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BBC top bosses Tim Davie, Deborah Turness resign amid row over Trump's Capitol speech edit in documentary
BBC's director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness have resigned following the row and the organisation is expected to apologise today.
Tim Davie, director-general of British public-service broadcaster BBC has resigned along with head of news Deborah Turness amid a controversy over the editing of a 2021 Capitol speech by US President Donald Trump for a documentary.
BBC said the edited speech of President Trump used in one of the episodes of its documentary series by its Panorama programme misled the viewers.
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“Davie, in the job for five years, had faced increasing pressure over a series of controversies and accusations of bias that have dogged the public broadcaster,” BBC wrote on its website.
Tim Davie and Deborah Turness are expected to apologise today, reports said.
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The issue came to light after The Telegraph published details of a leaked internal BBC memo that indicated that edited two parts of the US president's speech together that made it look like he encouraged the Capitol Hill riots of January 2021.
Reacting to the news, Trump said "corrupt journalists" had been exposed, adding "these are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election".
BBC executives respond
On Sunday, Davie took the responsibility of the issue as he announced his decision. “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,” he said.
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Turness said the controversy surrounding the Panorama programme had “reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC”.
“The buck stops with me,” she said.
Capitol speech clip under scanner
BBC reportedly stitched together two parts of Trump's speech that he gave in Washington DC on 6 January 2021. 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.”
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But it was pieced together with another bit to make it sound like, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."
The two sections that were pieced together were originally more than 50 minutes apart.
Trump, White House reaction
Trump's press secretary press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, dubbed the BBC as “100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine, while Trump said "corrupt journalists" had been exposed,. “These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election,” he said, adding that top people in the BBC were quitting or being fired "because they were caught 'doctoring' my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th".
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"These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. What a terrible thing for Democracy!" he said.
