Right before a special BBC America World Debate on the future of news during the TED 2008 conference in Monterey, California, the crew had a technical difficulty.
Suddenly, a heckler spoke up from the back of the room:
The crowd hushed down as soon as it realized who was doing the heckling: attendee Robin Williams. It being Robin Williams, it didn't take much cheering from the crowd to get him on stage. He then spent the next 15 minutes doing improv standup comedy to an eager crowd and an embarrassed BBC America staff.
"A new internet service in Israel is called Netanyahu." "Sergey Brin: started in garage and now he owns everything." "So, how much money have we raised so far?" And on and on, in the way only Robin Williams can do.
BBC finally got its technological ducks in a row (Williams: "This is supposed to be a presentation on new media?"), and the panel went on. (Source: Megan Barnett at Spottings Blog)
You can watch Robin Williams' impromptu hijacking of the debate on BBC's website: Link - Thanks moronic50!
Why he was allowed to go on for fifteen minutes is what surprises me.
Get off BBC. American news is out of control...I need BBC not to be retarded
Nope, not a fox news guy. I think Fox is as about as news worthy as any other sensational news agency.
I am not a big fan of news media, and I have first hand witnessed the BBC's lying and unethical news reporting. They lie, they create controversy out of everything and they prey on the misfortune and tragedy of everyone and everything.
Just like all news agencies.
Dipshits like to divide news in to conservative and liberal viewpoints, but the truth is the news media creates controversy out of nothing. Lies are what they sell....
You guys are brutal. I kind-of just figured it was an April Fools thing.
From Mork to Mawkish.
As for the stuff about the BBC being a leftist government mouth piece.
Well, frankly that is just gibberish.
You'd have to have media like Fox to ever think of the beeb as being some leftist hot bed of sedition.
It's pretty much centrist, so gathers the ire of both left and right in the UK.
There is also the idea that the BBC only shows the US in a negative light.
Is it any news medias function to show the USA in a positive light?
I mean other than Fox obviously.
See that wouldn't be the news, that would be cheerleading.
So basically to see the centrist BBC as being extreme left, you have to be viewing it from the EXTREME right.
All the best.
:)
In reading what some wrote about the media being controled by the government and such I think it has more to do with entertainment. Sure all governments will sway thier media groups to put themselves in a positive light and others in the negitive. However Americans are so much into being entertained that they even need it in thier news broadcasts. That's the reason why shows like Today, and the View are popular. They will report the news in an entertaining meathod. As a result of this what makes the "news" is chosen by how many/who will watch it.
This is the demands Americans have created. Just something to think about.
I understand that he's good at just getting up on the spot and improvising, but most of the stuff he improvises just isn't that funny. And I find it hard to understand how he can believe that just putting on a funny voice and saying stuff constitutes humour.
Also there's a BBC America? That kind of goes against the name (BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation),doesn't it?
the BBC America thing is really the BBC's American section.
There's BBC World too.
It all sort of stems from the BBC World Service, which dates back to when we had an Empire (adjusts monocle and pith helmet.
You can still listen to the world service.
BBC dot co dot uk and follow the links at the top for tv ot radio.
In the UK we call the BBC Auntie Beeb,The Beeb or just Auntie.
We're rather attached to the old girl.
Deluded.
Most people in Britain are extremely proud of it, especially when compared to something like say, off the top of my head, Fox news.