Newsman Calls Politician the C-Word ... Accidentally

A BBC radio presenter put his foot in his mouth after stumbling over an MP’s last name, replacing the “H” in “Hunt” with a “C,” the Independent reports. Presenter Jim Naughtie coughed and struggled to resume after making the mistake. “I’m afraid many of you will have noticed that I landed one of those awful verbal tangles, courtesy of Dr. Spooner,” he later said on air.

He was referring to the Oxford professor known for “spoonerisms,” in which words’ letters are switched to amusing results. “Sometimes things happen in live broadcasting that you deeply regret,” Naughtie added. The MP, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, tweeted that he “was laughing as much as u Jim.” Later, discussing the incident, another presenter made the same mistake. Listen to the mistake and some amusing explanation at left.
(More BBC stories.)