Why Did BBC Chief Resign? Controversy Behind 'Trump Documentary' Explained

Two of the top executives of the BBC have resigned following a report suggesting the British public service broadcaster misleadingly edited a speech by US President Donald Trump that preceded the January 6 Capitol riot for its flagship documentary programme.

Tim Davie, the director general, and Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, resigned abruptly days after The Daily Telegraph reported on a leaked internal memo, claiming that the BBC Panorama documentary had juxtaposed Trump's remarks in a misleading way to make it appear that he had explicitly encouraged the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Announcing his resignation, Davie said in a statement posted on the BBC website: "Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable.

"While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision. Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made, and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility."

Also Read: BBC Director-General Resigns Amid Backlash Over Edited Trump Speech

The Daily Telegraph Report

The latest controversy followed a Daily Telegraph report last week that said concerns were first raised in the summer in a memo on impartiality by Michael Prescott, who, until June, was an independent external adviser to the BBC's editorial standards committee.

In the leaked memo, former journalist Prescott claimed that in its documentary called "Trump: A Second Chance?" that was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year's US election, the BBC, in one section, spliced together footage from comments that Trump made about 50 minutes apart.

Trump has been accused of fomenting the mob attack on the US Capitol, seeking to keep him in power despite losing his re-election bid. 

Prescott said that the edit made it appear that Trump had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them and "fight like hell". In the undoctored clip, however, the president urged the audience to walk with him, "and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."

At the time, Trump was still disputing President Joe Biden's election victory, in a vote that saw him ousted after his first term in office.

Prescott also claimed that the British broadcaster avoided stories that raised difficult questions about transgender rights and that BBC Arabic gave a platform to a journalist who had made antisemitic comments.

With a strong 21,000 employees, the BBC is one of the world's leading public service broadcasters. It is funded mainly from a licence fee paid by TV-watching Britons, supplemented by commercial revenue. The broadcasters have global reach through their international broadcasting operations and produce a wide range of content from news to entertainment. 

Reactions To the Daily Telegraph Report

The BBC's senior management came under fire after the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, reacted to the leaked memo and accused the broadcaster of being "purposefully dishonest" over its depiction of the Capitol Hill insurrection.

Trump also reacted to the news and said "corrupt journalists" had been exposed, adding, "These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election".

Later, the UK Culture, Media and Sport Minister Lisa Nandy called the allegations "incredibly serious".  She said the Trump edit was one of several concerns about editorial standards at the BBC.

"It isn't just about the Panorama programme, although that is incredibly serious," she told BBC television in an interview.

"There are a series of very serious allegations made, the most serious of which is that there is systemic bias in the way that difficult issues are reported at the BBC," she said.

Nandy said she was concerned about a tendency for editorial standards and the language used in reports to be "entirely inconsistent" whether it be on "Israel, Gaza... trans people or on this issue about President Trump".

After Davie and Turness' resignation, Leavitt seemed to rejoice over the news, posting on X a screenshot of the BBC news site announcing the resignation.

BBC's Past Controversies

Earlier this year, it issued several apologies for "serious flaws" in the making of another documentary entitled "Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone", broadcast in February.

In October, it accepted a sanction from the UK media watchdog for what was deemed a "materially misleading" programme, whose child narrator was later revealed to be the son of Hamas's former deputy agriculture minister.