Copyright Santa Clarita Valley Signal
By Victoria Friedman Contributing Writer President Donald Trump has threatened legal action against the British Broadcasting Corporation for its editing of the president’s speech on Jan. 6, 2021, which was presented in a documentary aired one week before last year’s presidential election. The documentary for Panorama, the BBC’s flagship news program, spliced together quotes from different sections of a 2021 speech delivered nearly an hour apart, making it appear to be one continuous quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully. A letter from Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, demands that the BBC immediately retract “the false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements,” apologize, and “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused,” or face legal action for $1 billion in damages. “If the BBC does not comply with the above by Nov. 14, 2025, at 5 p.m. EST, President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages,” the letter states. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said by email: “The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the presidential election. President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception and fake news.” A BBC spokesperson said by email, “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.” Concerns over the editing of the footage were raised in a leaked memo, initially reviewed by the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper and published last week. The memo was written by Michael Prescott, a former journalist who is now on a committee giving editorial advice to the BBC. Earlier on Monday, BBC Chairman Samir Shah sent a letter to the UK’s Culture, Media, and Sport Committee apologizing for the “error of judgement” of the editing of the speech. In his letter to CMSC Committee Chairwoman Dame Caroline Dineage, Shah wrote: “We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologize for that error of judgement.” Shah said that the issue of the way the footage was edited was discussed at the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee in January 2025 and in May 2025. He said the issue was discussed as part of a wider review of the BBC’s U.S. election coverage commissioned by the committee, not due to a specific program complaint. “The points raised in the review were relayed to the Panorama team, including the decision-making on this edit. With hindsight, it would have been better to take more formal action,” he said. BBC Resignations The apology came after the BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, and the broadcaster’s CEO of news, Deborah Turness, resigned on Sunday. The president reacted to the resignations in a Truth Social post on Sunday afternoon. “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. 6,” he wrote. “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 No. 1 ally. What a terrible thing for democracy!” Editing Controversy The episode under scrutiny, broadcast on Oct. 28, 2024, titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” is not currently available to view on BBC iPlayer, but the excerpts demonstrating the cutting and splicing can be viewed on YouTube. Panorama spliced together two clips from different sections of Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, 2021, to make it seem as though he told supporters he was going to walk to the Capitol Building with them to “fight like hell.” The seamless, spliced-together comments said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be with you, and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” In the original remark, the first part of the spliced footage, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you,” came 15 minutes into the speech, while the following “We fight like hell” line came a full 54 minutes later. The program also made it appear that members of the group known as The Proud Boys were spurred to march on the Capitol by the president’s words. The Associated Press, Rachel Roberts, and Jacki Thrapp contributed to this report.
