BBC leaders quit after spat with US President Donald Trump over edited speech
BBC's Director General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness resigned from their positions after it came to light that the broadcaster allegedly aired an edited speech of US President Donald Trump. The programme was aired in October 2024. The resignations came after Michael Prescott, a former independent adviser to the BBC's editorial standards committee, talked about "systematic bias" in covering Donald Trump's speeches.
New Delhi: British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC's) Director General Tim Davie is set to resign amid allegations that viewers were misled, by editing certain portions of US President Donald Trump's speech, in a Panorama documentary. The programme was aired last year.
Trump gave speech on January 6, 2021: Day of post election riot in US
According to a report in NDTV, the programme was aired in October 2024. It reportedly spliced together sections of a speech which Trump gave on January 6,2021, the day of the post election riots in the US Capitol.
In the edited version of the speech, US President Trump can be heard saying that his supporters should "walk down to the Capitol” and "fight like hell.” However in reality he had said that they should ""cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women." The "fight like hell" remark was from a different speech, which had been added to the speech later.
Apart from Director General Davie, news chief Deborah Turness also put in her papers. BBC may air an apology on Monday regarding the entire fiasco.
Reacting to the resignations, Trump took to social media platform, Truth Social and described both the individuals who resigned from their positions at BBC as "dishonest people". He also accused them of trying to influence the US presidential elections. He said, "They were caught doctoring my very good (PERFECT!) speech." He described the act as a "terrible thing for democracy."
The controversy erupted after Michael Prescott, a former independent adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, talked about "systematic bias" in covering Donald Trump's speeches. A memo talking about the Panorama editing was also leaked to the media. Prescott specifically named Turness and criticised her ruthlessly.
BBC has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this year. Initially the broadcaster faced criticism for airing a documentary on Gaza that failed to disclose the protagonist’s links to Hamas and later one of its highest paid football presenters, former footballer Gary Lineker resigned over a social media post, which reportedly broke its neutrality guidelines.