The BBC says it has apologized to President Donald Trump over an edited interview clip that suggested he encouraged violence ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. The news corporation also said it would not offer compensation in the wake of Trump threatening a $1 billion lawsuit over the edited video.
A BBC spokesperson said: “Lawyers for the BBC have written to President 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 Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme. The BBC has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’ on any BBC platforms. 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.”
The edited video, part of a “Panorama” documentary episode, has embroiled the BBC in one of its worst scandals. BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and director general Tim Davie both resigned this week after news of the editing controversy broke. Trump demanded an apology, compensation and a retraction of the documentary by Friday, or else he would launch a $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC.
BBC said Thursday that the section of the documentary had been reviewed by its Corrections and Clarifications group.
“During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech,” it said. “However, we accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.”
Trump gave BBC a deadline of 10 p.m. U.K. time on Friday or else he would sue.
From Variety US
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