Donald Trump has declared victory after the bombshell resignation of the BBC‘s director general.
The MAGA community has been attacking the BBC for days, accusing the UK national broadcaster of selectively editing Trump‘s January 6 speech to make it appear as if the president was encouraging the 2021 Capitol riot.
In news that sent shockwaves through the UK media industry, Tim Davie announced his resignation on Sunday amid the growing scandal. BBC News chief Deborah Turness also resigned.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: “The best people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th. Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt “Journalists.”
“These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On best of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!”
The BBC denies that the edit was in any way politically motivated. The corporation, which will set out its position on Monday, has also been clear that Davie and Turness resigned and were not fired.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also celebrated the news. Earlier in the week, she described the edited BBC Panorama documentary as evidence of disinformation about the U.S. president.
“This purposefully dishonest, selectively edited clip by the BBC is further evidence that they are total, 100% fake news that should no longer be worth the time on the television screens of the great people of the United Kingdom,” she said.
Concerns about the 2024 Panorama film originated in an excoriating leaked memo attacking BBC News output. Obtained by The Daily Telegraph, the document was penned by Michael Prescott, who was an external adviser to the BBC board’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee until June.
In the Panorama documentary, Trump appears to say: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”
He actually said: “We’re gonna walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re gonna walk down, we’re gonna walk down any one you want but I think right here, we’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen.”
Some 54 minutes later, when Trump was talking about the U.S. election being “corrupt,” he said: “Something’s wrong here, something’s really wrong, can’t have happened, and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”
On Monday, chair Samir Shah will write to UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee to admit that a 2024 BBC Panorama film should not have altered Trump’s speech in the way it did.
Shah is expected to tell lawmakers that the BBC has reviewed the Trump edit again in light of audience complaints in recent days, Deadline understands. Shah is expected to acknowledge that Panorama could have been clearer that Trump’s speech was changed, but he will say there was no intention to mislead viewers.
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