2 BBC Bosses Resign After News Outlet’s Anti-Trump Video Editing, Biased Coverage

The BBC apologized Monday for the “error of judgment” the organization made when it doctored comments made by President Trump on January 6, 2021 to make it look like he was inciting violence. 

The head of the BBC and the British broadcaster’s top news executive both resigned Sunday after a leaked internal memo revealed that a speech by the president was intentionally edited to be misleading. 

The firestorm began after the Daily Telegraph published a dossier that raised concerns about the political bias of Britain’s public broadcaster.  

The “internal whistleblowing memo” was written by Michael Prescott, who had worked as an independent advisor to the board for three years until June 2025. He reportedly raised his concerns with the BBC’s editorial standards board.

Prescott was concerned about the corporation’s reporting in four areas, including the U.S. presidential election, racial diversity, biological sex and gender, and Gaza.

In particular, he pointed to an hour-long special by the BBC’s investigative documentary series Panorama, which aired a week before the presidential election of 2024, titled “Trump: A Second Chance?”

According to the Daily Telegraph’s report, a clip of that episode appears to show different parts of Trump’s speech edited into one quote. In the episode, Trump is shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you… …And we fight. …We fight like h***.”

‘Peacefully and Patriotically’ 

However, video and a transcript from Trump’s comments that day show that he said:  “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.

“Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.

“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Misleading Viewers

Nearly an hour later, toward the end of his speech, Trump used the phrase “we fight like h***” but he was not referencing the Capitol.

Prescott argued that the BBC’s editing of the clip “materially misled viewers.”

“The fact that he did not explicitly exhort supporters to go down and fight at Capitol Hill was one of the reasons there were no federal charges for incitement to riot,” he wrote.

He also reported that the documentary disordered the events of that day to give the impression that the far-right group Proud Boys had only begun marching to the Capitol when Trump had finished speaking. 

“This created the impression Trump’s supporters had taken up his ‘call-to-arms,'” he said.

BBC Director-General Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness announced their resignation on Sunday. In a letter to staff, Davie wrote is resignation was “entirely my decision” and he took “ultimate responsibility” for mistakes made by the BBC.

Turness said the controversy “has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC — an institution that I love. As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me.”

“In public life, leaders need to be fully accountable, and that is why I am stepping down,” she also said in a note to staff. “While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear that recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”

‘Tried to Step on the Scales of a Presidential Election’

Trump posted a link to a Daily Telegraph story about the speech-editing on his Truth Social network, thanking the Daily Telegraph “for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.'”

“…They were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT) speech of January 6th,” he wrote, adding, “These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election.” He called that “a terrible thing for Democracy!”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted to the news on X, writing, “@BBCNews is dying because they are anti-Trump Fake News.”

“Everyone should watch @GBNEWS,” she added. 

Additional BBC Bias

The 103-year-old BBC recently faced criticism for also producing a “materially misleading” documentary about the lives of children in Gaza. The organization removed “Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone” from its streaming service after failing to disclose that the child narrator was the son of an official in Hamas’ government.

The organization issued an apology acknowledging that leaving out that information was a “serious flaw.” 

Meanwhile, President Trump has sent a letter to the BBC threatening legal action. The organization said in a statement on Monday that “we will review the letter and respond directly in due course.” It did not provide further details.

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