BBC airs radio interview with man pretending to be Senator Cory Booker

BBC is tricked into airing bogus interview with man claiming to be Senator Cory Booker ‘in what appears to be a deliberate hoax’

  • Host of BBC’s Newshour believed they were speaking with US Senator Cory Booker during last Friday night’s program
  • The ‘Senator’ was quizzed about America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia 
  • On Monday, the BBC confirmed they had been tricked and the person speaking on the phone was not Booker at all 
  • The network have issued an apology to the Senator, and say they are ‘looking in to what went wrong’  

The BBC has issued an apology to Cory Booker after they aired a radio interview with a hoaxer who claimed to be the US Senator. 

The bogus interview was broadcast as part of the British broadcaster’s Newshour program on the international World Service last Friday night. 

During the chat, the person posing as the Senator discussed US relations with Saudi Arabia – one day after President Biden ordered an airstrike on the country in a bid to target Iranian-backed militias. 

On Tuesday, the BBC released a statement regarding the embarrassing blunder, which read: ‘In our Newshour radio program on Friday, a man claiming to be Senator Cory Booker was interviewed in what appears to be a deliberate hoax. 

‘We have apologized to Senator Booker and are looking into what went wrong to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’

Oops! The BBC has issued an apology to Cory Booker after they conducted a radio interview with a man who claimed to be the US Senator.  Booker is seen during an actual radio chat last year 

On Tuesday, the BBC released a statement regarding the fake interview. DailyMail.com has reached out to the company to ask whether anyone has been reprimanded internally over the error

On Tuesday, the BBC released a statement regarding the fake interview. DailyMail.com has reached out to the company to ask whether anyone has been reprimanded internally over the error

They added: ‘The interview only aired once at 2000 GMT on Newshour on Friday 26 February and has not appeared elsewhere.

However, at least one listener in New York took to Twitter on Friday saying that they had heard the interview syndicated on WNYC. 

‘Listening to the @BBC Newshou on @WNYCand trying to figure out how they did an entire interview with someone they introduced as Sen. Cory Booker , who I’m pretty sure was definitely not Sen. Booker, and didn’t realize it.’

Another listener also took to Twitter at the time to state that the person being interviewed did not sound like the US Senator. 

‘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.’

Several people took to Twitter after listening to the interview claiming that the person on the air was definitely not the US Senator

Several people took to Twitter after listening to the interview claiming that the person on the air was definitely not the US Senator 

Audio of the interview has not been circulating online, and it is unclear how the BBC realized they had been duped. 

DailyMail.com has reached out to the broadcaster to ask whether anyone has been reprimanded internally over the error. 

Senator Booker has not yet made public comment on the bogus interview. DailyMail.com has also reached out to his office for comment. 

It is usually difficult for people to trick their way onto live television and radio programs because they are often vetted by more than one producer. 

However, the incidents do happen from time to time. 

Just two months ago, an animal rights activist managed to appear on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox Business Network program pretending to be the CEO of meat company Smithfield Food. 

The activist trolled the meat industry live on air, and hit out at Smithfield, a company which has had more than 1,300 of its employees test positive to COVID-19.