LONDON (AP) — The BBC faced a leadership crisis and mounting political pressure Monday after its top manager and news chief quit over editing of a speech by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The resignations of BBC director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness over allegations of bias were met by Trump, who said the way his speech was edited was an attempt to “step into the balance of the presidential election”.
BBC chairman Samir Shah was expected to apologize on Monday for the actions of the state-funded national broadcaster.
The BBC has come under fire for its misleading editing of Trump's speech on January 6, 2021, before a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington.
The Panorama documentary program combined two parts of the speech, delivered nearly an hour apart, into one quote in which Trump urged his supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut was a section in which Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
In a letter to staff, Davy said “some mistakes were made and as CEO I must take full responsibility.”
Turness said the controversy over the Trump documentary had “damaged the BBC”.
“In public life, leaders must take full responsibility, and that is why I am resigning,” she said in a note to staff. “While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear that recent claims that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”
Trump posted a link to a Daily Telegraph article about the speech editing on his Pravda social media account, thanking the newspaper “for exposing these corrupt 'journalists'.” These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of the presidential election.” He called it “a terrible thing for democracy!”
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt responded to X by posting a screenshot of an article headlined “Trump goes to war on BBC 'fake news'” next to an article about Davy's resignation with the words “shot” and “stalker.”
Trump's speech edited
Pressure on the broadcaster's senior management increased after the right-wing Daily Telegraph published parts of a dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, who was hired to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines.
Beyond Trump's editorial, she criticized the BBC's coverage of transgender issues and raised concerns about anti-Israel bias in the BBC Arabic service.
The Panorama episode aired an edited excerpt from a January 2021 speech in which Trump said the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. Trump is shown saying, “We're going to go down to the Capitol and I'll be there with you. And we're fighting. We're fighting like hell.”
According to video and a transcript of Trump's comments that day, he said: “We're going to go down to the Capitol and cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we probably won't be cheering as hard for some of them.
“Because you will never take back our country with weakness. You must show strength, and you must be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and count only those electors who were legally, legally appointed.”
“I know everyone here will soon march to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Trump used the phrase “fight like hell” at the end of his speech, but without mentioning the Capitol.
“We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you won't have a country anymore,” Trump said.
National institution
The 103-year-old BBC has faced more scrutiny than other broadcasters and criticism from its commercial rivals because of its status as a national institution, funded by an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by all households with a television.
The broadcaster is required by its charter to be impartial, and critics are quick to point out that they believe it has failed. It's often a political football: Conservatives see a leftist bias in the news, and some liberals accuse them of conservative bias.
He was also criticized from all sides for his coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In February, the BBC removed a documentary about the Gaza Strip from its streaming service after it emerged that the child narrator was the son of an official in the Hamas-led government.
Governments of both the left and right have long been accused of interfering in the affairs of the broadcaster, which is controlled by a board that includes both BBC nominees and government appointees.
Craig Oliver, a former BBC news executive who served as communications director for Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, said those at the top needed to do a better job of protecting the corporation.
“We live in a fast-changing digital world where a lot of people want to attack the BBC,” he said.
“It has been clear for several days now that the BBC needs to step up, explain, apologize and move on. And we've seen BBC management say: 'We'll get back to you on Monday – we'll leave it for a few days. “We're going to allow the President of the United States to attack this organization, and we're not going to adequately defend it.”
