A false claim made about Euan Blair on BBC panel show Have I Got News For You has been blamed on “digital native” producers.
The first episode in a new series of the programme saw it incorrectly claimed by presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell that a contract to roll out the Government’s new ID cards has been handed to Multiverse, a company run by the son of former prime minister Tony Blair.
Speaking about the mistake, Jimmy Mulville, the founder of the programme’s producers Hat Trick Productions, said on Insiders: The TV Podcast: “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.”
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