BBC under fire after controversial edit of Trump speech
The BBC is facing a major crisis following the resignations of its director general and head of news, and a threat of a $1bn (£800m) lawsuit from US President Donald Trump.
The corporation has come under intense scrutiny after claims that a Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by President Trump in a way that appeared to show him urging people to attack the US Capitol.
On Monday, BBC chairman Samir Shah apologised for what he described as an “error of judgement”. President Trump has demanded a retraction, an apology and financial compensation, giving the BBC a deadline of Friday to respond.
Concerns about the programme arose after the Telegraph published a leaked internal memo. The memo, written by former external adviser Michael Prescott, also criticised the BBC’s reporting on transgender issues and BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.
The Panorama programme, Trump: A Second Chance?, was broadcast on 28 October 2024, before the US presidential election.
According to the leaked memo, the one-hour documentary edited sections of Trump’s 6 January 2021 speech together in a way that made it appear he was explicitly encouraging the Capitol Hill riot.
In his original speech in Washington DC, Trump said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
In the Panorama version, he was shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The two sections were taken from different points in the speech, more than 50 minutes apart. The “fight like hell” remark originally referred to Trump’s claims about election corruption.
The memo warned that the edit amounted to a “distortion of the day’s events” and questioned “why the BBC should be trusted”. It added that BBC managers had “refused to accept there had been a breach of standards” when the issue was raised internally.
Following publication of the Telegraph’s report, the BBC received more than 500 complaints, Shah said in a letter to Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
“The conclusion of that deliberation is that we accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action,” Shah said. “The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement.”
After director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resigned on Sunday, President Trump claimed that “top people in the BBC were quitting or being fired because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th.”
“These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election,” he said. “What a terrible thing for Democracy!”
Trump’s lawyers have sent a letter to the BBC threatening legal action and setting out three demands:
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An immediate full and fair retraction of the documentary and any related “false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements”.
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A public apology for those statements.
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Appropriate compensation for the alleged harm caused.
The letter states that if the BBC does not comply by 22:00 GMT on Friday, 14 November, Trump will “enforce his legal and equitable rights… including by filing legal action for no less than $1bn in damages.”
A BBC spokesperson said the corporation would respond “in due course.”
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