Obama? Osama? To NBC Employee, Consonants Are Confusing

• Feb 20, 2008 06:30 PM ET
• by TV Guide News

In another case of confusing those pesky consonants S and B, an NBC employee mistakenly flashed a picture of Osama bin Laden on the screen as MSNBC host Chris Matthews talked about presidential candidate Barack Obama.

NBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines said, "This mistake was inexcusable." The photo mix-up came during Hardball on Monday, as Matthews teased a segment on the controversy over Obama's use of another politician's words in a speech. A picture of the al Qaeda leader flashed for a moment with the text, "Words About Words."

Obama's campaign complained immediately, Matthews apologized moments later and in the rerun episode, the photo was corrected. The network did not disclose the name of the photo-swapping culprit, nor discussed what, if any, consequences the individual is facing. The Obama campaign, meanwhile, has seen this S and B error before, and has already garnered a similar apology from CNN. There was no comment from the Bin Laden camp. - Anna Dimond