The BBC is set to issue a formal apology after it was accused of selectively editing US President Donald Trump’s January 6 speech in a documentary to make it appear as if he was directly inciting riots at the Capitol in 2021.
The BBC has decided to issue an apology to US President Donald Trump
Chairman Samir Shah is expected to address the issue in a letter to the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Monday, admitting that the 2024 film Panorama “should not have changed Trump’s speech the way it did”.
According to reports in The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph, Shah admits the edit lacks clarity but insists he “didn’t intend to mislead the audience”.
Lisa Nandy, the UK culture secretary, was the latest to criticize the broadcast. She described the edit as “incredibly serious” on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday.
Nandy revealed that she has had “too many” discussions with senior BBC figures over the past year about editorial standards. While expressing confidence that Shah and BBC director-general Tim Davie had dealt with the Trump row, the Labor minister questioned why such failings were still occurring.
How did the White House respond to this incident?
Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Telegraph: “This deliberately dishonest, selectively edited BBC clip is further proof that this is complete, 100% fake news that should no longer be worth the TV screen time of the great people of the UK.
The controversy stems from a Panorama segment that co-edited two separate excerpts from Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech. On the show, Trump was heard saying, “We’re going to go down to the Capitol and I’m going to be there with you and we’re going to fight. We’re fighting like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country.”
In fact, his words were, “We’re going to go down and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down with whoever you want, but I think right here, we’re going to go down to the Capitol and cheer on our brave senators and congressmen.
Culture Minister Lisa Nandy called the issue “incredibly serious” and said the incident reflected “inconsistent editorial standards” in broadcasting. She added: “It’s not always up to the highest standards. It’s not always well thought out.”
The apology will be the first time the BBC has formally acknowledged the controversy – one that has put its management, including director-general Tim Davie and director-general of News Deborah Turnes, under renewed scrutiny over impartiality and editorial oversight.
