White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has accused the BBC of spreading “fake news” and called it a “leftist propaganda machine”.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Leavitt called out the broadcaster for being “ purposefully dishonest.” The BBC has been accused of misleading people by selectively editing a speech made by Donald Trump ahead of the 2021 Capitol riots. The speech was shown on the Panorama programme.
The Telegraph accessed a memo written by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the BBC's editorial guidelines. The memo claimed that the episode aired on Panorama “completely misled” people by showing Donald Trump asking his supporters that he “was going to walk to the Capitol with them to ‘fight like hell'. But, originally, Trump said that he would walk with them “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”.
Calling it “100% fake”, 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.”
Leavitt also spoke about how she is “forced to watch the BBC” every time she is in the UK with President Trump. She added, “It ruins my day listening to their blatant propaganda and lies about the president of the United States and all that he's doing to make America better and the world a safer place.”
Donald Trump Jr, the president's eldest son, has quote-tweeted The Telegraph report and called out the “fake news reporters.”
He tweeted, “The FAKE NEWS "reporters" in the UK are just as dishonest and full of shit as the ones here in America.”
Meanwhile, Michael Prescott has been asked to present evidence to the UK Culture, Media and Sport Committee on concerns about editorial standards at the BBC.
The committee also wrote to BBC chair Samir Shah about the edited Donald Trump speech and its coverage of the war in Gaza.
