'I've lied to the nation' - BBC respond to Newcastle United fake news blunder shared on Radio One
A fake news story involving a Newcastle United player has made its way to BBC Radio One airwaves this week.
Newcastle United midfielder Joe Willock found himself at the centre of a very amusing but entirely made up story that made its way to the national stage this week.
Willock was the latest target of Newcastle United social media prankster Francis Chipp, also known as ‘Big Frank’, when it was claimed that the 26-year-old had to be rescued from York Maze after becoming lost.
@FrancisChipp wrote: “EXCLUSIVE : Newcastle United midfielder Joe Willock, 26, had to be rescued from York Maze after a distress call to emergency services was made at around 5pm on Tuesday. He had been lost in the UK's largest maze for approximately six hours.”
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Big Frank goes viral once again
The immaculate wording and presentation of the tweet almost make it believable, but anyone familiar with Big Frank’s antics knew exactly what was going on.
The fake-news expert previously posted about how Harvey Barnes and John Barnes became the first father son duo to score for the same club in the Champions League following the former’s strike against Union Saint-Gilloise a fortnight ago.
There was also the viral summer transfer ‘story’ about Matt Targett being left in South Korea in pre-season which was something the left-back addressed himself on social media as he wrote: “Made it back in time for training!”
Former Newcastle midfielder Sean Longstaff was also previously asked in a Champions League press conference about a story that surfaced about him wanting to go travelling with his brother Matty Longstaff during the season. Again, the source was Big Frank.
“The gaffer wouldn’t give me the month off, so I was a bit gutted like!” Longstaff laughed in response.
“I don’t really know what to say, I think it’s a bit scary that one person can write something that’s not true and the amount of people that think it is true is nuts.”
But even a quick glance of the @FrancisChipp’s X profile warns the public what to expect as its bio clearly reads: “Everything I post is made up.”
But that didn’t stop BBC Radio One from sharing the story about Willock as if it really happened.
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Joe Willock fake news makes its way to BBC Radio One
As part of the Rickie, Melvin and Charlie Show on BBC Radio One on Tuesday morning, the Willock maze story was brought up.
It’s important to stress that the story was not mentioned in the form of an official news bulletin but rather as a topic of light-hearted conversation brought up by co-host Melvin Odoom to prompt a discussion into getting lost in unique places.
He said: “Do you know Newcastle player Joe Willock? He plays in the midfield area.
“He was recued from a York maze recently after a distress call was made to emergency services at around 5pm. He was stuck in the maze for around six hours. It's the UK's largest maze so he went in as a little trip and he got lost within it.”
The tale was queried by Charlie Hedges, who asked: “Is there no cameras in it?”
But Odoom and Rickie Haywood-Williams doubled down by claiming there were no cameras spoke about the story as if it were fact.
But in reality, it was straight from the mind of Big Frank Chippa.
BBC respond to fake news
The mistake was quickly pointed out to the show as Hedges said later in the show: “Melv, I’m sorry to let you know this but we’re being flooded by messages from people saying you’ve had an absolute mare talking about football because there’s apparently this account and he just makes up fake news all the time and sees who chats about it.
“So sorry about that.”
Odoom replied: “Is that true? So that never happened to Joe at all? Why would they target him in such a way?