BBC holds surprise board meeting to weigh Trump’s legal threat
By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — The BBC board held an unexpected meeting on Wednesday as the British broadcaster stares down a legal threat from President Trump, a source told CNN.
The person, who had direct knowledge of the meeting, said the board is not planning to issue any immediate statement afterward. A BBC spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting.
Wednesday’s meeting is the latest sign of a scramble inside the BBC to address the fallout from last week’s Telegraph newspaper story about a serious editing error in a October 2024 documentary about Trump.
Lawyers for the president sent a demand letter to the BBC on Monday, one day after two top executives resigned amid the editing controversy.
The letter claimed that Trump suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” due to the bad edit, even though the error did not garner attention at the time of the broadcast. The letter asserted that the entire documentary should be retracted and warned of a $1 billion lawsuit if Trump’s demands are not met.
With dramatic flair, it assigned a Friday deadline and said “the BBC is on notice.”
Trump has a lengthy history of sending legal threats and not following through with lawsuits. But he has sued The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal in recent months over other grievances. And he has used both lawsuits and the threat of suits to win settlements and concessions from other parties.
British media outlets have been consumed with stories about whether the BBC will try to appease Trump, or will stand up to him, like The Times and The Journal have. And BBC News staffers have been questioning whether the 13-member board is up to the challenge.
The board has been widely criticized for responding too slowly to last week’s outcry about the editing screwup
“It’s not clear that Trump has jurisdiction to sue,” media lawyer Mark Stephens told CNN’s Max Foster on Monday.
Plus, the $1 billion dollar amount is “totally meaningless,” Media Law Resource Center executive director George Freeman told a BBC reporter. Freeman reminded listeners that Trump “has a long record of unsuccessful libel suits.”
But Trump has a successful recent track record of squeezing concessions out of vulnerable institutions – like Paramount, the parent of CBS News, which agreed to pay $16 million toward his future presidential library last summer.
On the other hand, the appearance of capitulation has been costly for media brands like Disney, which lost subscribers when it briefly suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s show amid government pressure in September. Kimmel is now back on the air and ridiculing Trump again on a nightly basis.
When asked for comment about the board meeting, a BBC spokesperson referred back to the corporation’s original statement about Trump’s legal threat: “We are reviewing the letter and will respond directly in due course.”
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