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BBC director general and News CEO resign over Trump documentary edit - Is BBC biased?

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BBC director general and News CEO resign over Trump documentary edit

The BBC's director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness have resigned after criticism that a Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by Donald Trump.

Davie, in the job for five years, had faced increasing pressure over a series of controversies and accusations of bias that have dogged the public broadcaster.

The Telegraph published details of a leaked internal BBC memo on Monday that suggested the Panorama programme edited two parts of the US president's speech together so he appeared to explicitly encourage the Capitol Hill riot of January 2021.

UK political leaders expressed hope the resignations would lead to change, while Trump welcomed the decision.



It is unprecedented for both the director general and the head of BBC News to resign on the same day.

Announcing the move on Sunday evening, Davie said: "Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable.

"While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.

"Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director general I have to take ultimate responsibility."

Turness said in a statement on Sunday night that the Panorama controversy had "reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC", adding: "The buck stops with me."

She said: "In public life leaders need to be fully accountable, and that is why I am stepping down. While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong."

www.bbc.com

BBC director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit

Tim Davie and Deborah Turness resign after criticism Panorama misled viewers with an edit of a speech by Donald Trump.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
It was a bad decision to edit the film to make Trump look like he was inciting a riot. But regardless of that, most of the UK media hate the BBC because they are not biased enough in favour of israel I think.
 
I find BBC okay. I have seen far worse media institutions.

Compared to disgusting Indian media, BBC seems alright. :inti
 
“BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.” Davie

The resignations of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness have plunged the corporation into one of its most turbulent leadership crises in recent years, following the leak of Michael Prescott’s scathing report that accused the broadcaster of systemic editorial bias. Despite stepping down, both Davie and Turness are continuing in their roles temporarily to ensure a smooth transition. Turness, who arrived at Broadcasting House saying she wanted to “go in and see my teams,” addressed staff, reaffirming: “BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.” Davie, meanwhile, stated he would “work through exact timings with the Board to allow for an orderly transition,” adding that his exit “allows a new DG to help shape the next charter” — a critical reference to the BBC’s upcoming negotiations with the government before its Royal Charter expires in 2027.

The leaked Prescott dossier, however, continues to dominate discussion. It alleged “anti-Trump bias,” “one-sided” transgender coverage, and “anti-Israel” reporting within BBC Arabic, while accusing the corporation of “ill-researched” stories on racism and selective news alerts on migration. Reaction across the media and political landscape has been fierce: former controller Peter Fincham criticised the BBC’s “bunker mentality,” warning that it “thinks it’ll be alright to play dead,” while Culture Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage called the resignations “avoidable” but said Davie was “slow to act.” Turness, addressing emotional newsroom applause, defended her journalists: “Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality — I will stand by their journalism.” Yet, as one former BBC News controller, Sir Craig Oliver, summed up: “The BBC is now in chaos, rudderless and leaderless.”
www.bbc.com

BBC chair to respond to MPs as departing News CEO rejects claims of institutional bias

The BBC's director general Tim Davie, and CEO of news Deborah Turness, resigned last night after a leaked memo made a series of criticisms of BBC output.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
I'm not surprised by BBC pathetic,baised coverage anymore.

In India, this is nothing new. BBC has been called out for one-sided, anti-India narratives especially during CAA-NRC, coverage of PM narendra modi, caste, Delhi riots & the farmers’ protests, Op Sindoor : often intentionally missing key context.

A free press matters But freedom isn’t a license to twist facts

:kp
 
I recently saw a video of the BBC Middle East Editor Raffi Berg expressing his deep admiration for the Mossad, and talking about how amazed he was to hear their stories of statecraft and how much it reminded him of James Bond. He also talked about how lucky he was to be in their "circle of trust".

The same individual is apparently suing another British journalist Owen Jones over his "biased reporting" towards Israel.

Wonder if that answers the question.
 
Devadwal said:
I'm not surprised by BBC pathetic,baised coverage anymore.

In India, this is nothing new. BBC has been called out for one-sided, anti-India narratives especially during CAA-NRC, coverage of PM narendra modi, caste, Delhi riots & the farmers’ protests, Op Sindoor : often intentionally missing key context.

A free press matters But freedom isn’t a license to twist facts

:kp
Click to expand...


Why would BBC care enough about India to be biased?

It's crazy the conspiracy theories that are thrown around in India.
 
RedwoodOriginal said:
I recently saw a video of the BBC Middle East Editor Raffi Berg expressing his deep admiration for the Mossad, and talking about how amazed he was to hear their stories of statecraft and how much it reminded him of James Bond. He also talked about how lucky he was to be in their "circle of trust".

