BBC journalist Jeremy Paxman apparently told viewers of an early evening edition of Newsnight that voters had made ‘a bollocks’of the election result.
Speaking to camera as the programme came to a close at 7.10pm he introduced the band that was to play out the show by saying: “We play out with the band of the moment, whose music you may recognise from some of the BBC’s election coverage, the xx.
“It’s not just because we seem to have made such a bollocks of the simple act of putting an ‘X’ on a piece of paper. Goodnight.” Although “bollocks” is the only spelling of the word listed in the Collins dictionary, Wikipedia suggests the less vulgar spelling of “bollox” when you are talking about a cock-up.
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Families with young children may have been listening in, said the Telegraph. In the Daily Mail ‘shocked’ viewers were reported to have taken to message boards.
A BBC spokeswoman later told the Telegraph: “We are sorry if anyone has been offended.”
In February, Paxman had to apologise after he swore while reading a quote during Newsnight.
The broadcaster read a direct quote from Andrew Rawnsley’s book on the inner workings of New Labour – The End of the Party – which said: “(Gordon) Brown went berserk with Bob Shrum.’How could you do this to me, Bob?’ Brown screamed at a shaking Shrum. ‘How could you fucking do this to me?'”
A few minutes later Paxman apologised to viewers for his use of the word.
He said: “Apparently I’m told by our editor I have to apologise for quoting what you said the Prime Minister said and using the f word there. So honour satisfied now.”
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