A right-wing US pundit who once said 800million Muslims are radicalised and "Arabs like to bomb crap" has thrown a strop after being challenged in a BBC interview.
Ben Shapiro cut short a Politics Live interview complaining "this is a waste of time" after he was quizzed repeatedly on his own past comments.
And in an embarrassing error, he branded inquisitor Andrew Neil left-wing - even though Neil is one of Britain's most prominent right-leaning journalists, chairing 'Tory Bible' magazine The Spectator.
That led to humiliation for Mr Shapiro, who was told by his interviewer: "If you only knew how ridiculous that statement is you wouldn’t have said it."
Twitter users were quick to criticise the conservative pundit - mocking his interpretation of left-wing, branding him "petulant" and accusing him of a "tantrum".
Others meanwhile attacked the BBC for choosing to give him airtime.
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Mr Shapiro got his apology in early, tweeting before the interview aired: "Just pre-taped an interview with BBC’s Andrew Neil.
"As I’m not familiar with him or his work, I misinterpreted his antagonism as political Leftism (he termed the pro-life position in America “barbaric”) – and that was apparently inaccurate.
"For that, I apologize."
The row began when the interviewer quizzed Mr Shapiro on new hardline anti-abortion laws in the US state of Georgia.
Mr Neil suggested a ban on abortions after six weeks that could jail women for 30 years was "taking us back to the dark ages".
Mr Shapiro fumed: "Are you an objective journalist or are you an opinion journalist?"
Mr Neil replied: "My job is to question those who have strong views and put an alternative to them.
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"If you were an anti abortion person I would be putting pro abortion questions to you."
But the US pundit said: "Why don’t you just say that you’re on the left? Is this so hard for you? Why can't you just be honest?"
Mr Neil moved on to challenging Mr Shapiro about his past views.
The pundit said in 2014: “We’re above 800 million Muslims who are radicalised – more than half the Muslims on earth. That’s not a minority."
And he tweeted in 2010: "Israelis like to build. Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage."
Mr Neil accused him of "coarsening public discourse".
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But Mr Shapiro said it was the BBC that coarsened discourse, accusing his interviewer of trying to "make a quick buck" and adding: "This is a waste of time."
"I'm popular and no one has ever heard of you," he huffed.
"I don't frankly give a damn what you think of me since I've never heard of you."
Mr Neil replied: "I'd never heard of you until I briefed myself for this."
The pundit called the interview to an end and pulled off his microphone.
You can watch the full interview to judge for yourself here.