The same individual is apparently suing another British journalist Owen Jones over his "biased reporting" towards Israel.

Wonder if that answers the question.
Click to expand...


Israel on the other hand, is a state that matters. We can view that either positively or negatively, but no one can deny they have powerful voices in the western media.
 

BBC apologises to Trump over Panorama edit but refuses to pay compensation​

The BBC has apologised to US President Donald Trump for a Panorama episode which spliced parts of a speech together, but rejected his demands for compensation.

The corporation also said it would not show the programme again.

Lawyers for Trump have threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn (£759m) in damages unless the corporation issues a retraction, apologises and compensates him.

The apology comes after a second similarly edited clip, broadcast on Newsnight in 2022, was revealed by the Daily Telegraph.

A BBC spokesperson said: "Lawyers for the BBC have written to President Trump's legal team in response to a letter received on Sunday.

"BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president's speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme.

"The BBC has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary Trump: A Second Chance? on any BBC platforms.

"While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim."

In its Corrections and Clarifications section, published on Thursday evening, the BBC said the Panorama programme had been reviewed after criticism of how Trump's speech had been edited.

"During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech," it said.

"However, we accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action."

In Trump's speech on 6 January 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."

More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: "And we fight. We fight like hell."

In the Panorama programme from 2024, the clip shows him as saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."

Speaking to Fox News, Trump said his 6 January 2021 speech had been "butchered" and the way it was presented had "defrauded" viewers.

The fallout from the scandal led to the resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness.

The BBC received the letter from Trump's lawyers on Sunday. It demands a "full and fair retraction" of the documentary, an apology, and that the BBC "appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused".

It had set a deadline of 22:00 GMT (17:00 EST) on Friday for the corporation to respond.

BBC
 
Trump says he will take legal action against BBC over Panorama edit

US President Donald Trump has said he will take legal action against the BBC over how his speech was edited by Panorama, after the corporation apologised but refused to compensate him.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Friday evening, Trump said: "We'll sue them for anywhere between $1bn [£759m] and $5bn, probably sometime next week."

On Thursday, the BBC said the edit of the 6 January 2021 speech had unintentionally given "the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action" and said it would not be broadcast again.

The corporation apologised to the president but said it would not pay financial compensation.

The BBC released that statement after Trump's lawyers threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn in damages unless the corporation issued a retraction, apology and paid him compensation.

"I think I have to do it," Trump told reporters of his plan to take legal action. "They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth."

The president said he had not raised the issue with Sir Keir Starmer but that the prime minister had asked to speak to him. Trump said he would call Starmer over the weekend.

A search of public court record databases confirmed that no lawsuit had been filed in federal or state court in Florida as of Friday evening.

In a separate interview on Saturday recorded before his comments on Air Force One, Trump said said he had an "obligation" to sue the BBC, adding: "If you don't do it, you don't stop it from happening again with other people."

He called the edit "egregious" and "worse than the Kamala thing", a reference to a dispute he had with US news outlet CBS over an interview on the 60 Minutes programme with his 2024 election opponent Kamala Harris.

In July this year, US media company Paramount Global agreed to pay $16m (£13.5m) to settle a legal dispute over that interview.

The controversy stems from the way in which Trump's 6 January 2021 speech was edited by Panorama for a documentary which aired in October 2024. During his address, he told supporters: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."

More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: "And we fight. We fight like hell."

In the Panorama programme the clip shows him as saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."

Controversy around how Trump's speech was edited has led to the resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness.

In its Corrections and Clarifications section, published on Thursday evening, the BBC said the Panorama programme had been reviewed after criticism of how Trump's speech had been edited.

"We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action," the statement said.

Lawyers for the BBC have written to Trump's legal team, a BBC spokesperson said this week.

"BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president's speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme," they said.

They added: "While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim."

In its letter to Trump's legal team, the BBC set out five main arguments for why it did not think it had a case to answer.

First it said the BBC did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the Panorama episode on its US channels.

When the documentary was available on BBC iPlayer, it was restricted to viewers in the UK.

Secondly, it said the documentary did not cause Trump harm, as he was re-elected shortly after.

Thirdly, it said the clip was not designed to mislead, but just to shorten a long speech, and that the edit was not done with malice.

Fourthly, it said the clip was never meant to be considered in isolation. Rather, it was 12 seconds within an hour-long programme, which also contained lots of voices in support of Trump.

Finally, an opinion on a matter of public concern and political speech is heavily protected under defamation laws in the US.

