Broadcaster apologised after Have I Got News For You falsely said ex-PM’s son’s firm had won digital ID contract
The arrival of a generation of young producers “marinated in social media” led to a false claim about Euan Blair being broadcast on Have I Got News For You, the production chief behind the show has said.
The first in a new series of the BBC show featured an incorrect claim that the company run by the son of the former prime minister Tony Blair had been given the contract to run the government’s new digital ID system.
It fuelled online accusations that it explained his father’s strong support for ID cards.
Jimmy Mulville, the founder of the programme’s producers Hat Trick Productions, said he wanted to highlight the dangers of “digital native” producers taking widely circulated claims from X, formerly Twitter, without questioning their veracity.
“What was interesting is that because we now have generations of younger producers who are coming into the business – and they are digital natives – they’re marinated in social media,” he said on Insiders: The TV Podcast.
“Apparently, the story was put on by a freelance journalist, I won’t mention her name, who put [it] on her Twitter feed. And no one questioned it.
“It’s a low-level mistake but nevertheless, it is indicative. It was good to spot it, because what you wouldn’t want to do is just to make some kind of egregious claim about somebody and it is defamatory.”
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