BBC apologizes to Trump for video edits, denies defamation allegations

The BBC has apologized to President Donald Trump for its misleading edit of footage from the Jan. 6, 2021 rally – an edit that made Trump sound like he was calling for violence.

“We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” BBC writes under its “Corrections and Clarifications” section. “The BBC would like to apologise to President Trump for that error of judgement.”

BBC Chair Samir Shah also sent a personal apology letter to the White House, the BBC reports. The media company did not address the Trump’s demand for compensation, however.

In the BBC’s Panorama documentary – Trump: A Second Chance? – Trump’s words, “We fight like hell,” were cut to immediately follow his call to “walk down to the Capitol,” when those phrases were more than 50 minutes apart in the speech. The documentary was released shortly before the 2024 presidential election.

BBC’s apology follows a letter Trump’s lawyers sent to the BBC Sunday, threatening a $1 billion defamation lawsuit unless BBC agrees to issue a retraction, apologize and compensate for reputational damages, the BBC reports. The letter gave the company until Friday at 5:00 p.m. to respond.

The BBC, however, denied the defamation accusation, saying the publication did not distribute the content in the U.S.

“While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim,” the letter states.

Further, the BBC claims the footage “was not designed to mislead,” was part of an hour-long program and did not harm Trump because he was elected shortly thereafter. The publication appealed to U.S. defamation laws that protect presenting an opinion on public politics.

Shortly after receiving Trump’s initial note, Director-General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness resigned Sunday and admitted to “making a mistake” due to “an editorial breach,” NPR reports.

Trump told Fox News his speech was “butchered” and its presentation “defrauded” viewers.

UK Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey encouraged the prime minister Thursday to speak with Trump and “defend the impartiality and independence of the BBC,” the company reported.