The BBC and ‘swearing aliens’

It’s as humorous as it is stupid. Brian Cox, the British astronomer and presenter of Stargazing Live, wanted to listen to a newly discovered planet live on BBC television. It was a planet that no one had listened to yet. However, Cox writes that he was notified that he was not allowed to do so….

According to Cox:

“The BBC actually said, ‘But you can’t do that because we need to go through the regulations and health and safety and everything in case we discover a signal from an alien civilisation’.”

The point of these regulations are that it was possible that the aliens would swear and curse, and the BBC does not allow that…

Read the entire story here:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/bbc-feared-breach-alien-signal-155210558.html

Addendum: It turned out that the story is a hoax. As Brian comments on Twitter:

 

And he further comments:

 

And yes, that last bit is indeed interesting…

See also this tweet (and the rest of the conversation):