The BBC's apology came hours after a second similarly edited clip, broadcast on Newsnight in 2022, was revealed by the Daily Telegraph.

BBC
 
U$ofA said:
Looks like the UK taxpayers might be handing over millions of $$$ to the Trump library.
Click to expand...
It will be impossible for trumps team to prove intent or damage. He won't win a lawsuit.

He is an egomaniac so will probably go all the way and try to win in court before ultimately losing and recieving more negative headlines - but if he was politically savvy he would leave it as is and take this win.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
It will be impossible for trumps team to prove intent or damage. He won't win a lawsuit.

He is an egomaniac so will probably go all the way and try to win in court before ultimately losing and recieving more negative headlines - but if he was politically savvy he would leave it as is and take this win.
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Judging by the past, there will be no trial. There will more likely be a settlement. That settlement will have the UK taxpayers forking over $$$.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
What happened in the past?
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Of the top of my head I can think of ABC, CBS, Meta settling out of court and forking over millions. Not sure if there are more. This of course is different as BBC is not American. But not sure if that makes a difference.
 
U$ofA said:
Of the top of my head I can think of ABC, CBS, Meta settling out of court and forking over millions. Not sure if there are more. This of course is different as BBC is not American. But not sure if that makes a difference.
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Those companies have history of settling on a similar case?

They have already refused compensation and said it was an error. The only way Trump can get them to settle is if they are scared of a long and protracted legal fight.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
Those companies have history of settling on a similar case?

They have already refused compensation and said it was an error. The only way Trump can get them to settle is if they are scared of a long and protracted legal fight.
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Most new organizations do not want prolonged legal battle. Doing this will keep the negativity of it in the forefront. Which affects them. Which is why they settle. Likely cheaper too!

BBC likely is no exception to this either.
 
The BBC’s political leaning is interesting in that the left wing claims it’s right wing, the right wing claims it is left wing, the Zionists claim it is anti Semitic and the pro-Palestinians claim it is pro Israeli. I think the BBC is pretty much centrist and avoids being extremist at all cost and goes with the current mainstream European viewpoints. It does enough to **** everyone off.
 
U$ofA said:
Most new organizations do not want prolonged legal battle. Doing this will keep the negativity of it in the forefront. Which affects them. Which is why they settle. Likely cheaper too!

BBC likely is no exception to this either.
Click to expand...
The BBC has refused to pay Trump. Will be interesting to see if they keep this stance if he does actually go to court.
 
U$ofA said:
Most new organizations do not want prolonged legal battle. Doing this will keep the negativity of it in the forefront. Which affects them. Which is why they settle. Likely cheaper too!

BBC likely is no exception to this either.
Click to expand...
Difference is that the BBC is funded by the public in the form of tv licences...

In fact you can't watch any TV channel or even stream without a tv licence so in this instance it will be protected by the government
 
IMMY69 said:
Difference is that the BBC is funded by the public in the form of tv licences...

In fact you can't watch any TV channel or even stream without a tv licence so in this instance it will be protected by the government
Click to expand...
Essentially a TV license is a tax on UK citizens. That is why I said the taxpayers will fork over the $$$.

If there is a lawsuit, BBC will have to decide whether they want to go trial or settle out of court. We will know soon as looks likely that Trump will file a lawsuit.
 
U$ofA said:
Essentially a TV license is a tax on UK citizens. That is why I said the taxpayers will fork over the $$$.

If there is a lawsuit, BBC will have to decide whether they want to go trial or settle out of court. We will know soon as looks likely that Trump will file a lawsuit.
Click to expand...
I don’t pay a tv licence since I don’t watch live tv or watch anything on BBC channels/services including iPlayer. So people can choose not to pay.
 
U$ofA said:
Essentially a TV license is a tax on UK citizens. That is why I said the taxpayers will fork over the $$$.

If there is a lawsuit, BBC will have to decide whether they want to go trial or settle out of court. We will know soon as looks likely that Trump will file a lawsuit.
Click to expand...

I think the government would have to step in otherwise the tax paying public will go ballistic
 
IMMY69 said:
I think the government would have to step in otherwise the tax paying public will go ballistic
Click to expand...
Once the lawsuit is filed, there will have to be a response. Are you saying that the Govt. will take that part over and do what is necessary?
 
BBC edited Trumps speech, this is quite serious.

If BBC goes down, that is a major blow for the pseudo seculars, Lefties etc..

Surprised no thread on here about this....

Always felt BBC was a dodgy/misleading media outfit but this is pathetic even to their standards....
 
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