The James S Brady briefing room, where the daily White House press conference takes place, is far smaller than it appears in the numerous movies and TV shows that have immortalised that space in the West Wing.
It is seven rows of seven seats, which – when you consider the sheer number of US newspapers, TV and radio stations, wire services, bloggers, podcasters and journalists from around the world who come to the daily briefing – is not a lot.
During the Obama years we (the BBC) had our own seat, with a modest brass plaque making that clear. Admittedly, it was in the back row, but no other foreign broadcaster had a dedicated place. During Trump’s first term, that changed.
We were told we would have to share the seat with One America News Network (OANN), a network very much more to Donald Trump’s liking, and way to the right of Fox News. I had visions of me and their correspondent, Emerald Robinson, having to wedge one buttock each onto the seat. In the end we decided I would get even days in the month; Emerald the odd. A bizarre set up.
But what are the chances that the BBC will now be pushed out all together, no licence fee paid-for buttocks anywhere? It must feel a perilous time to be the BBC in Washington right now.
The BBC (after 38 years in the corporation, I still find myself instinctively writing “we”) is a regular on Air Force One in the radio pool seat, which gives unbelievable access. When there is a White House “pool spray” in the Oval Office, the BBC would be part of that, wandering in and shouting questions to Trump as he sits behind the Resolute Desk or with a world leader in armchairs next to the fireplace. The president could, at a whim, shut the BBC out of that, and that would be a loss.
Which takes us to the response from the corporation on Thursday, when in essence the BBC said, “sorry, Mr President” for the Panorama cock up, but sorry, we’re not going to be putting any money into your already bulging bank account, either.
Can you imagine the meetings, the head scratching, the agonising, the weighing, the calibrating that have taken place this week in New Broadcasting House? It will have been Hugh Bonneville’s W1A on steroids (a programme I honestly struggle to watch because it feels more like documentary than comedy) – all the panjandrums opining on what the response should be to the leader of the free world after his threat to sue the corporation for $1bn.
There will have been legal, whose main interest will have been how to make the potential litigation go away – is there a deal to be cut? How much would we need to pay to placate him – the BBC much prefers an out of court settlement than going in all guns blazing.
Commercial would have an interest in cutting a deal, as the BBC tries to grow its BBC America brand. News executives will have fretted that nothing should be done that makes it look like an editorial surrender, and my former boss at Westminster and now BBC chairman, Samir Shah, has to balance what is an existential crisis for the BBC.
Other BBC scandals I lived through – the 2003 Today interview that indirectly led to a government scientist source being outed and him taking his own life, the Hutton report and both the chairman and Director General resigning; the failure to air the investigation into the prolific sex abuser Jimmy Savile – all seem much more consequential than an idiotic and inept bit of editing on Panorama. Yet this has become the greatest psychodrama of them all. The BBC vs POTUS.
For what it’s worth, I think the BBC has been spot on in its carefully calibrated response to Trump. The way the two clips were spliced together was crass, but what “harm” did it do his reputation, when the documentary wasn’t even shown in Florida – the jurisdiction in which Trump’s lawyers have said they would pursue the case?
When I returned from the US at the beginning of 2022, I wrote about how I thought my job as a foreign correspondent had been easier than, say, that of the BBC political editor at Westminster. My reasoning was that at Westminster, if you say anything disobliging about either the PM or the leader of the opposition, there was a fair possibility that someone immediately after transmission would be on the phone to the DG howling outrage. I added that wasn’t going to happen with the president of the United States.
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Well, it sure as hell has now. We have seen many American news organisations behave very differently towards Trump in his second term than the first. There is a willingness to sue for peace. Intimidation, in many cases, has worked. Now the bullying is being globalised by coming after the biggest news organisation in the world.
The BBC needs to stand firm. Report fairly, report boldly. But don’t think “I better not say that if it upsets Trump”. If it’s the right journalistic call, and the facts align, say it.
Our job is to hold those in power to account, of whatever political stripe – ot pander to a litigious old guy who has frightened the hell out of most of America and now wants to scare everyone else.Jon Sopel is the host of Newsagents podcast and the former North America Editor for the BBC
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