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BBC News apologises for footage of wrong man during Kobe Bryant obituary

Used footage of the wrong player

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BBC News was facing criticism after putting footage of the wrong player in their obituary of basketball superstar, Kobe Bryant.

Kobe, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter Gigi – along with seven other people – tragically died after a helicopter crash in Los Angeles yesterday (27.1.20).

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During News At Ten, the show played out an obituary segment, which paid tribute to the late LA Lakers star.

Dad-of-four Kobe was mistaken for current Laker players LeBron James, and it was footage of him playing that was shown instead of Kobe.

Despite the fact that LeBron’s name could clearly be seen on the back of his shirt, the BBC still showed the footage, causing outrage among fans of the star.

Newsreader Reeta Chakrabarti apologised for the mistake later in the bulletin saying: “In our coverage of the death of Kobe Bryant, in one section of the report, we mistakenly showed pictures of another basketball player, LeBron James.

“We do apologise for the error.”

Later, editor of BBC News at Six and Ten, Paul Royall, took to social media to add his own apology.

“In tonight’s coverage of the death of Kobe Bryant on #BBCNewsTen we mistakenly used pictures of LeBron James in one section of the report.

“We apologise for this human error which fell below our usual standards on the programme.”

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It wasn’t long before viewers took to Twitter to lambast the BBC over its error.

One viewer Tweeted: “Who cut this????? BBC news using footage of Lebron James instead of Kobe Bryant in their obit!!!!!

“IT EVEN SAYS JAMES ON HIS SHIRT.”

Another viewer called the mistake ’embarrassing’.

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor