The BBC is preparing to issue a formal apology after being accused of selectively editing U.S. President Donald Trump’s January 6 speech in a documentary, making it appear as though he was directly inciting the 2021 Capitol riots.
BBC set to issue an apology for US President Donald Trump
Chair Samir Shah is expected to address the issue on Monday in a letter to the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, acknowledging that a 2024 Panorama film “should not have altered Trump’s speech in the way it did.”
According to reports in The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph, Shah will concede that the edit lacked clarity but insist there was “no intention to mislead viewers.”
Lisa Nandy, the UK Culture Secretary, was the latest to criticise the broadcaster. Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she described the edit as “incredibly serious.”
Nandy revealed that she has had “too many” discussions with senior BBC figures over the past year concerning editorial standards. While expressing confidence that Shah and BBC Director-General Tim Davie were addressing the Trump controversy, the Labour minister questioned why such lapses continued to arise.
How has the White House responded to this incident?
Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told The Telegraph, “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.”
The controversy stems from a segment of Panorama that edited together two separate excerpts from Trump’s January 6, 2021 address. In the programme, Trump was heard saying: “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.”
In reality, his words were: “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.”
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called the issue “incredibly serious”, saying the incident reflected “inconsistent editorial standards” at the broadcaster. She added: “It doesn’t always meet the highest standards. It’s not always well thought through.”
The apology will mark the first time the BBC has formally acknowledged the controversy — one that has placed its leadership, including Director-General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness, under renewed scrutiny over impartiality and editorial oversight.
