Copyright standard
The BBC has faced serious criticism after it was revealed two quotes from a speech made by US President Donald Trump were stitched together to make it appear he had told supporters ahead of the Capitol riot he was going to walk with them to “fight like hell”. An hour-long Panorama special called Trump: A Second Chance? had been broadcast a week before the last US Presidential election and spliced together two quotes from a speech Trump made before the January 6 uprising despite him making the comments nearly an hour apart and about different topics. The manipulation of the quotes led to serious questions about the broadcaster’s impartiality and claims of misleading the public and criicism from Trump himself. The storm over the documentary was the trigger for the resignation of its director-general Tim Davie and chief executive of BBC News, Deborah Turness on Sunday. The two quotes were said by the president over 50 minutes apart during his speech in Washington DC in 2021, but appeared side by side in the documentary, which was made for the BBC by independent production company October Films Ltd. During the event, Trump had said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women." However, in the Panorama edit he appeared to say: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell." Mr Trump had said the first part of the quote at around 12.16pm and he did not make the “fight like hell” comments until 1.10pm that day. In fact, his “fight like hell” comment had also been made in reference to elections being “corrupt”. While speaking about voters on election day, Trump said: “Most people would stand there at 9 o’clock in the evening and say I wanna thank you very much, and they go off to some other life, but I said something’s wrong here, something’s really wrong, can’t have happened, and we fight. “We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country any more.” Mr Davie announced his resignation saying he had to take “ultimate responsibility” for mistakes the broadcaster has made. Ms Turness as she announced her resignation explained to staff that the “ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love”. The BBC error came to light after a memo by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, raised concerns in the summer about the way clips of Trump’s speech were spliced together. Critics said the documentary was misleading and removed a section where the US president said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully. Mr Davie has been criticised for “ignoring” the issues raised in Mr Prescott’s report, with Dame Caroline Dinenage, who chairs the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his resignation was a “very avoidable course of action”. Mr Prescott’s memo is also understood to have expressed concerns about the BBC’s coverage of trans issues, suggesting its coverage was effectively “censored” by its specialist LGBT reporters. It follows a series of high-profile blunders from the broadcaster. On Thursday, a newsreader who went viral after she made a face and replaced the phrase “pregnant people” with “women” while live on air was found to have broken BBC impartiality rules. Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom also recently sanctioned the BBC for breaching the Broadcasting Code in its Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary after the corporation failed to disclose a narrator’s links to Hamas. Mr Davie had previously described how the corporation’s decision to broadcast Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury Festival set live was “a very significant mistake”. Trump quickly reacted to Mr Davie and Ms Turness’ resignations describing the documentary edit as “a terrible thing for democracy”. In a post on Truth Social he wrote: “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 January 6th. “Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.’ “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. What a terrible thing for Democracy!”
