So frequent are the rows and scandals afflicting the world’s leading public broadcaster that some of its staff like to embrace dark humour, quipping that they work for “the crisis-ridden BBC”.
As an organisation with many political and commercial enemies, it is continually under attack. But never before in its 103-year history has it found itself locked in combat with the leader of the free world.
It could be the fight of the BBC’s life.
Donald Trump, besides being the most powerful man on the planet, is the individual who – more than anyone else – makes the news. His capricious policy-making, often delivered in polemical tweets on his own social media platform, creates headlines that lead news sites every day, affecting the economic fortunes of nations world. The BBC needs a relationship with Trump, because he is the world’s biggest story.
But Trump, it seems, is intent on ruining the BBC. He has served it with a $1bn (£760m) libel suit over a bungled 2024 edition of Panorama that has triggered the resignations of Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, and Deborah Turness, its CEO of news. Trump alleges that the BBC, in splicing together separate parts of his speech to supporters outside the Capitol building in January 2021, “intentionally sought to completely mislead its viewers”, by suggesting he incited a riot.
More than any president before, Trump is determined to reshape the media that covers his administration so that he gets a better press. During his first period in the White House, that meant denouncing eminent news outlets as “fake news” when they reported critically on him. This term, he is attacking them in the courts.
That tactic is succeeding. In December, Disney, the owner of ABC, paid Trump $15m (£11m) to settle a libel action. In July, Paramount, the parent company of CBS, paid out $16m (£13.5m) after Trump claimed 60 Minutes, its flagship news show, misleadingly edited an interview with his presidential rival Kamala Harris, to be more favourable to her.
The BBC is in a weak position to fight back. It is decapitated by the departure of its two most senior editorial figures, while its chairman, Samir Shah, has been damaged by his indecisive handling of the saga and apparent inability to lead the BBC board.
Trump’s lawyers have given the BBC until Friday to respond. While the BBC’s journalists work to tight deadlines, its suits are known for prevarication. An internal memo from adviser Michael Prescott, shining light on the Panorama edit, was sat on for months. Finally, on Monday, Shah told a committee of MPs that “the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for action”. He added: “The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement.”
As an institution, the BBC hates saying sorry. It has developed a defensive culture whereby it faces down complaints. Even this week, its supporters insisted the resignations were the result of a right-wing “coup”, not a disastrous editorial howler. BBC lawyers are looking for ways to resist Trump’s action but it will not be easy, especially after the resignations and Shah’s apology.
How badly the BBC is damaged by this scandal will largely depend on the President. A $1bn payout would debilitate the BBC, making it unrecognisable from what it is today, But that is unlikely. Trump will seek victory in a climb-down that will tarnish the BBC’s credibility and weaken its ability to demean him in the eyes of its global audience.
Although the BBC does not pose the same threat to Trump as the American networks he has sought to neuter, the White House appears keen on a realignment of British media so that he receives more sympathetic coverage on this side of the Atlantic.
Trump said “thank you” to The Daily Telegraph for exposing the Prescott memo. That title’s prospective American owners claim ambitions to create a “global centre right equivalent to The New York Times”.
When GB News last month unveiled a new Washington-based programme, The Late Show Live, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attended the launch, alongside Nigel Farage and GB News co-owner Sir Paul Marshall. Last week, as Davie resigned, Leavitt tweeted: “@BBCNews is dying because they are anti-Trump Fake News. Everyone should watch @GBNews.”
Trump’s professed love of the UK and rapport with Keir Starmer might yet persuade the President not to wreck a fixture of British life. The Prime Minister has so far stayed out of a saga in which the White House has branded the BBC as “100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine” and Trump himself has described the departing bosses as “very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election”.
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This is not the biggest BBC meltdown of recent times. The Savile scandal, appalling to licence payers, was much worse. But when Trump directly intervened in the Panorama editing fiasco, he escalated the story, as only he can.
In an address to staff explaining his resignation yesterday, Davie insisted the BBC “will thrive” and that trust in it was growing. He said he quit due to personal pressure and because “we did make a mistake’’ and “some responsibility had to be taken”.
Davie did not mention the BBC’s famous new litigant but let’s be clear. It was Trump who brought down the director-general. And he has the capacity to hurt the BBC much, much more.
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