United Kingdom: Heads are Rolling at the BBC Over the Scandal, Editing of a Trump Speech

RESIGNATIONS: Donald Trump castigates BBC’s ‘corrupt journalists’ after montage suggesting he incited his supporters to storm the Capitol in 2021

The credibility of the BBC is at stake. At the heart of the controversy: a contested montage of a speech by Donald Trump. So, in an attempt to put out the fire affecting the British public broadcasting group, its general director Tim Davie and its information boss announced their resignation on Sunday evening.

After this announcement, the American president denounced the “corrupt journalists” of the BBC, on his Truth Social network. “These are very dishonest people who tried to influence the outcome of a presidential election. To top it all off, they come from a foreign country, considered by many to be our number one ally. It’s terrible for democracy! “.

Already a controversy over Gaza

Earlier, the chairman of the public group Samir Shah said it was a “sad day for the BBC”. “Tim has been an excellent managing director for the last five years”, but he faced “persistent pressure […] that led him to make this decision” to resign, he said, also making tribute to the “integrity” demonstrated by Deborah Turness.

Samir Shah is called upon to explain himself to a parliamentary committee this Monday on this affair, which the British Minister of Culture, Lisa Nandy, described on Sunday as “extremely serious”. It also comes shortly after a sanction imposed on the BBC by the media regulator over a documentary on Gaza found misleading.

A documentary just before the presidential election

“The current debate around BBC information contributed to my decision”, admitted Tim Davie in a message announcing his decision to resign to his colleagues. “While the BBC works well overall, there have been mistakes made and ultimately the Director General must take responsibility for them”. BBC News director Deborah Turness, who also resigned, explained in her letter to staff that the “current controversy surrounding the Panorama report on President Trump has reached a stage where it is damaging the BBC”. But she ruled that “recent accusations that BBC News is institutionally biased are false”.

The affair, revealed Tuesday by the newspaper The Daily Telegraph, concerns a documentary broadcast in the BBC news magazine, “Panorama”, a week before the American presidential election on the 5th November 2024. The British media is accused of having edited different passages from a speech Donald Trump dating from the 6th January 2021 – day hundreds of his supporters gave the assault on the Capitol in Washington – so that he seems to tell them that he is going to walk with them to the Capitol to “fight like hell”. However, in the original sentence, he said: “We are going to march towards the Capitol and we are going to encourage our courageous senators and representatives in Congress”. The expression “fight like devils” actually corresponded to another passage.