BBC’s news CEO & D-G quit as Trump threatens channel with legal action over doctored speech

TOI correspondent from London: The BBC has been plunged into an existential crisis after the CEO of news Deborah Turness and director-general Tim Davie both resigned on Sunday night and US president Donald Trump on Monday threatened the channel with legal action.

It comes after Michael Prescott’s letter to the BBC Board last week, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, revealed not only that “Panorama” had deliberately doctored a speech made by Trump on Jan 6, 2021 to make out he incited the Capitol Hill riots, and aired it one week before the last US elections, but also detailed a host of other issues with the BBC’s editorial standards.




Prescott was one of two independent advisers to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board (EGSG) who stepped down in June. He wrote to the board after he felt frustrated that concerns of BBC bias raised by the EGSG were being ignored.

His letter revealed that Panorama had spliced together two clips from separate parts of Trump’s speech. The letter also criticised the BBC coverage of the US elections generally for being pro-Kamala Harris. The dossier said the BBC “repeatedly pushed this inaccurate version of what Trump said” about his Republican critic Liz Cheney during the presidential campaign when Trump had questioned how she would feel about having people shooting at her if sent to war.

The BBC repeatedly claimed Trump had suggested she be shot. Prescott also criticised the BBC’s coverage of the trans debate, of the war in Gaza, especially by BBC Arabic, of how it had highlighted instances of racism in the UK when there was none, and gave a distorted and woke narrative of British history despite criticism from Oxbridge dons.

Samir Shah, the BBC’s Indian-origin chair, wrote to the culture, media and sport committee on Monday and denied the BBC had attempted to bury Prescott’s report. On the contrary, he said, corrections had been made, formal disciplinary measures carried out and changes to leadership made, where required, including at BBC Arabic. However, he apologised for the “error of judgment” in how Trump’s speech was edited and promised to revisit every item in Prescott’s letter.

On Truth Social, Trump lambasted the BBC journalists who doctored his speech as “corrupt”. “The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught “doctoring” my very good (PERFECT!) speech of Jan 6th. These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally,” he wrote.

BBC world affairs editor John Simpson tweeted that the “BBC is facing a coordinated, politically motivated attack”. But many British MPs accused the BBC of institutional bias and Tory MP Suella Braverman called for the licence fee to be scrapped.