The BBC leaders fall under the weight of the controversy over a documentary on Donald Trump and the accusations of bias with protests also coming directly from the White House.
A formal response to the storm that had been building for days was expected in the next few hours, with an announced intervention by the general director and CEO of BBC News: the two, Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, shortened the time by evidently giving the broadcaster the green light to spread their respective resignation notes: “There were mistakes” they admitted, taking ultimate responsibility for them, but they do not compromise on the quality and reliability of the BBC: “The accusations of bias are wrong”. The reaction of the President of the United States was immediate and on Truth he rejoiced over these latest developments and took things further, attacking: “The top management of the BBC, including Tim Davie, the boss, resigned/fired because they were caught ‘manipulating’ my excellent (perfect!) speech of 6 January. Thanks to the Telegraph for unmasking these corrupt ‘journalists’.
“These are very dishonest people who tried to jeopardize the presidential election. On top of everything, they come from a foreign country, which many consider to be our number one ally. What a terrible thing for democracy.”
The cornerstone of the scandal was a documentary broadcast by the BBC’s flagship investigative programme, Panorama, in which some images of a speech by US President Donald Trump were apparently edited in a misleading way. Last Tuesday, the conservative newspaper Daily Telegraph reported on an internal BBC dossier in which reference was made to the possibility that in the documentary ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’, broadcast last year and made for the BBC by an independent production company, two parts of Trump’s speech had been edited together so that the tycoon seemed to explicitly encourage the siege on Capitol Hill in January 2021 by telling supporters that he would march with them towards the Capitol to “fight as devils.” The following day the opposition Conservative Party went on the attack, with the leader Kemi Badenoch very harsh, attributing “serious and systematic” editorial bias to the BBC leaders, speaking of “shocking revelations” and stating that for such a serious fact “heads must roll”. The echoes of the controversy did not take long to cross the Atlantic and reach the White House which, when questioned by the Telegraph, had denounced the BBC as “a left-wing propaganda machine”. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of being “intentionally dishonest” in its portrayal of the Capitol Hill insurrection in the documentary in question. UK taxpayers – he added – are “forced to pay the bill for a left-wing propaganda machine”.
However, not only in the case of the documentary on Trump has the work of the British broadcaster been questioned in recent months: questions have been raised regarding the coverage of the war in Gaza by BBC Arabic, an Arabic language channel, which allegedly “minimized Israeli suffering” and painted the Jewish state “as the aggressor” according to the criticisms leveled at the broadcaster. To the point that even Israel now applauds the departure of those responsible: the Israeli Foreign Ministry reacted by stating that the resignation “highlights the biased nature that has long characterized the BBC’s media coverage of Israel. For too long, they have spread disinformation that has fueled anti-Semitism and extremism”. Furthermore, in recent months the imperative to “Clarify things” had even come from Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer who had asked for explanations after the broadcaster had not interrupted the live broadcast of the very popular Glastonbury music festival when during his performance the rap duo Bob Vylan had uttered anti-Israeli phrases from the stage. An apology and admission of guilt followed from the BBC, which made it known that it was “repentant” for what had happened. The Tories had repeatedly targeted the public broadcaster in the past, in particular when Boris Johnson was prime minister, always accusing it of not respecting the principle of neutrality. Now it is the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage – who has become a highly feared political opponent for both Labor and the Conservative Party in recent months – who states that this resignation must be “the beginning of a radical change” at the BBC. “This is the BBC’s last chance. If they don’t do the right thing, there will be a lot of people who will refuse to pay the license fee.”