In October of 2024 the BBC ran a retrospective of the January 6th Capitol riot. It featured video of the speech Trump made that day instructing his followers to go down to the Capitol. This was how it sounded on the program.
“We're gonna walk down to the Capitol, and I'll be there with you, and we fight.”
What Trump actually said was much different.
“We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women …”
He also told them to protest "peacefully and patriotically." When the stealth edit was pointed out, Deborah Turness, head of news operations, and Director General Tim Davie fell on their swords and resigned.
Davie acknowledged that the BBC made a mistake in editing the Panorama documentary clip, which combined two separate parts of Trump’s January 6 speech to create the impression he encouraged violence, though he did not directly address the legal threat from Trump.
"Overall, the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director general I have to take ultimate responsibility,” Davie said.
"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,” Turness said.
Neither directly addressed the edits.
Tim Graham of Media Research Center says the resignations had the Left in Britain and the U.S. howling.
“This is all about team. This is all about wins, and it's all about don't give Trump any wins by acknowledging, you mangled what he said,” Graham said.
Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for a billion dollars, and Graham says the network has a long history of liberal bias.
“When it comes to stories like the war in Gaza, the BBC is indistinguishable from Al Jazeera. They are so pro Hamas, it's embarrassing.”
