A false claim concerning Euan Blair, son of Tony Blair, made on the BBC panel show Have I Got News For You has been attributed to “digital native” producers.
During the new series’ inaugural episode, presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell erroneously stated that Multiverse, a company run by Mr Blair, had secured a government contract for the rollout of new ID cards.
Jimmy Mulville, the founder of the programme’s producers Hat Trick Productions, spoke about the error on the Insiders: The TV Podcast.
He said: “What was interesting was this, and this is why I want to talk about it, is that because we now have generations of younger producers who are coming into the business, and they are digital natives, they’re called.
“They’re marinated in social media, and I said, ‘where did we get this story?’, and apparently, the story was put on by a freelance journalist, I won’t mention her name, a freelance journalist who put on her Twitter feed this story about Euan Blair and ID cards.
“And the producer said, ‘well, it had nearly three million views that day’, so it must be true, and no one questioned it.
“I went, ‘OK, and did we verify anywhere else?’, and then faces became very red around the table, and god bless them, they’re a fantastic team, and they felt terrible about this, really, really awful.
“Which is the right response, and so we’ve now got a new rule, we don’t take stories off social media.”
Mulville said that “normally” his team finds a second source before writing the show’s script but said it “just got through the net”.
The post referred to in the podcast is still live on X, where it has been viewed almost three million times.
Mulville added: “It’s not defamatory in any way, in fact, the lawyers didn’t pick up on it, our lawyers and the BBC lawyers, didn’t pick up on it.
“It’s a low-level mistake, but nevertheless, it is indicative, and it was good to spot it, because what you wouldn’t want to do is to make some kind of egregious claim about somebody and it is defamatory.”
The BBC apologised for the mistake following the broadcast, and the episode was removed from iPlayer last weekend, where it was edited and reuploaded to omit the incorrect information, while Coren Mitchell also took to X to correct the error.
The BBC has been contacted for further comment.
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