Claims that the BBC “censored” footage of Boris and Carrie Johnson arriving at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee thanksgiving service to remove audio of the crowd booing have been shared widely on social media.
Conversely, there have also been widespread claims that the BBC overemphasised the booing in the crowd in order to cast the Prime Minister in a negative light.
The truth is less exciting.
The core explanation is that the events at St Paul’s were being captured by different crews from different places, which picked up more or less booing or cheering.
The claim of censorship comes when comparing two instances where the BBC showed footage of the Prime Minister arriving at the service. In the first, the booing is quite prominent. In the replay a few minutes later, the booing is less pronounced.
That’s because the BBC had multiple filming crews and they used a clean feed for the replay. The reason they couldn’t use the original feed again is because presenter Jane Hill’s commentary was captured on the same feed as the booing. Using this again would have clashed with her ongoing interview.
We’ve put together a mock-up of what it might have sounded like if the BBC had used the audio from the first clip again for the replay
This has been corroborated by sound engineers on social media and a statement to Full Fact by the BBC. Those at the event can also, at the very least, confirm that loud boos were heard at St Paul’s. |
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