Trump threatens to sue BBC as broadcaster faces ‘fight for its survival’

By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — The BBC is embroiled in a massive political fight over its future, with conservatives capitalizing on an editing screw-up and denouncing the British broadcaster while liberals argue that the institution is flawed but worth defending.

On Monday, Trump intensified the pressure by sending a threatening legal letter to the news organization over the misleading edit in a one-year-old documentary about his reelection campaign. He is demanding at least $1 billion in damages.

A BBC spokesperson told CNN that “we will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”

Trump has sent several legal letters to other news organizations, including CNN, during his second term in office.

The president’s legal threats often don’t amount to anything, but he does have pending lawsuits against the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Des Moines Register.

Earlier Monday, BBC Chair Samir Shah issued a belated apology for the “error of judgment” with the October 2024 documentary. BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC News chief Deborah Turness tendered their resignations on Sunday as stories about the edit scandal consumed British media.

There is no indication that the misleading edit was politically motivated. Nor is there any reason to believe that Davie and Turness knew about it ahead of time.

However, a lawyer for Trump asserted Monday that the BBC defamed the president “by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the Presidential Election.”

The letter, obtained by CNN, charges the broadcaster with defamation and claims that Trump has suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm,” despite no one seeming to call out the error at the time of the broadcast.

Last week, The Telegraph, a longtime source of anti-BBC commentary, wrote about an “internal report” revealing the bad edit, and the story has since snowballed.

The pre-election film spliced together different parts of Trump’s infamous January 6 speech at the Ellipse to make it sound like Trump told the crowd he would walk with them to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”

Trump’s tone was certainly combative that day, but in the actual speech, his exhortations to “fight” were separate from his suggestion about walking to the Capitol to “cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”

In a contrite letter to the head of a parliamentary committee on Monday, Shah said the BBC accepted that “the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”

The BBC’s ‘fight for its survival’

The revelation about the misleading edit has contributed to an ongoing political fight over the BBC’s funding and future, with conservatives using the error as a new opportunity to denounce the British broadcaster.

“The BBC is facing a coordinated, politically motivated attack,” BBC veteran John Simpson wrote on X Sunday night. He praised Davie and Turness and said, “We’ve now got a real fight on our hands to defend public service broadcasting, because that’s under threat too.”

This is ultimately all about trust: Who trusts the BBC, who doesn’t, and why.

The BBC’s adversaries, including politicians who detest its news coverage and media moguls who want to take its market share, say the BBC has lost trust, perhaps permanently.

They cite a wide range of perceived wrongs. Former conservative party leader Liz Truss, who had a brief term as prime minister in 2022, wrote on Sunday, “I’m glad the US President and the rest of the world are seeing the BBC for what it is. failure to tell the truth on everything from transgender ideology to economics to Gaza has done huge damage to politics and government in this country. This should be the end of nationalised broadcasting.”

Conservative activists in the UK have long railed against the license fee that British households pay for BBC programs and services. The government is currently reviewing the BBC’s Royal Charter, including the license fee structure, ahead of the current charter’s expiration at the end of 2027.

That review presents an opening for the BBC’s many critics to demand changes — at the same time, the BBC is trying to establish new revenue streams and transform itself for the digital age.

Last week’s story in The Telegraph was based on a lengthy memo by Michael Prescott, who had been hired to advise the BBC on editorial standards and guidelines. Prescott’s memo warned the BBC board about what he called serious problems with news coverage and “inaction” by the broadcaster’s leadership.

The Trump documentary was his first example, but he also cited concerns about coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, gender identity, racial diversity and other matters. He argued that “errors are repeated time and time again.”

Shah responded on Monday and said the BBC has “published corrections where we have got things wrong; changed editorial guidance to make the BBC’s position on issues clearer; made changes to leadership where the problems point to underlying issues; and carried out formal disciplinary measures.”

Shah also urged people to keep “a sense of perspective,” pointing to “thousands of hours of outstanding journalism” by the BBC.

But a sense of perspective is usually the first thing lost in a media feeding frenzy. Veteran British journalist Alan Rusbridger wrote Monday that the BBC now finds itself “in a fight for its survival.”

The Trump documentary error was “serious,” Rusbridger wrote, but the BBC’s enemies want to see the entire organization “wither or die,” which “would leave us all far worse off.”

Robert Shrimsley, UK chief political commentator and executive editor of the Financial Times, said on X that it’s important to recognize the political dimensions of the dispute.

“The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it,” Shrimsley said. “Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.”

After reading all the press about the scandal from Kyiv, where he is on assignment, BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale took to social media and expressed his pride in the organization.

“We are not perfect; we must always strive to be better,” he wrote Monday. “But in a darkening world, we remain a shaft of light.”

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Kara Scannell and Christian Edwards contributed reporting.