Donald Trump just scored another victory against the BBC.
The network is already going through the wringer for some creative editing of a Trump speech in a documentary about Jan. 6, but now, the BBC has also reportedly admitted to spreading fake news about comments attributed to Trump about former Rep. Liz Cheney.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief Brendan Carr found a no-no in a BBC documentary about Trump and the speech he gave to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.
The piece had creatively edited remarks made by Trump to make it sound like he ordered protesters to the Capitol to riot. In Trump’s speech, he stated, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women." Then, nearly an hour later, he stated, "And we fight. We fight like hell."
In the documentary, the clip had Trump stating, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."
Carr’s letter to the BBC on the matter, in part, stated, "In doing so, the BBC programme depicts President Trump voicing a sentence that, in fact, he never uttered. That would appear to meet the very definition of publishing a materially false and damaging statement." It continued, “As you may know, broadcasters regulated by the FCC have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest. Those public interest requirements include prohibitions on news distortion and broadcast hoax."
After the report surfaced about the editing, there was significant pushback on the documentary, and Trump immediately stated that he was going to sue the network. Not long after that, the BBC's director general, Tim Davie, and head of news, Deborah Turness, both resigned their positions.
Davie made a statement: "Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable. While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.”
It continued, "Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director general I have to take ultimate responsibility."
Turness also released a statement, which, in part, stated, "In public life leaders need to be fully accountable, and that is why I am stepping down. While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong."
I posted Turness’ statement last because there is a very thick slice of irony pie here, as the BBC appears to have confessed to spreading even more fake news about Trump.
Cheney, as everyone reading this knows, was hammering Trump hard leading up to the 2024 election, and the BBC claimed that Trump had “appeared to suggest Liz Cheney should face a firing squad for her stance on foreign policy.” BBC North America editor Sarah Smith also put the uptick in violent rhetoric solely on Trump, adding, “In the latest spat, Donald Trump has been accused of being petty, vindictive and a wannabe tyrant because he suggested that one of his political opponents should face guns, have them trained on her face.”
In reality, Trump was criticizing Cheney's reputation as a regular advocate for war, challenging her by stating, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her face. OK? Let’s see how she feels about it.”
There has been no retraction of the original story, but the network did reportedly issue an internal memo, which stated, “BBC News accepted that the Liz Cheney story was not covered accurately by the BBC, and the EGSC [editorial guidelines and standards committee] concluded errors were made on this specific issue.”
But, hey, the BBC is not biased, right? And yes, the network still has to deal with a lawsuit in which Trump said he may seek as much as $5 billion in damages. I hope he goes after them with everything he has. He will never get $5 billion, but he should be able to sting the BBC's budget pretty hard.
