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The chair of the BBC has apologized for the Donald Trump editing scandal, which he put down to BBC News wanting its audience to “better understand” how Trump’s January 6 2021 speech was being “received by his own supporters.” In a highly-anticipated letter to the Culture, Media & Sport Committee (CMSC) this afternoon, Shah described the edit, which has led to the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and news boss Deborah Turness, as an “error of judgement,” which he said the BBC would like to apologize for. According to Shah, the edited clip was discussed twice at the now-infamous Editorial Guidelines and Standard Committee (EGCS) – once in January 2025 and once in May – at which point the committee expressed concerns but BBC News said the clip was edited “to convey the message of the speech made by President Trump so that Panorama’s audience could better understand how it had been received by Presdient Trump’s supporters.” In the Panorama documentary, Trump appears to say: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.” He actually said: “We’re gonna walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re gonna walk down, we’re gonna walk down any one you want but I think right here, we’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen.” Since the publication of Prescott’s memo, Shah said there have been more than 500 complaints about the Trump edit, which are “being dealt with int he normal way and has prompted further reflection by the BBC.” “The conclusion of that deliberation is that we accept the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action,” he added. In today’s letter, Shah addressed other points made by Michael Prescott’s excoriating report into what he believed to be insitutional bias within BBC News, while publishing Prescott’s report in full. Shah committed to revisiting all the items set out by Prescott. MORE FOLLOWS
