BBC left red faced after SNP chief executive points out spelling error in by-election victory coverage
The BBC has been left red-faced after mistakenly reporting that the SNP had won the Hamilton 'bi-election'.
The party won the Hamilton North and East by-election last night.
It is the party's 26th victory in 29 by-elections since May.
However, the SNP's Chief Executive Peter Murrell was quick to point out the BBC's spelling error, which appeared on the broadcaster's live online news feed.
11h07 Red faces at Home Office. 10h53 Red faces at BBC. Oops!! pic.twitter.com/XrSji0oTuL
— Peter Murrell (@PeterMurrell) January 22, 2016
The mistake came just 14 minutes before the BBC reported that the Home Office had included a spelling error in an online media release about English language tests for migrants.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel