BBC apologizes for airing interview with man pretending to be Cory Booker
The BBC aired an interview with an imposter posing as New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker last Friday.
It is unknown how the person managed to masquerade as the Democrat, or why he was not vetted before the interview, which aired on Friday afternoon. A post on the BBC website claimed that the interview only aired once and was not used any other time.
“In our Newshour radio programme on Friday, a man claiming to be Senator Cory Booker was interviewed in what appears to be a deliberate hoax,” the BBC wrote in a post, referring to it as a correction and apology. “We have apologised to Senator Booker and are looking into what went wrong to make sure it doesn't happen again.”
The trickster conned his way into a radio interview about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Keen eared listeners were able to immediately see right through the attempt to impersonate Booker.
“@CoryBooker did you do an interview today with the BBC discussing the Khashoggi killing?” tweeted one user. “Someone sounding nothing like you and without your speech pattern was claiming to be you today.”
“I’m not sure who the BBC World Service just interviewed on Newshour about US relations with Saudi Arabia, but it definitely wasn’t Senator Cory Booker…” said another.
It is not immediately clear who the prankster was, or if he intends to strike again.
Last November, Russian pranksters well known for tricking world leaders and celebrities released an 11-minute prank call made a year before, in which they caught Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with someone pretending to be Greta Thunberg.
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