BBC-Trump crisis live: Broadcaster’s deadline to respond to US president’s $1bn legal threat looms – UK Times

im Davie’s dramatic resignation as BBC director general, alongside the departure of BBC News chief Deborah Turness, has sparked fierce debate about the broadcaster’s future.

For nearly a century, the BBC has been funded by the licence fee, its mission is to provide impartial news, high-quality programming, and content that serves the whole of the UK – from education and drama to music and science – rather than chasing commercial profit.

Others warn that succumbing to external pressure – whether political, legal, or commercial – risks undermining press freedom.

So what should happen next? Should the BBC reaffirm its public service mission, modernising carefully to meet the needs of a changing audience – or seize the Panorama controversy as a catalyst for a radical overhaul?

We want to hear from you. Share your thoughts in the comments – we’ll feature the most compelling responses in the coming days.

The man who criticised the BBC for splicing Donald’s Trump’s speech was also guilty of doctoring the quotes in his own report.

Michael Prescott, former Sunday Times political editor and independent advisor to the BBC on standards, accused the Panorama documentary of editing together quotes in a way that was “misleading” and made it look like Trump supported the Capitol riots.

This criticism led to the director General Tim Davie and Deborah Furness resigning.

Yet Prescott himself edited Trumps’s quotes and didn’t use ellipses to signify a gap in speech.

Prescott’s version reads: “We are gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

However the full version of the quote is as follows (with the bold parts being what Prescott quoted from)

“We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.

“Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.

“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

While speaking to staff on a call on Tuesday morning, outgoing director general Tim Davie gave three key reasons for his departure.

BBC News reported he said the relentlessness of the role, the upcoming Charter renewal and criticism of the Panorama documentary on Trump were all contributing factors.

Andrew Marr, the BBC’s former political editor, told Channel 4 that he believes Trump to be “deadly serious about going for” the BBC.

He said that “even the legal fees here are going to be enormous and I think the pressure on the BBC is going to be intense.”

The BBC needs to “get their house in order”, Sir Keir Starmer said as US President Donald Trump said he had an “obligation” to launch a billion-dollar lawsuit against the corporation.

The Prime Minister said he believed in a “strong and independent” BBC but it needed to “uphold the highest standards”.

The majority of Britons believe the BBC should apologise to Donald Trump over the editing of his speech in a panorama documentary.

A new YouGov poll found 57 per cent of respondents believed the BBC should apologise, while 25 per cent believed they shouldn’t and 18 percent didn’t know.

90 per cent of Reform voters believed the BBC should apologise, compared to 75 per cent of Conservatives, 55 per cent of Lib Dems and 51 per cent of Labour voters.

Only 35 per cent of 18-25 year olds believed the broadcaster should say sorry, compared to 70 per cent of people aged over 65.

Over 35,000 people have backed a petition calling for the BBC to rule out compensating Donald Trump as his legal challenge looms.

The petition, on Change.org, says it would be “inappropriate and against the ethos of public service broadcasting,” and states that if any compensation were paid, an equivalent refund should be made to TV licence payers.

It says: “This would serve not only as a gesture of goodwill but also as a reassurance to the public that their money will not be used for questionable financial settlements.”

Reform UK have “politely declined to participate” in a BBC documentary, saying that “trust has been lost”.

The film, ‘Rise of Reform’ was set to be presented by Laura Kuenssberg and produced by an independent company October Films.

This same company was involved in the BBC Panorama film which featured Trump’s edited Capitol speech from 6 January 2021, which the party called “disinformation”.

While October Films was not directly responsible for this edit, which was made by BBC staff, the Reform party sent a memo cancelling its appearance.

The memo read: “We want to be clear that October Films have always conducted themselves professionally, and there is no suggestion from our side that they would maliciously misrepresent Reform UK.

“However, following the Panorama documentary the trust has been lost, and both BBC and the production company will have to do a lot of hard work to regain that trust.”

The US president is threatening to sue the BBC for $1bn in the latest round of his attacks on the mainstream media.

The corporation has made mistakes but this is the moment to fight back, writes Jon Sopel.