Ignorant NBC news chiefs ridicule Ed Miliband by depicting him as generic flu sufferer

Last Updated: December 20, 2016By

Getting snotty … The photo of Ed Miliband blowing his nose used by a US TV channel [Image: NBC].

If Mr Miliband has been planning any future attempts to undermine Jeremy Corbyn, this won’t help.

To prevent further misrepresentations, perhaps Mr Miliband should start introducing himself with photographs like that – or the famous ‘bacon sandwich’ shot?

To be honest, the story is about the parochial attitudes and ignorance of NBC news producers and presenters.

We recently had fun at Boris Johnson’s expense when he couldn’t name certain foreign statespeople, but this US broadcaster can’t even remember a formerly leading politician in the country that is America’s closest ally.

It’s pathetic. If Mr Miliband had won the 2015 election, we’d be looking at an international incident.

But, on this precedent, I can’t wait to see how they’ll use images of David Cameron.

A photograph of the former Labour leader [Ed Miliband] blowing his nose has been broadcast on US television as an example of a generic “man with flu”.

Apparently taken at the party conference in 2011, the image shows Miliband clearing his nostrils with a large white handkerchief. Though his features are partly hidden, it clearly shows the then Labour leader.

Unaware of who he was, however, producers at NBC News used the photograph as a stock image to introduce a news report about flu vaccinations.

Source: Ed Miliband blowing his nose makes it on to NBC nightly news | Politics | The Guardian

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8 Comments

  1. Martin Odoni December 20, 2016 at 11:49 am - Reply

    With or without flu, I can’t help but feel that ‘generic man’ is kind of an astute sum-up of Miliband as a leader.

  2. Christine Cullen December 20, 2016 at 12:12 pm - Reply

    That’s US news stations for you. With a few notable exceptions they are either outright liars (Murdoch’s Fox News, commonly known as Faux News or Fox Noise,) or completely inept like MSNBC as mentioned (commonly known as NBC or MessNBC!)
    Beware the Murdoch family getting hold of Sky News and then attempting to influence UK broadcasting rules via a compliant Tory government.

  3. Barry Davies December 20, 2016 at 2:41 pm - Reply

    Well if someone has a flu injection because of seeing his photo he will be able to claim he was a success at something I suppose.

  4. treborc December 20, 2016 at 3:14 pm - Reply

    See he not working class enough, one finger to nose and blow it out all over the road , That your working class lad.

    • Mike Sivier December 24, 2016 at 12:56 pm - Reply

      And how would THAT play on the evening news?

  5. Simon December 20, 2016 at 5:30 pm - Reply

    Jeremy Corbyn is doing worse, much worse, than Ed Miliband was at the same point in the electoral cycle last time around. Do you honestly believe that Mr Corbyn, surrounded and supported by the people he has chosen to people his shadow cabinet, has any chance of becoming the UKs next Prime Minister, Mike? I mean, really? I’ve got a bad feeling that Mrs May might beat him by a large margin which is scary.

    • Mike Sivier December 24, 2016 at 12:53 pm - Reply

      You say Mr Corbyn is doing worse than Mr Miliband? By whose standards?
      If you’re going to quote the ever-more-inaccurate opinion polls, be prepared to be laughed off the page.

  6. Florence December 20, 2016 at 5:38 pm - Reply

    This is something we’re going to see much more of, now the T&C of the like of Google and Facebook mean that ANY image we load will become their property not ours. The massive picture library will be rich pickings for photo users who will no longer pay agency fees for stock images, just steal them from you & me. It will also be rich pickings for the creation of massive face recognition libraries for the security forces or indeed anyone with the time and money to do that.

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