A whistleblower has revealed that the BBC manipulated footage of a speech by former U.S. President Donald J. Trump, altering its context to suggest he incited violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The controversy stems from the BBC Panorama program Trump: A Second Chance?, which aired in October 2024 and later faced scrutiny after a whistleblowing memo exposed editing discrepancies.
The internal memo, spanning 19 pages, detailed how the BBC spliced together fragments of Trump’s speech to create a misleading narrative. It highlighted that the program falsely portrayed Trump as urging supporters to “fight like hell” at the Capitol, despite the original footage showing the remarks were isolated and separated by significant time. Specifically, the first part of the quote—“We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you”—was delivered 15 minutes into the speech, while the second segment—“and we fight. We fight like hell…”—came 54 minutes later. The memo emphasized that Trump’s actual words at the start of his address focused on peaceful protests.
Michael Prescott, a former BBC standards committee adviser, authored the memo and criticized the network for ignoring complaints about bias. He noted the program featured ten critics of Trump against a single supporter, raising concerns about imbalanced coverage. Prescott also pointed out that the BBC’s editing contradicted its mandate to maintain impartiality, as the network is funded by mandatory television license fees.
The scandal has sparked debate over the BBC’s editorial integrity, with implications for its credibility amid allegations of deliberate misinformation. No official response from the BBC or its leadership has been reported.
