It’s the kind of footage that gets documentary makers in a steamy lather: a group of masked terrorists standing in a field with guns, shooting down a helicopter which plummets to the ground and explodes. It’s a clip that forces the audience to sit up and take notice, vicariously dragging them in to a sordid tale of arms dealers, terrorists and the despot Muammar Gaddafi.
ITV’s new Exposure programme succeeded in the latter, but not for the reasons it would have liked. People sat up, and noticed that the footage wasn’t real. It was – bewilderingly obvious to many except the production team – a clip from a video game.
ITV has been quick to blame “human error” for the events that led to the clip being broadcast to an audience of 1.3 million. Regardless, ITV has shot itself, and its future journalistic credibility, in the foot with a mistake that a child could have spotted.
The great shame is that Exposure represents something that should be championed more often on commercial British television. Here, ITV was investing in something that is never going to rake in the cash like X-Factor, or draw in a regular audience like Coronation Street.
Exposure is a throwback to times when the channel was heralded for its hard-hitting investigative journalism – World in Action, for example – and it was announced with this history in mind.
This error, however, leaves big questions hanging over the competence of the team charged with following World in Action‘s footsteps. Let’s not forget: the journalists are meant to ask the questions, not answer them.
