The BBC’s Foolish Gift to Donald Trump
It began with a revelation in The Telegraph on November 3. The paper had seen an internal memo in the BBC pointing to editing on its October 2024 Panorama programme of two parts of US President Donald Trump’s speech in January 2021. The sin was not in the editing but its liberal manner, suggesting that Trump had explicitly incited the Capitol Hill riots of January 6. Through spliced footage, Trump is initially shown promising to walk with his supporters to the Capitol where he would “fight like hell” when he had said he would walk with them “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”.
The Panorama special, titled “Trump: A Second Chance?”, goes on to give the impression that flag-waving men had also converged with menacing intent after the speech. In the words of the dossier, this “created the impression Trump’s supporters had taken up his ‘call to arms,’” when the footage had, in fact, been shot before the address.
The internal leaked memo, running into 19 pages, was all the more stinging in coming from a former external advisor to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC), Michael Prescott. The document also alleged that senior executives, including the BBC chairman Samir Shah, had given the cold shoulder to various serious complaints submitted by an advisor to the EGSC. There was a general refusal “to accept there had been a breach of standards”. Indeed, at the EGSC meeting on May 12, 2025, the corporation’s deputy director of news, Jonathan Munro, blandly asserts it as “normal practice to edit speeches into short form clips.” Nor did he see any need to balance the Trump Panorama special “with an equally aggressive look at [Democratic candidate Kamala] Harris”. In Munro’s words, there was no need “for due impartiality to have companion programmes”.
The Conservatives, scrounging for every morsel to claw back some electoral appeal, saw a gaming chance in barking at the corporation. Former Tory prime minister Boris Johnson was seething in calling the revelations a “total disgrace”. Current Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was all in favour of seeing heads roll. “The BBC license fee,” stated shadow culture secretary Nigel Huddleston, “is justified on the basis of impartiality and trust.” There could be “no justification for this kind of deliberate manipulation and the spreading of misinformation.” And, he argued, the corporation had form. “This is not the first time that evidence of bias at the BBC has emerged, but it is one of the most stark and alarming examples to date.”
Heads did roll, and not merely because of the Panorama program. The corporation has also been assailed regarding its coverage of Gaza and such topics as transgender rights. Tim Davie, the Director-General of the BBC, along with Deborah Turness, CEO of news, stepped up to the chopping block. In his statement, Davie had “been reflecting on the very intense personal and professional demands of managing this role over many years in these febrile times” allied to “the fact that I want to give a successor time to help the Charter plans they will be delivering.” Admitting merely “some mistakes” in the organisation, the BBC remained “the most trusted news brand globally.”
Turness was more explicit. “The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love.” While taking her share of responsibility for the debacle, she remained “absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”
For his part, Shah preferred a letter of tardy contrition to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sports Committee. He conceded that “the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgment.”
It had been a foolish thing to do. The Panorama mangle gift wrapped the claims of bias to British politicians and figures best exposed. It also gave the White House more grist to the mill in arguing that the Fourth Estate was not to be trusted and worthy of being hounded. Trump has already made something of a habit of raging against the American networks and successfully settling claims. In December last year, ABC News settled a lawsuit with Trump in which it agreed to give $15 million to Trump’s presidential library. Trump claimed that anchor George Stephanopoulos had inaccurately asserted on-air that he had been liable for raping E. Jean Carroll.
In July, Paramount settled with Trump’s legal team to the sum of $16 million also intended for the future Donald Trump Library. CBS’s parent company had folded under pressure, despite frivolous claims regarding editorial decisions on a CBS interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in 2024. The settlement was undoubtedly helped along by the presence of Trump’s Federal Communications Commission appointee Brendan Carr.
Such settlements can only sully the networks and their news divisions. CBS news anchor John Dickerson is hard to fault in points made in his Reporter’s Notebook segment: “Can you hold power to account when you’ve paid it millions? Can an audience trust you when you’ve traded away that trust?”
With the BBC admitting to error, and a few high-level resignations, Trump’s desire to extend his bullying approach to a foreign broadcaster has been stirred. His lawyers seek three actions from the corporation: a retraction of the documentary, an apology, and compensation. Failing to do this, legal action for $1 billion in damages will be sought.
The chastening question in all of this was why the Panorama crew even felt the need to splice and adjust footage, despite being aware that news coverage, at least of the BBC brand, must be above reproach. The corporation’s former North America editor Jon Sopel, aware of Trump’s snarling disposition to the press, summed it up: “You do not leave any room for error; you just have to be scrupulous.” Trump is more than able to do the work for documentary makers without elaborate abridgments or forced edits, very much a man capable of being hoisted by his own petard. Unfortunately, those in the news business just can’t help themselves.
By AFP
November 11, 2025
Donald Trump's lawyers have threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion over the misleading edit - Copyright AFP HENRY NICHOLLS
Akshata KAPOOR
The BBC’s outgoing boss on Tuesday defended its journalists as the broadcaster grappled with how to respond to US President Donald Trump’s threat of a lawsuit over a misleading speech edit.
