BBC chairman Samir Shah finally issued an apology over the doctored footage of Donald Trump yesterday as a blame game within the corporation broke out into the public domain.
A civil war between the BBC’s board and its news division erupted following the resignations of director-general Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, on Sunday.
They both quit – although it may take up to nine months to replace Mr Davie – over their handling of the impartiality row following a damning internal report over editorial failings.
So it was left to Mr Shah to address the most egregious claim that footage of the President had been spliced together so it appeared that he told supporters to ‘walk down to the Capitol‘ and ‘fight like hell’ during his speech on January 6, 2021.
The two sections that were edited together were actually delivered by Mr Trump more than 50 minutes apart.
Mr Shah conceded that the editing gave the impression ‘of a direct call for violent action’ from the US President and had led to more than 500 complaints since the report, by former editorial adviser Michael Prescott, emerged last week.
The corporation’s chairman wrote: ‘The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgment.’
But Mr Shah also said the BBC should ‘have acted earlier’, admitting that the Trump footage had been discussed during meetings of the BBC’s editorial watchdog, which both he, Mr Davie and Ms Turness sit on, in January and May.
Mr Shah said that BBC News bosses had argued that the purpose of editing the clip was ‘to convey the message of the speech made by President Trump so that Panorama’s audience could better understand how it had been received by President Trump’s supporters and what was happening on the ground at that time’.
BBC chairman Samir Shah finally issued an apology over the doctored footage of Donald Trump yesterday as a blame game within the corporation spilt out into the public domain
Director-general Tim Davie quit the BBC on Sunday after five years in the corporation’s top job
Meanwhile, BBC presenters peddled conspiracies of a political coup at the corporation.
Nick Robinson used a monologue on the Radio 4’s Today show to tell of sources who had alleged ‘political interference’ and ‘a hostile takeover of parts of the BBC’.
He said Mr Davie and Ms Turness had not explained ‘what they had actually got wrong’ when they resigned, downplaying the impartiality row by saying there were ‘no complaints about the editing of Donald Trump’s speech’ when it was broadcast in 2024.
Mr Robinson also appeared to want to brush aside the saga by arguing some listeners were tired of hearing ‘the BBC talking about itself’ and adding that there is ‘plenty of other news’ in the world.
He instead shifted the blame for the row on to the BBC’s board for, he said, refusing to sign off a statement from Ms Turness on the row last week, naming board member Sir Robbie Gibb, a former BBC political producer and spin doctor for Theresa May, as someone who led the charge that there was ‘a problem of institutional bias’ at the BBC.
Mr Robinson said: ‘BBC News executives – the journalists who run the News division – agreed the wording of a statement at the beginning of last week, admitting that it had been a mistake to edit together two different sections of Donald Trump’s speech.’
He added that it would have said that ‘despite this error, there was no intention to mislead the audience… This was not enough for the BBC board which refused to sign off the statement.’
David Yelland, former editor of the Sun who now hosts a Radio 4 podcast, also told the Today programme that Mr Davie’s resignation ‘was a coup’.
He added: ‘There were people inside the BBC very close to the board, on the board who have systematically undermined Tim Davie and his senior team and this has been going on for a long time.’ Last night, a senior BBC insider denied any such statement had been knocked back by the board.
They said: ‘There are obviously concerns about some of the editorial decisions and the wider context of news impartiality, but the board was 100 per cent behind Tim Davie. It’s a total misrepresentation to suggest there is a civil war, let alone a coup.
Deborah Turness (pictured in October 2022), the CEO of BBC News, has also resigned following criticism that the BBC documentary misled viewers. In her statement she said: ‘The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC’ – but denied that the broadcaster was ‘institutionally biased’
‘But there is a feeling on the board that the way to be pro-BBC is to make it better and make it truly impartial. We have to go the extra mile and be seen to be absolutely impartial if we are to retain trust.’
Yesterday, as she turned up for work, Ms Turness denied that her news team was ‘institutionally biased’, arguing that ‘it is the most trusted news provider’.
Mr Shah also fought back against claims of systemic bias and criticised Mr Prescott for his ‘personal account’ which gives only a ‘partial’ view of events.
In a letter to the culture, media and sport committee, he said Mr Prescott’s memo ‘implied that he has ‘uncovered’ a list of stories and issues that the BBC have sought to ‘bury’. That interpretation is simply not true.’
In an interview with the BBC’s media editor Katie Razzall, Mr Shah said it was ‘simply not true’ that the broadcaster wasn’t being accountable to mistakes and repeated that Mr Prescott didn’t unearth the issues but knew about them because of his place on the BBC’s editorial watchdog.
Mr Shah also defended Mr Davie, who led the BBC for five years. ‘I did not want to lose Tim Davie,’ he said, adding that there were those on the board who ‘were upset by the decision’.
