Trump threatens legal action against BBC over Panorama speech edit
Donald Trump has sent a letter to the BBC threatening legal action, following uproar over the editing of a speech by the US president in a Panorama documentary.
Critics said the Panorama edit was misleading and removed a section where Mr Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”
BBC chair Samir Shah previously said the corporation has received communication from Mr Trump over the editing of the documentary, broadcast the week before last year’s US election, but did not confirm the US president has threatened to sue.
He said: “We are now considering how to reply to him.”
Asked directly if Mr Trump has said he will be suing the BBC, Mr Shah told culture editor Katie Razzall: “I do not know that yet, but he’s a litigious fellow so we should be prepared for all outcomes.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said he spoke with Mr Trump on Friday, telling a London press conference: “He just said to me: ‘Is this how you treat your best ally?’
“It’s quite a powerful comment.”
Mr Trump has a history of suing news organisations in the US.
He previously settled a defamation lawsuit against ABC News after star anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely said he had been found “liable for rape”.
Mr Trump also settled a legal dispute with CBS News over an interview it broadcast on its 60 Minutes programme with former vice president Kamala Harris.
He is currently engaged in lawsuits with the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Mr Trump has also taken action against the Associated Press after the wire service refused to call the Gulf of Mexico by his preferred name for it: the Gulf of America.
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Eventually he will pick on a fight with the wrong person.
Hopefully cholesterol.
And varicose veins.
I wonder how the BBC would defend itself.
Freedom of speech. It may be editing but he said the words. January 6th committee rehash likely in court. Does he really want that repeated?
Yet the findings of the January 6th committee was Trump was implicated in the capitol riots
BBC might have edited his speech but it doesnt change that .
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/us/politics/jan-6-committee-report.html
For a guy trumpeting freedom of speech, he does his best to ensure it doesn’t exist.
This wasn’t an ‘error of judgement’ on the part of the BBC: they deliberately falsified a video in order to mislead the viewer. They have form on this sort of thing – Bashir for example. Getting sued by Trump is the least the BBC deserves: they could plausibly be guilty of corrupting USA elections.
Trump went for insurrection. Undeniable.
And guilty of corrupting US elections? Come on, trump pardoned the rioters, he pardoned the workers trying to fix his election. The bloke is a stain on politics.
Of course he is.
The edit doesn’t make any sense. Biased individuals may have chosen to bring the quotes together to strongly imply bad behaviour but not without an obvious transition to show the splice. The only explanations that make sense are they had teenagers on work experience doing the editing or it’s a right-wing setup.
If anything, BBC is too biased towards the big orange dude rather than the other way around.
The BBC has only itself to blame on this one. It’s the latest in a long line of disastrous editorial decisions. This is a gift to Trump and, if he is as vindictive as usual, it could financially destroy the BBC.
Trump always does this. His mo is to threaten legal action. Take it out of court then come back for more. Disgusting nasty bully.
Then the BBC should have known better than to fabricate statements that he never actually said.
They didn’t . Listen to his speech.
The BBC have admitted what they did. Only you appear to think they’re absolutely blameless. Odd.
Trump was found to have incited an insurection, loss of life, he has never accepted the election results and he has never condemned the riots. And you think he is an angel? Odd.
Keep up at the back.
Now, abut gbeebies, why are they allowed to get away with it.
They did Jeff: they admitted it, apologised for it, and two people have resigned. You seem to be in denial as usual.
They’ve admitted it happened but they haven’t explained how it happened.
Yet Trump never apologised for his role in inciting the insurection. Loss of life occurred. BBC never led to any loss of life. You have no care of life as usual.
Really not paying attention but hey ho.
This is not the only time the BBC has done a chronology edit. At Orgreave during the miners strike the police charged a peaceful assembly in neighbouring fields and the strikers were defending themself. Yet the BBC swapped the footage around to show the opposite.
At last, the post 1960s consensus of managerial politics is ending.
The vultures are circling. no mention of the savage cuts to their news budget. The BBC is now in a corner, and will no doubt be very reluctant in future to question Trump’s regime and his minions here. It is no friend to the Left, but the far right hated it with a vengeance. Just waiting for Farage to suggest the licence fee should be withdrawn and a sell off privatisation to be on the cards.
But this is standard procedure for the beeb, Greenham common footage was edited, coverage of the natives defending Ireland was edited and several of the miners strike occurrences.
Why is everyone acting so surprised?