BBC Smear Of Deaf Tory MP Goes Viral

VIDEO [CC] - BBC apologises after suggesting partially Deaf Tory MP had fallen asleep.



LONDON - The BBC has apologised after suggesting a partially Deaf Conservative MP was asleep during a debate on the trade union bill when he was in fact trying to listen to a speaker.



Pictures from BBC Parliament of Elmet & Rothwell MP Alec Shelbrooke began circulating on Twitter, prompting the BBC Newsbeat account to tweet on Tuesday morning that the image of the MP “resting his eyes is going viral”.

Very heartfelt apologies to @alecshelbrooke MP. He is partially Deaf and was listening to a speaker. pic.twitter.com/CSvocBZ9qT

— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) September 15, 2015

After the mistake was flagged, the original tweet was deleted and the BBC put out an apology from the account.



Shelbrooke describes himself as a trade unionist and spoke about the history of trade unionism during the debate. In subsequent images he can be seen opening his eyes while in the same position near the speaker.

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Shelbrooke has since retweeted articles correcting the error and the apology.



His account, @AlecShelbrooke was trending at Tuesday lunchtime, with many still suggesting he was asleep, and others leaping to his defence and criticising Newsbeat for the mistake... See more full story-image: http://theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/15/bbc-apologises-after-suggesting-partially-deaf-tory-mp-had-fallen-asleep