{"id":26827,"date":"2025-11-13T21:03:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=26827"},"modified":"2025-11-13T21:03:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:03:33","slug":"bbc-in-deep-crisis-trump-threatens-1-billion-in-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=26827","title":{"rendered":"BBC in &#8220;deep&#8221; crisis &#8211; Trump threatens $1 billion in damages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Davy, who has been in the position for the past five years, has been under increasing pressure due to a series of crises and accusations of bias at the public broadcaster. The Telegraph newspaper has published an internal BBC memo, according to which the show spliced \u200b\u200btogether two different excerpts of Trump\u2019s speech from January 6, 2021, in a way that made him appear to directly encourage the storming of the Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Davy\u2019s departure comes after a difficult year in which the BBC has been criticized for comments by former presenter Gary Lineker, the live broadcast of a performance by rap punk duo Bob Whaylan at the Glastonbury festival and criticism of a documentary about Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee had set a deadline on Monday for the BBC to respond to allegations by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the editorial guidelines and standards committee. He resigned from that position in the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The departures of Davy and Turnes appear to be an attempt to protect the BBC from further attack following Prescott\u2019s criticisms, which he made in a letter to the BBC\u2019s board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The revelations sparked strong reactions in the UK and the US, with the White House calling the BBC \u201c100% fake news\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump, in a post, claimed that the resignations came because they were \u201ccaught distorting\u201d his speech, calling it a \u201chuge insult to democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Revealed: How an edited Trump speech exposed BBC bias\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EjPlfUt4S9U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Announcing his departure, Davy admitted that while the BBC \u201cremains a model of quality journalism,\u201d there had been \u201cmistakes for which it must take ultimate responsibility.\u201d For her part, Ternes said the Panorama issue \u201chas reached a point where it is damaging the BBC\u201d and that \u201cthe responsibility lies with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The leaked memo also cited \u201csystemic problems of bias\u201d in issues such as coverage of the war in Gaza and reporting on issues of gender and identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The resignations are considered unprecedented, as they are the first time that the BBC\u2019s director general and head of news have left at the same time. The chairman of the organization, Samir Shah, said it was \u201ca sad day for the BBC,\u201d expressing support for the two outgoing officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government and opposition parties have called for \u201crestructuring and transparency\u201d at the public broadcaster, while several politicians have said the resignations could pave the way for deep reforms at the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Davey, who previously worked at Pepsi and Procter &amp; Gamble, took over as director general in 2020, while Ternes had previously headed ITN and NBC News International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An excerpt of the episode published by the Daily Telegraph showed different parts of the speech merged into one sentence, showing Trump saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cWe will march to the Capitol and I will be with you. And we will fight. We will fight hard.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>In fact, according to the minutes of the speech, Trump had said:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cWe will march to the Capitol to support our brave congressmen and senators\u2026 We will peacefully and patriotically protest to make our voices heard.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The phrase \u201cfight like hell\u201d was uttered almost an hour later, without any connection to the Capitol.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEW: BBC to apologize for deceptively editing President Trump\u2019s January 6 speech in an effort to make it look like he encouraged violence at the Capitol.<br><br>The apology letter is reportedly expected to come early next week.<br><br>\u201cSamir Shah, the BBC\u2019s chairman, will write to the\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cJixU8mSDD\">pic.twitter.com\/cJixU8mSDD<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CollinRugg\/status\/1987368508645384295?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 9, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Resignations and Statements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a letter to staff, Davy said his departure was \u201csolely my decision\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe BBC as a whole is performing well, but mistakes have been made and as director general I must take ultimate responsibility,\u201d he wrote. He added that he would work with the board to ensure a \u201csmooth transition\u201d to a new leader in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turnes said the Trump documentary \u201chas reached a point where it is damaging the BBC, an institution I deeply love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs head of news, the responsibility rests with me,\u201d she said, but she also said recent accusations of \u201cinstitutional bias\u201d at the BBC were \u201cwrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Reactions and political implications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump, through the Truth Social platform, thanked the Daily Telegraph &#8220;for exposing these corrupt journalists&#8221;, describing the BBC as &#8220;very dishonest&#8221; and saying that &#8220;they tried to distort the outcome of a presidential election&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">White House spokeswoman Caroline Levitt posted two articles on X with the comments &#8220;shot&#8221; and &#8220;chaser&#8221;, ironically commenting on the resignations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pressure on the organization&#8217;s top executives had increased after the publication of parts of an internal report by consultant Michael Prescott, who had highlighted problems with issues of impartiality, gender issues and BBC Arabic&#8217;s coverage of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Trump&#8217;s threats of legal action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, BBC News said today that the broadcaster had received a letter from US President Donald Trump threatening legal action over the editing of a documentary broadcast a week before the US presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We will review the letter and respond directly in due course,&#8221; a BBC spokesman said in an email to Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Samir Shah told BBC News that the group was &#8220;considering&#8221; how to respond to Trump&#8217;s letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked whether Trump would sue the BBC, Shah said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know yet, but he&#8217;s a litigious person, so we have to be prepared for any eventuality.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Davy, who has been in the position for the past five years, has been under increasing pressure due to a series of crises and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[818,390,819],"tags":[3839,142,655,7549,7197],"class_list":["post-26827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-politics","category-usa","tag-bbc","tag-crisis","tag-donald-trump","tag-panorama","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26829,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827\/revisions\/26829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}