That The BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and News CEO, Deborah Turness, have resigned after criticism was leveled at the network for a documentary that allegedly misled viewers by modifying speeches by the American president, Donald Trump. The quake at the station followed harsh criticism leveled by White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, who questioned the British network’s journalistic integrity. The British broadcaster, the BBC, is a “source of 100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine”, Leavitt said in recent days, defining a BBC news program he watched while he was busy with the American president on his trip to England as “the ruin of the day”.
In an interview with the Telegraph newspaper, Leavitt specifically referred to a BBC documentary in which Trump’s speech was edited in a way that, he said, ”completely misled” viewers because it combined parts and omitted others. “This deliberately dishonest and selectively edited BBC clip is further evidence that this is 100% fake news which should no longer be worthy of being shown on British television screens,” he said.
The service, according to the BBC, was created by Michael Prescott, a former editorial guidelines and standards committee consultant who left his post at the start of the year. Programs targeted by the White House showed Trump saying he would accompany his supporters to the Capitol before the riot on January 6, 2021, urging them to “fight like hell,” but omitting the part of his speech that urged them to “make their voices heard in peaceful and patriotic ways.”
“I would like to inform you that I have decided to leave the BBC after 20 years. This is entirely my decision,” Davie said in a statement admitting that “some mistakes had been made and, as director general, I must take full responsibility.”
Like most public organisations, he added, “the BBC is not perfect and we must always be open, transparent and accountable”.
Turness later explained that “the current controversy over President Trump has reached a stage that is detrimental to the BBC, an institution I love”. “The responsibility lies with me,” he continued, underscoring that “although mistakes have been made, I want to be clear: recent accusations that BBC News is institutionally biased are false.”
