BBC
BBC top brass fall! Tim Davie, Deborah Turness quit amid Trump documentary firestorm
London/IBNS: BBC has faced a crisis with two of its senior executives resigning after a controversy broke out over a leaked internal memo that revealed editorial lapses in a Panorama documentary, media reports said.
Tim Davie and Deborah Turness resigned as the director general and the chief executive of BBC respectively after The Daily Telegraph reported on the memo claiming the British public broadcaster had juxtaposed Trump's remarks in a misleading way to make it seem he encouraged the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Davie announced his resignation saying, "Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable.
"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."
What is the allegation?
A memo by Michael Prescott, former independent advisor to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee, was leaked to The Daily Telegraph.
The memo claims systemic editorial failings at the BBC including:
The BBC’s Arabic service reportedly gave disproportionate emphasis to statements from Hamas and omitted or minimized coverage of Israeli hostages and critical Israeli-related stories.
Arabic service “painted Israel as the aggressor” in the Israel–Hamas War and rushed to air negative reports without adequate checks.
A section within the BBC (an LGBTQ specialist desk) had a culture of “keeping other perspectives off-air” in coverage of transgender issues.
The flagship programme Panorama allegedly edited a speech by Donald Trump in a way that misrepresented him as inciting the Jan 6 2021 Capitol riot.
The White House reacts
The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said BBC was "purposefully dishonest".
Leavitt described the broadcaster as "100 percent fake news" and a "propaganda machine" after the news of the bias broke out.
US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, "The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught “doctoring” my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th. Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt “Journalists.”
"These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!"
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