After news broke that 41-year-old basketball icon Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant and seven others, publications scrambled to report about the accident. There was misinformation being tossed about, rumors ran rampant, and TMZ was even scolded by the police for sharing the news before authorities were able to contact the loved ones of the deceased. However, only the BBC, or the British Broadcasting Corporation, mixed up their basketball stars as they shared a video clip of LeBron James while reporting on Kobe Bryant's death.
BuzzFeed's deputy world news editor, Matthew Champion, tweeted the clip of the segment and wrote in the caption, "I genuinely cannot believe that the actual BBC News at 10 just did this." Champion's tweet brought in tens of thousands of likes and retweets, prompting BBC editor Paul Royall to issue an apology via Twitter.
"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," Ryall wrote. "We apologise for this human error which fell below our usual standards on the programme." The "human error" excuse wasn't good enough for some, so take a look at the clip for yourself and let us know if it was just a careless mistake made by the BBC.
