Netizens “school” BBC over mistake on Schooling

PETALING JAYA: Netizens slammed British broadcaster BBC News yesterday for labeling Singaporean Olympic gold medalist Joseph Schooling as Malaysian.

The New Straits Times reported that the “mistake” happened in a video the broadcaster had put up on its official Facebook page, chronicling its favourite moments of the Rio Olympics.

Among the moments highlighted were the “bromance” between Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and Canada’s Andre De Grasse in the men’s 200m semi-final and the selfie shared between a North Korean and South Korean gymnast.

On Schooling, BBC included this caption : “Joseph Schooling of Malaysia can’t believe he has beaten Michael Phelps in the men’s butterfly final”.

This did not sit well with netizens. One Victoria Murphy commented “Hmmm. I think you will find Schooling is from Singapore and not Malaysia. Disappointed BBC, this is huge news for them. First ever gold medal in the Olympics, rather important to them. Hope they don’t see that you said he was from Malaysia.”

Singaporean Aloysius Lim took a swipe at Malaysia, asking BBC to not “rub it in to Malaysia, who has not gotten gold yet despite 4 silvers…And to think they were part of your empire…”

Selina Sue of Malaysia, meanwhile, said “Yeah…we Malaysians are riding high for Schooling too because his Mom hails from Ipoh, a town in Malaysia. We are proud of this boy too.”

Another netizen remarked that she wished Schooling was from Malaysia.

However, at the time this article was written, BBC had amended the mistake, drawing praise from netizens for the “quick action”.

Facebook user Byron Wee said :”Kudos for checking the comments and correcting the Schooling mistake within the hour BBC news. That’s great to see, good job!”.

To this, BBC replied “Thanks Byron. That’s why your comments are so important to us”.

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