BBC apologizes to Trump over editing blunder, rejects defamation claim
By Catherine Nicholls, Christian Edwards, Billy Stockwell, CNN
London (CNN) — The BBC apologized to US President Donald Trump on Thursday, over a documentary that Trump’s lawyers described as false and defamatory, seeking to defuse a row that has plunged the public broadcaster into its worst crisis in years.
A BBC spokesperson said that lawyers for the broadcaster had written to Trump’s legal team in response to a letter received on Sunday.
“BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President (Donald) Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the program,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the BBC has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any BBC platforms while rejecting that it was defamatory.
Rebuffing Trump’s demands for compensation the broadcaster said, “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.”
Trump had threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion unless it retracted the October 2024 documentary and apologized for what his lawyers have described as “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” before a deadline of 5 p.m. ET Friday.
The BBC had already apologized for an error of judgment in the documentary, titled “Trump: A Second Chance?”, but not before it had ignited a scandal that saw the resignations of its director-general and head of news.
In the documentary, Trump’s January 6 speech was edited to show him saying: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
In fact, the US leader said: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,” with “fight like hell” coming 54 minutes later.
In an interview with Fox News Tuesday, Trump said the British broadcaster had “butchered” his “beautiful” and “calming” speech and “made it sound radical.”
Trump has a 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.
The BBC’s board has been criticized for responding too slowly to the editing screwup, which was revealed in a leaked internal memo that has created a firestorm of criticism and allegations of systemic bias.
Deborah Turness, the outgoing CEO of BBC News who resigned on Sunday, has said that while mistakes were made, “allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”
In a message to BBC News staff following her resignation, Turness said that the backlash surrounding the Trump documentary had “reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love.”
The British public broadcaster’s next steps are not immediately clear. Trump is yet to publicly acknowledge the apology.
This story has been updated with additional details.
The-CNN-Wire
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