A BBC News anchor made international news last week when she did something rather shocking: She was caught flipping the bird on live television. The clip made it to Last Week with John Oliver, and it went viral all over America. Maryam Moshiri, the anchor who performed the lewd act, apologized profusely for the incident, but now there’s full video that proves, like she said, that it was all a silly joke.
The full countdown to BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri giving the middle finger is even better than the original broadcast 🙏 pic.twitter.com/Tn8lwuvyIU
— The National (@ScotNational) December 15, 2023
In the 13-second video, Moshiri uses her fingers to visually count down to 10, when the feed will go live to viewers. Once she gets to number two, Moshiri flips her hand around, showing a jokily rude gesture that’s popular in the UK. Finally one digit is left, and it’s the one that’s a rude gesture in the U.S. as well.
From there she smoothly slips into a more formal vibe, telling viewers, “Live from London, this is BBC News.” The show’s director simply cut to her too quickly.
After the clip went viral, Moshiri was quick to make amends.
“Hey, I’m so sorry about this,” she tweeted. “I was having a private joke with the team in the gallery and pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0.. including the fingers to show the number. When we got to 1 I turned finger around as a joke and did not realise that this would be caught on camera.”
Moshiri described the bit as a “silly joke that was meant for a small number of my mates.”
Hey, I’m so sorry about this.
I was having a private joke with the team in the gallery and pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0.. including the fingers to show the number.When we got to 1 I turned finger around as a joke and did not realise…
— Maryam Moshiri (@BBCMaryam) December 7, 2023
Hey, more embarrassing things have happened to anchors on live television.
(Via Deadline)