BREAKING: BBC Bosses OUT After Pushing Doctored Trump January 6th Clip

Jorge Bonilla
November 9th, 2025 3:58 PM

Text to Speech

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After much controversy over the doctoring of a portion of President Donald Trump’s remarks at The Ellipse on January 6th, 2021, it has been announced today that both the Director General and News CEO of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have resigned. 

Per The New York Post:

The director-general of the BBC has resigned Sunday amid scandal after the British state broadcaster shared doctored footage of President Trump speaking on Jan. 6.

…

His resignation and that of the CEO of BBC News, Deborah Turness, come after it was revealed that the BBC’s flagship news program, “Panorama,” spliced together two clips of Trump speaking on Jan. 6, 2021, implying that he had directly told his supporters to storm the Capitol.

The program, which aired a week before the 2024 presidential election, “completely misled” viewers by showing Trump telling supporters he was going to walk with them to the capital and “fight like hell,” according to an internal whistleblowing memo shared with British newspaper the Telegraph on Monday.

Below, is the quote-doctoring in question: very clear-cut and damning.

There is already reaction on this side of the Atlantic. Watch as CNN’s Brian Stelter weighs in, with “broader context”:

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: And now this breaking news just coming in to CNN, a huge media shakeup this hour as two top leaders of Britain's television network, BBC, say they are resigning after allegations the British Broadcasting Corporation made a misleading edit of a speech by President Trump. I want to go straight to CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter. Brian, tell us more about what- what happened?

BRIAN STELTER: Yeah, there's both a- there's both a narrow story here about this edit and then a very big story about the state of the British broadcasting system, Fred. It's very notable. Both Tim Davie, who is the chief executive of all of the BBC, as well as Deborah Turness, who is the head of BBC News. They are both stepping down this afternoon- this evening in the uk, and they are both citing this recent controversy, but also the broader climate the BBC operates in. So, about the edit. This row actually started about a week ago after a British newspaper got a hold of an internal memo describing a misleading edit that was made to a documentary that aired last fall, right before the U.S. Election Day. This documentary was about Trump's attempt to return to office, and it spliced together two different parts of Trump's infamous speech at the Ellipse on January 6th, 2021. So the documentary made it sound like Trump was telling his supporters that he was going to walk with them to the Capitol to, quote,” fight like hell.” Trump actually said that day he was going to walk with them to the Capitol to cheer on Republican lawmakers. Of course, Trump never actually made that walk. He did refer repeatedly to fighting that day, but the edit was misleading in this documentary. But here's the thing: the documentary was shown on the BBC last year. Nobody seemed to notice this misleading edit at the time. It was only in the past few days when this internal memo was leaked that there became a big political controversy, both in the UK and here in the U.S., with some of Trump's friends and allies deriding the BBC. Karoline Leavitt, for example, calling the network “fake news.” So within the company, there was pressure on the BBC to apologize, to take action. And now this weekend, we see the two top leaders both stepping down. But there's a broader context here. It's not just about one edit to one documentary. The BBC has been under immense political pressure in the UK for some time. When you're the head of the BBC it feels like you are a punching bag, whether it's over coverage of Israel's war in Gaza, whether it's over dramas or comedies that are airing on the schedule, whether it's over all sorts of different things. And Tim Davie in his resignation memo refers to “the feverish nature of the environment”, saying that he's had a wonderful time for five years running the organization, that the board was still supporting him. But he's decided to start to step down. Still a very dramatic move at the BBC, which is known for everything for dramas like Traitors all the way to the BBC news operation that exists all around the world. Quite unusual to see the two top leaders of that news organization both stepping down under pressure.

WHITFIELD: Right. All right. It is, indeed, pretty seismic. All right. Brian Stelter. Thank you so much.  

“Quite unusual,” Stelter says. Of course, Stelter tries to make the resignations about everything else, from "dramas or comedies" to coverage of the war in Gaza. But this wasn't about any of that. It was solely about selectively and deliberately editing a speech in order to suit a narrative. Stelter's attempt to muddy the waters is simply shameful.

Unfortunately, it is quite unusual for news bosses stateside to resign after they’ve been caught spreading any of a litany of hoaxes: Russia, Very Fine People, Drinking Bleach, Elon Nazi Salute, among a legion of others. While it appears that there remains a modicum of British reserve and elegance compelling immediate resignation when caught spreading fake news, such decorum does not exist stateside. Media lie and move on to the next hoax when caught.

TRUMP REACTS:

This is a developing story, we will update as more information comes in.

 

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