair and were sporting red dresses.

Renata went missing two weeks ago, and was last seen taking her 11-year-old daughter to school, and wanted readers to help find her.

But the sensitive Twitter post offended many.

One angry tweeter wrote: “This is an awful tweet. Have some respect for the missing woman.”

Commenting on a Facebook news post, one said: “Poor taste” with the news team responded to this message.

They said: “Sorry you think that but we hoped the publicity for the search might help…if people decide to share it?”.

The reply didn’t go down well, as the user said: “Imagine if her family saw you making jokes about it though?”

Read more: Ferne McCann targeted by trolls after courageous This Morning chat

A BBC spokesman has now issued a statement, which reads: “This post has been deleted. We regret if it caused offence.

“We are continuing to cover the police search for this missing woman across out output including social media.”


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor

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