Sun sees political motive behind BBC Hunt gaffes

Like the rest of the press, the Sun highlights the gaffes by Jim Naughtie and Andrew Marr in mispronouncing Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's name on the BBC yesterday but the paper also sees a political motive behind the verbal mishaps.

Its news story - headlined 'A Bunch of Hunts' - notes of Naughtie: "The veteran broadcaster, 59, then dissolved into giggles about his mislabelling of the MP - unpopular with some at the BBC over his tough new licence fee deal."

Then the Sun says in a leader: "THE BBC "accidentally" mixed up Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt with a particularly abusive four-letter word yesterday. And, oops! It happened not once but twice. All very funny for the overgrown schoolboys responsible. But the Beeb's disastrous day got worse when, oops again, it broadcast an interview with an imposter posing as a government aide. Just one question: Would our "impartial" state broadcaster be so casually insulting and incompetent towards a left-wing government?"

• The Guardian in an editorial today 'In praise of...Freudian slips' asks: "The question is whether yesterday's one-letter blunder, which had prudish Today listeners protesting it had spoiled their cornflakes, was instead a Freudian slip. Hunt took it with humour, but the BBC is beset by buttoned-up rage about a harsh licence-fee deal. Was subterranean fury boiling over, or was naughty Mr Naughtie revealing the perennial preoccupations of the human subconscious?"