THE BBC has been forced to apologise after initially describing the convicted murderer Phil Spector as “talented but flawed” in a headline, following the music producer’s death in prison on Saturday. Spector died over the weekend aged 81 in prison while serving a minimum sentence of 19 years for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2009.

When the story emerged on the BBC, the first version on the BBC News website used the headline: “Talented but flawed producer Phil Spector dies aged 81”. The BBC later changed this to: “Pop producer jailed for murder dies at 81”. The reasoning the BBC gave for the change of headline was that the original headline “did not meet our editorial standards”.

A statement from the BBC has said: “The breaking news story on Phil Spector’s death was published with a headline that did not meet our editorial standards. This was changed within minutes and we also deleted a tweet that had gone out automatically with the original headline. We apologise for this error”. 

The original headline has been slammed by many. Lily Allen has taken to Twitter to say: “Rolling eyes at all the journos deliberately downplaying Phil Spector being a murderer in their headlines, so everyone points this out while linking to their articles resulting in lots of clicks”. 

Phil Spector has claimed that Lana Clarkson’s death was “accidental suicide” and argued that she “kissed the gun” before it went off. Spector’s death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Sunday evening.

Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century.  Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.  

This content was sourced from Unity News Network.