Egyptian TV host Ahmed Moussa has owned up to the error of the video game footage he mistakenly presented as exclusive footage of Russian airstrikes in Syria on his show Sunday night.
Moussa, who hosts the "Ala Masoleyety" show on Egyptian TV channel "Sada El-Balad," received a lot of backlash after it was discovered that the exclusive footage he presented of Russia's bombings in Syria was actually footage from the combat flight simulator video game "Apache: Air Assault" that was uploaded to YouTube in 2010.
"We work all the time, we work eight hours, nine hours and 10 hours a day, so it is likely for any mistake to occur, it's very likely, and a mistake did occur, it's likely," Moussa said confidently in response on his show Monday night, and then thanked his audience for informing him of the error.
"I would like to thank you, our respectable audiences everywhere, because you alerted us. Of course the importance of this is we were able to tell the friend from the enemy, the one who waits for you to make a mistake, the one who doesn't talk about the positives, he wants the mistake."
The controversial television personality's mistake caught the attention of some international media and was heavily criticized and ridiculed on social media, as it became the focus of sarcastic memes, comments and hashtags such as the Arabic hashtag "tweet as if you were Ahmed Moussa."
Moussa didn't clearly apologize but said "Aren't I human? I'm human, and we are all human, we make mistakes, is there anyone who doesn't make mistakes?"
The anchor then went on to suggest that it was his show's importance and influence that caused the mistake to receive the reaction that it did. "It's just because it is this show and its importance. If this had happened in other places, no one would have seen or cared."
He concluded his commentary by saying that the "minor things" shouldn't be given the attention but the focus should instead be on how he wholeheartedly supports Russia's efforts in fighting terrorism and carrying out airstrikes in Syria.