The BBC has been accused of “grotesquely misleading viewers” after editing a speech by US President Donald Trump in an episode of Panorama. The public service broadcaster has come under fire for splicing clips together from sections of Mr Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, to make it appear that he told supporters he would walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”. William Yarwood, media campaign manager of Conservative pressure group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, has called for the corporation to “stand on its own two feet” as punishment for the blunder following “years of editorial bias”.
“Just when you thought the BBC could not stoop any lower, they’ve failed to meet even the lowest of expectations,” Mr Yarwood told the Express. “The Beeb has been guilty of questionable reporting practices and clear signs of editorial bias for years, but to so grotesquely mislead viewers like this has to now be a red line.”
Mr Yarwood also called on Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to scrap the TV licence fee, which costs UK households £174.50 annually.
“Lisa Nandy now needs to make it clear that the BBC will be expected to stand on its own two feet in the years to come, by scrapping the hated TV tax and moving the broadcaster to a privately-funded model,” he said.
It comes after a committee of MPs wrote to BBC chairman Samir Shah demanding further answers about the spliced clip, which was aired in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance? a week before last year’s US election.
Downing Street said it had been “assured” the BBC would examine impartiality issues raised in a memo by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, which exposed the edited clip.
Dame Caroline Dineage, chairwoman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said: “The BBC clearly has serious questions to answer regarding both its editorial standards and the way in which concerns are handled by senior management.
“The corporation must set the benchmark for accurate and fair reporting, especially in a media landscape where it is all too easy to find news presented in a less than impartial way.
“The committee needs to be reassured that those at the very top of the BBC are treating these issues with the seriousness they deserve and taking decisive steps to uphold the corporation’s reputation for integrity and public trust.”
The scandal follows a series of other public criticisms of the broadcaster, after it aired a Gaza documentary narrated by the son of a Hamas official and showed the Glastonbury set of the controversial punk band Bob Vylan live on iPlayer.
A BBC spokesperson said: “While we don’t comment on leaked documents, when the BBC receives feedback it takes it seriously and considers it carefully.
“Michael Prescott is a former adviser to a board committee where differing views and opinions of our coverage are routinely discussed and debated.”
