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The BBC has issued an apology to former US President Donald Trump following controversy over the way a Panorama episode edited portions of his speech. The broadcaster acknowledged that the montage unintentionally suggested Trump had made an explicit call for violence. Despite the apology, the BBC declined Trump’s request for financial compensation and will not be airing the programme again.
Legal representatives for Trump had demanded a retraction, an official apology, and damages amounting to $1 billion (£759 million), threatening to pursue legal action if these conditions were not met. The scandal triggered significant internal repercussions within the BBC, leading to the resignations of director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness. In response, the broadcaster has engaged with the White House for comment and made public its position through its Corrections and Clarifications section.
The BBC clarified that the episode’s editing inadvertently created the impression of a continuous segment from Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, when in reality it combined excerpts from different parts. The most contentious edited clip portrayed Trump saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” In his actual speech, these statements were separated by more than 50 minutes. Trump criticized the edit on Fox News as a “butchered” version that misled viewers, while the BBC stressed that it disagrees with any defamation claim against it.
Additional controversy arose when a differently edited clip from 2022 aired on Newsnight also came under scrutiny for misleading viewers. That footage presented a condensed version of Trump’s speech, mixing phrases in a manner that altered the original timeline. Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who publicly condemned the January 6 events, noted that the video spliced together lines that were spoken separately. The BBC responded by affirming its commitment to high editorial standards and stating that it was investigating the issue further. Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team described the broadcaster’s actions as a sustained pattern of defamation
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