BBC has manipulated US President Donald Trump’s Capitol speech in a documentary aired just a week before the 2024 presidential election, according to a whistleblowing memo. First reported by The Telegraph, a 19-page internal dossier submitted by Michael Prescott, a former member of the BBC’s standards committee, claims that the edits made it appear as though Trump encouraged supporters to start a riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, by splicing together separate parts of his speech to create a negative impression.
‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,’ Trump said before thousands of supporters on 6 January. However, in the Panorama episode in question, the same quote was edited to read: ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.’
Reacting to the scandal, a BBC spokesperson told The Telegraph: ‘While we don’t comment on leaked documents, when the BBC receives feedback it takes it seriously and considers it carefully.’
Legacy media distorting the truth to smear right-wing politicians is hardly new—especially when it involves the BBC and Trump. However, what is unusual in this case is that it could lead to consequences.
‘That is fake news, actually putting different things together to make something look different from what it actually was’
Leader of the Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch said that ‘heads should roll’ at the BBC for misleading viewers over the President’s remarks. ‘That is fake news, actually putting different things together to make something look different from what it actually was,’ Badenoch said.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, added: ‘It’s no wonder that fewer people are paying the BBC licence fee every single year.’
A White House spokesperson described the edit as ‘another example… of deceptive editing, misleading reporting, and outright lies,’ arguing that it illustrated why ‘countless Americans turn to alternative media sources’ for news.
‘It’s no wonder that fewer people are paying the BBC licence fee every single year’
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the BBC had assured her it would launch an internal investigation into the broadcast. Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the parliamentary Culture Committee, also sent a letter to BBC chairman Samir Shah expressing concern over the manipulation.
The BBC is currently negotiating the renewal of its operating licence, set to expire in 2027, with the British government amid a steady decline in subscribers. To make matters worse, the public broadcaster is already in a tense relationship with the White House, and the emergence of this scandal could further deepen the rift between the two sides.
Related articles:
