Donald Trump has threatened legal action against the BBC and welcomed the resignations of two of its most senior figures after a campaign against the broadcaster that reached fever pitch over criticism that its flagship documentary programme in 2024 used a misleading edit of a Trump speech.
Lawyers for the US president said that the BBC must retract the Panorama documentary by Friday or face a lawsuit for “no less” than $1bn (£760m), according to US media outlets who cited the letter. The BBC has confirmed it had received a letter and said it will respond in due course.
The resignations of the BBC director general, Tim Davie, and its News CEO, Deborah Turness, came after the rightwing Telegraph newspaper published a leaked internal report by a former BBC standards adviser alleging failings in the broadcaster’s coverage. The report criticised BBC coverage on transgender issues, Gaza and an edit of a Trump speech from January 6 during the Capitol Hill insurrection.
The BBC just keeps stumbling from one poor management disaster to another. I’ve always been a big supporter (and legally I have to be) but it’s really a hollowed out shell of its once great self. The Telegraph’s report echos what a lot of British people have been feeling about coverage for a long time, that there’s incredible bias (especially at editor level) and lack of overall leadership. And that’s before the endless coverups going back well into the 70s - only the Catholic Church has a bigger record for enabling child sex abuse.
I jumped from the nerfed CBC to the BBC but some recent articles really make me wonder what their motivation is. They don’t even check for basic conflicts of interest with those interviewed.
Unlike the CBC, they don’t have to submit or have their funding removed.