Apparently this is what happened, according to what a BBC spokesperson told The Guardian:

“This morning as Simon McCoy was preparing to introduce this story, instead of picking up his tablet to hold as he went to air, he mistakenly picked up a ream of paper that was sitting next to it. In the rush of live news, he didn’t have an opportunity to swap the items, so simply went with it.”

What I want to know is why didn’t McCoy simply, you know, drop the ream of paper out of camera view when he realized it wasn’t an iPad instead of holding it during live broadcast like an idiot?

[via Geekologie]