Woman’s Hour mixes up Asian guests in ‘car crash’ show
Vietnamese film-maker is asked questions that were intended for Japanese doctor on Radio 4 show
ONE is a Japanese doctor acclaimed for her work promoting the safety of the HPV vaccine, the other is a Vietnamese film-maker, in Britain for the opening of her retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Unfortunately, staff at BBC Radio 4
Woman’s Hour failed to tell the difference between Dr Riko Muranaka and Trinh T Minh-ha. Cue an excruciating exchange on live radio, in which an oblivious Jenni Murray set about interviewing the wrong person.
After an introduction explaining that Dr Muranaka is the recipient of this year’s John Maddox Prize for promoting science on a matter of public interest, Murray turned to her studio guest. “Riko, why did you pursue this subject?”
There followed a very long pause. Murray, a tiny note of anxiety in her voice, tried again. “Why did you pursue this subject?”
“Which subject are you pointing to,” asked a perplexed Ms Trinh.
“The subject of the HPV vaccine. The 20 articles that you wrote on it,” Murray said, clearly wondering why the doctor, journalist and lecturer at Kyoto University’s school of medicine was being so obtuse.
“It’s not me,” came the reply. Murray countered: “I’m sorry?”
“It’s not me,” Ms Trinh repeated, with a nervous laugh. “I guess you got the wrong speaker.”
“You are Dr Riko Muranaka,” asked Murray. And then, as the terrible realisation dawned: “You’re not Dr Riko Muranaka ...”
Murray then had to explain to listeners that “somebody has brought in the wrong person for this interview”.
With smooth professionalism, she promised to return to Ms Trinh later, and played for time before the correct guest was ushered into the room.
“Now we have been joined by Dr Muranaka. Sorry, there was a mix-up there,” Murray said.
Ms Trinh eventually returned for a slot later in the programme, as originally intended, to talk about her work. She is a film-maker, composer and Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at UC Berkeley.
On social media, listeners described the mix-up as a “car crash”, both “funny and quite embarrassing”.
One suggested: “Perhaps all Asians look the same to the Woman’s Hour team,” while another asked: “Are these women interchangeable due to their respective races?”
Murray offered “apologies for the confusion”. The BBC did not apologise, instead saying that the mix-up was Ms Trinh’s fault because she stood up when a junior member of the production team came into the waiting area and called for Dr Muranaka and another guest, Katie Silver, the BBC health and science reporter.
“Guests are brought on air quickly in live radio and mistakes can happen. On this occasion the wrong guest came forward when the names were called for the studio, and to suggest this was a mix-up for any other reason is incorrect,” a BBC spokesman said. The BBC could not explain why staff had failed to tell the two women apart, when they had tweeted out a picture of the real Dr Muranaka a minute before the show started.
A spokesman for Ms Trinh confirmed that she had mistakenly stood up when the assistant entered the room. “She didn’t hear properly. The production person rushed in and Minh-ha got up,” he said, adding that she was not upset by what happened.
In 2006, Guy Goma found himself being interviewed live on the BBC news channel about the legal dispute between Apple and the Beatles’ record label, Apple Corp, over trademark rights.
Mr Goma was there by mistake – he had been sitting in the BBC lobby waiting to attend an interview for an IT job, but a staff member mixed him up with Guy Kewney, a technology journalist.
Unlike Ms Trinh, Mr Goma simply attempted to plough on with the interview, becoming an internet hero in the process.
‘Guests are brought on air quickly in live radio and mistakes can happen’