This is hilarious and journalistic. Like all of my content, then.

Guy Kewney of News Wireless was invited to appear on BBC News 24 as an expert commentator on the Apple Records/Apple Computer lawsuit as the ruling came in. The trouble is that this eloquent and informed tech writer, who happens to be fair-haired and white, went on the air looking…uh…black, and plainly not a native speaker of English. Also the only thing he knew about MP3 players seemed to be that you can download music in cybercaf?s. Some expert…

The joke is that somehow they’d managed not to put Guy Kewney on, but instead his minicab driver who had been waiting at reception. The poor guy was dropped in front of a camera and then asked about one of the biggest tech lawsuits of the year and, after pulling the most terrified face I’ve ever seen on TV, tried to fumble his way through an answer.

You can read Kewney’s personal account of the debacle here, and see the video of the interview here. Doesn’t do a lot for the BBC’s generally good reputation, does it?

UPDATE: Looks like the press reports were slightly inaccurate (the source of the video was the Mail, after all), but the real thing is even more unbelievable. The guy was actually there for a job interview and gives his opinion on the whole thing here. I didn’t realise until I saw it on the MacCast site.