The BBC was on Monday expected to apologise for editing a speech that suggested Donald Trump had directly instigated an attack on the US Capitol, resulting in the dramatic resignations of the broadcaster’s top brass.
Director general Tim Davie and the BBC News CEO Deborah Turness stepped down on Sunday after accusations that a documentary by its flagship Panorama programme had used a misleading edit of Trump’s speech.
BBC chair Samir Shah, who said it was a “sad day for the BBC”, was due to give an explanation on Monday to parliament’s culture media and sport committee.
The state-funded broadcaster has been accused of biased coverage by different ideological camps in recent years, including over its coverage of the war in Gaza.
While Trump celebrated the resignations, accusing the BBC’s journalists of being “corrupt” and “dishonest”, Turness insisted in her leaving note that “allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong”.
The shake-up also comes as the UK government is set to begin reviewing the BBC’s Royal Charter, which outlines the corporation’s governance and public mission.
The current charter ends in 2027 and will need to be renewed, with Davie adding he hoped a new chief would “positively shape” the next iteration, which will need to secure substantial funding to guarantee the BBC’s long-term future.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who previously called the allegations of bias “incredibly serious”, said a review of the charter by the UK government will help the BBC “adapt to this new era”.
While some critics see the resignations as a timely reckoning for the once-beloved state institution, others have suggested they are a result of duress from right-wing detractors and the United States.
Former conservative prime minister Boris Johnson threatened to stop paying his BBC licence fee, while current Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch welcomed the resignations following a “catalogue of serious failures”.
But Liberal Democrats party leader Ed Davey urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to tell Trump to “keep his hands off” the BBC.
“It’s easy to see why Trump wants to destroy the world’s number one news source,” said Davey. “We can’t let him”.
– Controversies –
It could take several month to find a replacement for Davie, who earned the moniker of “Teflon Tim” for his ability to bounce back from scandals.
But he was unable to ride out the latest controversy, which follows a Daily Telegraph report last week that several concerns were raised on impartiality in an internal memo by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee.
Among them was criticism over clips spliced together from sections of a Trump speech on January 6, 2021, when he was accused of fomenting the mob attack on the US capitol seeking to keep him in power despite losing his re-election bid.
The edit made it appear he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them and “fight like hell”.
In the undoctored clip, however, the president urged the audience to walk with him “and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women”.
Earlier this year, the BBC issued several apologies for “serious flaws” in the making of another documentary entitled “Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone”, broadcast in February.
In October, it accepted a sanction from the UK media watchdog for what was deemed a “materially misleading” programme, whose child narrator was later revealed to g the organisation of bias in its coverage of Israel.
Pro-Palestinian protesters have also targeted the BBC’s London headquarters over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