Trump’s lawyers on Monday gave the BBC until Friday to “appropriately compensate” the president for “harm caused” by a documentary containing the edit, or face a $1 billion lawsuit for damages.
The controversy has already seen the under-fire broadcaster apologise for giving the impression that Trump directly urged “violent action” just before the assault on the US Capitol by his supporters in 2021.
It has also claimed the jobs of two senior executives and lifted the lid on tensions at the top of the renowned institution over the coverage of hot-button issues, including the war in Gaza.
Director general Tim Davie, who resigned on Sunday, admitted the broadcaster had made “some mistakes that have cost us” but said “we’ve got to fight for our journalism”.
“These times are difficult for the BBC, but we will get through it,” Davie said, according to BBC News.
The BBC reported that Davie did not directly address Trump’s legal threat in the meeting.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman on Tuesday said it was “not for the government to comment on any ongoing legal matters” related to the BBC.
Starmer had previously defended the BBC as having a “vital role in an age of disinformation”. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is also set to make a statement in parliament about the row.
– Board divisions –
The BBC, which is funded by the British public, has faced growing accusations of bias from different ideological camps.
The latest crisis, which spiralled after the Daily Telegraph last week leaked a memo by former BBC advisor Michael Prescott, has also laid bare some of the divisions within the BBC and its board.
In his report, Prescott raised concerns about anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service, the coverage of the Gaza war, and the BBC’s reporting on trans issues, among others.
In a public apology for the Trump speech edit, BBC chair Samir Shah on Monday said the broadcaster had taken steps to address other issues in Prescott’s memo, vowing to reform oversight within the organisation.
Some current and former BBC journalists have blamed right-wing board members for leading the charge that the BBC is “institutionally biased” — which outgoing BBC News CEO Deborah Turness denied.
However, Mark Urban, a former BBC editor and presenter, suggested in a blog that “culture wars” and liberal voices were also at fault for the lapses.
The BBC is due to renegotiate its Royal Charter, which outlines the corporation’s governance and will end in 2027.
Davie said despite recent controversies — which have sparked calls for changing the licence-fee funding model that the BBC depends on — the broadcaster was in a “really good position to get a good charter”.
– ‘Prepared for all outcomes’ –
Public callers told BBC Radio 5 on Tuesday they would refuse to pay the licence fee if “we have to pay a penny to Trump”.
Trump has been accused of a hostile campaign to stifle US news and media organisations since returning to power in January.
The letter from his legal team said the edit in the BBC’s flagship Panorama documentary programme gave a “false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory” impression of what he said in his speech outside the White House.
A federal criminal case accusing Trump of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden was dropped because of his November 2024 White House victory.
Trump’s lawyers are threatening to sue the BBC in Florida. They would be too late to file a lawsuit in the UK, where there is generally a one-year time limit for bringing libel claims, given that the documentary was aired in the UK in October 2024.
But Trump would face other challenges. Media and defamation lawyer Matthew Gill told AFP the Panorama documentary would likely have had a “very small audience” in the United States, making it harder to prove harm caused to Trump.
BBC chair Shah told BBC News on Monday that the organisation was “considering how to reply” to Trump.
When asked about whether the legal threat could be real, Shah replied: “I do not know that yet, but he’s a litigious fellow, so we should be prepared for all outcomes.”
Ewan Gleadow
November 10, 2025
Donald Trump speaks to the media. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
A UK politician has warned Donald Trump could "destroy" the BBC.
The British Broadcasting Company director general, Tim Davie, as well as head of news Deborah Turness, resigned Monday following criticism of a documentary aired about Trump. An internal memo at the BBC suggested two parts of Trump's speech in the Panorama show had been edited together to make it look as though he explicitly encouraged the Capitol Hill riot of January 2021.
Trump has since responded to the documentary and the resignations of Davie and Turness in a post to Truth Social. He wrote: "The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught 'doctoring' my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th.
"Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt 'Journalists.' These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!"
But Ed Davey, a member of the UK parliament and leader of the Liberal Democrats party, warned that Trump has the power to "destroy" the BBC following the Panorama documentary. Responding to Trump's Truth Social post, Davey wrote: "It's easy to see why Trump wants to destroy the world's number one news source. We can't let him.
"The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK. The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it." Outraged members of the public agreed with Davey, with one person calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "make it abundantly clear to the fool Trump" that the president's opinion of the BBC was of no interest.
Davey also called the former director general a "decent man doing a difficult job" and warned the White House and Trump's statements on the BBC are worrying.
He wrote: "I had my disagreements with the BBC under Tim Davie but he was a decent man doing a difficult job. To see Trump's White House claiming credit for his downfall and attacking the BBC should worry us all."
In Trump's speech in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, he said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."
However, in the Panorama edit 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." Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has since described the BBC as "100% fake news."
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