ITV confuses IRA attack with ArmA clip
UPDATE: Broadcaster cites "human error".
UPDATE: ITV has commented on the error, insisting it was all down to plain old human error. Here's the statement:
"The events featured in Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA were genuine but it would appear that during the editing process the correct clip of the 1988 incident was not selected and other footage was mistakenly included in the film by producers. This was an unfortunate case of human error for which we apologise."
ORIGINAL STORY:In an extraordinary blunder, ITV documentary series Exposure last night broadcast what it claimed was real life combat footage filmed by the IRA, when in fact it was just a cinematic taken from PC FPS ArmA II.
You can see the offending clip, which the show labelled as an IRA attack on British forces in 1988, over on YouTube.
ITV is yet to comment on how the mix-up happened but has promised us a comment is forthcoming. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile ArmA II developer Bohemia Interactive has chimed in, with CEO Marek Spanel telling Spong of his bewilderment at the cock-up.
"It is very weird to see our game used this way, especially considering the journalists were simply unable to tell difference between reality and game footage and described a short film clearly made using our game Arma II with what they call real IRA footage from 1988," he said.
"Our games offer great level of freedom to our users to create all kind of things but in this particular case, it is very misleading. At the moment we are gathering further information about the matter but I already had a chance to see the documentary and so far I am not sure how could they make such an obvious mistake.
"On a somewhat more positive note, we consider this as a bizarre appreciation of the level of realism incorporated into our games."