British media outlet BBC is facing a crisis — internal and external — after a memo was leaked Friday revealing that its documentary misled viewers by editing President Trump’s speech before the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
Mr. Trump sent a letter threatening legal action, BBC said, with more details to come.
“We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action,” BBC Chairman Samir Shah wrote to lawmakers.
The broadcaster’s “Panorama” documentary program edited together different parts of Mr. Trump’s speech, making it appear that the president called for violence from his supporters. What wasn’t included was Mr. Trump saying he wanted them to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
The documentary showed Mr. 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.”
Mr. Trump said this was an attempt to “step on the scales of a Presidential Election.”
Before learning of Mr. Trump’s threat of legal action, Mr. Shah said he was considering apologizing personally to the president.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said that “BBC belongs to all of us here in the U.K.,” and his government should be “united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.”
These developments come after BBC Director-General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness both resigned Sunday due to public and political backlash.
The right-leaning publication The Daily Telegraph published parts of a dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the broadcaster’s editorial standards committee. It criticized editing the speech, coverage of transgender issues and a potential anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service.
On Monday, Mr. Shah said that since the memo was leaked, the outlet had received more than 500 complaints. This prompted “further reflection,” he said, apologizing for an “error of judgment” in editing the speech.
In an interview with BBC’s Katie Razzall, Mr. Shah said, “In hindsight, it would have been better to act earlier.”
The executive said that while Mr Prescott’s memo relied upon research commissioned by the committee, it “does not present a full picture of the discussions, decisions and actions that were taken.”
Mr. Shah outlined a plan to ensure that all BBC output is “bound by editorial guidelines,” including changing the composition of the editorial standards committee, expected to be presented in December.
