Aug 24, 2020 • 1 min read

Bauer Media apologises after Nicola Sturgeon speech drowned out by sweary rant

Bauer Media has apologised after a member of its Scottish digital team swore loudly during a Facebook Live stream of a speech by Nicola Sturgeon.

Several Bauer Media-owned radio stations in Scotland have apologised after broadcasting a lengthy string of expletives in a livestreamed address from Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon across their Facebook channels last week.

Sturgeon wasn't the one doing all the swearing, I should probably say. Although she can be heard faintly in the background delivering her speech, the more prominent voice in the video posted on the radio network's Facebook page is a member of Bauer staff trying and failing to get the video feed of that speech onto the livestream.

The issue, apparently, was that the Scottish government's own livestream was not in its usual location and therefore wasn't working as expected.

"Fuck", a voice can be heard saying in a screen recording of the incident shared on social media. "FUCK! Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! FUUUUUUUCK! Why is this thing so stressful? Why can't it just be fucking normal? Oh my god. Oh my fucking god. I'm live to like 2000 people and I've got nothing to fucking show them cos they've moved the fucking stream, and the thing they've moved it to I can't fucking link to cos I can't press play".

It has to be said, by far the most stressful thing about the video as captured is watching the person who recorded it attempting to spell 'job centre' correctly for much of its duration, as those tuned in live comment on where the swearer might be heading once his bosses find out about the mistake. Although I can see why Bauer might not agree with that.

In a statement, the company said: "We would like to unreservedly apologise to listeners and to the First Minister for Scotland for inappropriate language broadcast by a member of the digital production team on a Bauer Media Scotland Facebook Live . This was due to human error and the content was removed immediately. Additional processes will be put in place to ensure this does not happen again".

Assuming you didn't reach your swearword quota for the day while reading the transcription above, you can watch the video here.

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