Two senior BBC News executives have resigned amid accusations of editorial bias over the editing of a documentary featuring a 2021 speech by U.S. President Donald Trump.
An internal memo leaked to UK outlet The Telegraph said footage of Trump was edited in a “completely misleading” way, appearing to suggest Trump encouraged the 6 January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has accused the BBC of being “anti-Trump fake news”.
Capitol riot
On 6 January 2021, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to halt the certification of the 2020 Presidential election results.
The siege caused over $US2.8 million ($AU4.6 million) in damage to the Capitol building and costs incurred by police.
Several deaths have been linked to the riot, both on the day and in the following weeks.
On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned more than 1,000 people convicted of crimes relating to the riot.
The edit
Last week, The Telegraph published a letter written by former independent editorial standards adviser Michael Prescott to the BBC board.
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In the letter, Prescott said a documentary aired a week before the 2024 U.S. election was “neither balanced nor impartial”.
He said a review of the program had found it “spliced together two clips from separate parts of his speech,” made almost an hour apart, to suggest “Trump said something he did not”. Prescott alleged BBC managers dismissed concerns raised about this edit.
Resignation
On Sunday night (local time), Director General Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness announced their resignations in emails to staff.
Davie said that while the BBC continued to produce “gold-standard” journalism, he would “take ultimate responsibility” for mistakes that were made.
Turness said her resignation was an effort “to be fully accountable,” acknowledging the controversy had “reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC”. However, she rejected claims that “BBC News is institutionally biased”.
Comments
Trump welcomed the resignations, saying The Telegraph’s report exposed “corrupt journalists” who “tried to step on the scales of a presidential election.”
UK Culture and Media Secretary Lisa Nandy said the Government would support the broadcaster as it replaced Turness and Davie.
Conservative MP Nigel Huddleston said Davie’s successor must prioritise restoring “integrity and accountability,” warning the broadcaster risks losing both public trust and its public funding if it fails to do so.
