Donald Trump’s ongoing animosity towards the BBC.
The BBC announced in an official statement on Thursday evening that the way parts of Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021 (16th) speech were edited in the “Panorama” documentary was an error of judgment and that the network “sincerely regrets” this mistake. The statement came after public pressure and the release of internal documents in recent days forced the BBC to explain the method that critics said “created the false impression that the US president had made a direct call for violent action.” The BBC also announced that the documentary would no longer be available on any of the network’s platforms.
However, the apology, which followed the simultaneous resignation of the BBC’s director general and head of news, did not satisfy Trump, who claimed that the editing had seriously damaged his reputation and announced that legal action against the BBC would “certainly” be taken. He said the network had “misled public opinion” and should “be held accountable for the consequences.”
The crisis was further compounded when the Daily Telegraph revealed that the BBC’s Newsnight programme had aired a similar edited version of Trump’s speech in 2022. The issue was raised in an internal editorial meeting at the time, according to a whistleblower, but was not discussed by editors. The wider question in the British media landscape is whether the incident was simply a technical error or a sign of “structural bias” in the BBC newsroom.
The pressure was heightened by the publication of a confidential memo by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee. In the memo, which was leaked last week, he warned that there was “serious and systemic bias” in the coverage of some issues and that management was unwilling to accept breaches of standards. The British Ministry of Culture, while welcoming the BBC’s apology, emphasized that the network failed to comply with editorial standards and must strengthen its monitoring mechanisms to prevent such errors from recurring.