A television anchor from Britain seemed ill-prepared for news reporting when she was caught extending her middle finger directly toward the live camera in a video that quickly gained widespread attention on Wednesday.
Maryam Moshiri, a prominent BBC host and one of the network’s “chief presenters,” displayed her third finger for the world to witness just before delivering the midday news on Wednesday.
As the classic BBC countdown reached its conclusion, the screen shifted to Moshiri. She tilted her head, widened her eyes, wore a significant smirk, and showcased the unmistakable gesture as the broadcast began.
In a matter of milliseconds, Moshiri grasped the situation, swiftly regaining composure as she commenced her segment with the words, “Live from London, this is BBC News.”
Following that incident, Moshiri proceeded to narrate the lead story of the weekly program “Prime Minister’s Questions,” covering the topic of “former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson offering an apology for the pain and loss experienced in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic.”
She posted an apology on X saying, “I was pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0 including the fingers to show the number. So from 10 fingers held up to one. When we got to 1 I turned finger around as a joke and did not realise that this would be caught on camera. I’m so sorry it went out on air! It was not my intention for this to happen and I’m sorry if I offended or upset anyone. I wasn’t ‘flipping the bird’ at viewers or even a person really.”
The unintentional on-camera moment did not escape attention, with hundreds of social media users taking the opportunity to comment on Moshiri’s unfortunate incident.
“Looks like someone had to make it to work without their morning coffee,” an X user said.
“I have the same expression hearing anyone from BBC,” one post reads.
“I’ll cut her some slack and assume she was flipping off the cameraman,” another one said.
Numerous users went a step further to create memes featuring Moshiri, sharing screenshots of her along with jokes and puns related to her now-famous finger incident.
