The chair of the BBC has apologized for the Donald Trump editing scandal, which he put down to BBC News wanting its audience to “better understand” how Trump’s January 6 2021 speech was being “received by his own supporters.”
In a highly-anticipated letter to the Culture, Media & Sport Committee (CMSC) this afternoon, Shah described the edit, which has led to the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and news boss Deborah Turness, as an “error of judgement,” which he said the BBC would like to apologize for.
According to Shah, the edited clip was discussed twice at the now-infamous Editorial Guidelines and Standard Committee (EGCS) – once in January 2025 and once in May – at which point the committee expressed concerns but BBC News said the clip was edited “to convey the message of the speech made by President Trump so that Panorama’s audience could better understand how it had been received by President Trump’s supporters.”
In the Panorama documentary, Trump appears to say: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.” He actually said: “We’re gonna walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re gonna walk down, we’re gonna walk down any one you want but I think right here, we’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen.”
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Since the publication of Prescott’s memo, Shah said there have been more than 500 complaints about the Trump edit, which are “being dealt with in the normal way and has prompted further reflection by the BBC.”
“The conclusion of that deliberation is that we accept the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action,” he added.
In today’s letter to CMSC chair Caroline Dinenage, Shah addressed other points made by Michael Prescott’s excoriating report into what he believed to be insitutional bias within BBC News, while publishing Prescott’s report in full.
Shah committed to the BBC Board revisiting all the items set out by Prescott and “taking further action where appropriate.” Internal reviews will be carried out where measures have already been put in place, he added, while any neccessary corrections will be made to online stories.
Shah attempted to get a handle on other issues flagged by Prescott, including BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas War, which Prescott said showed an extreme bias against Israel. As Deadline revealed late last week, Shah said concerns with BBC Arabic had led to a restructure within the team, the appointment of a Head of Editorial and Quality Standards in the World Service and a new social media reseach unit. In the UK, the BBC has appointed a new Executive Editor of Editorial Quality and Standards and will soon hire a Director of News Documentaries and Long Form Journalism.
While addressing Prescott’s major gripes, Shah was forthright with his defence of the BBC’s response over the past three years. “There is another view that has gained currency in the coverage that the BBC has done nothing to tackle these problems,” he said. “That is simply not true.”
He went on to list changes that had been made, including, in some cases, “disciplinary action.”
“Mr Prescott’s memo is his personal account of the meetings at which he was present,” added Shah. “It does not present a full picture of the discussions, decisions and actions that were taken.”
Shah said he hopes that answering the CMSC’s questions today would “put that right,” coming as he prepares to lead the process that will appoint a new Director General and head of news.
Dinenage had earlier said Davie’s resignation was an “avoidable course of action” but he was “very slow to act on this particular issue.”
Sources familiar with events told us last week that Turness had repeatedly made efforts to get the corporation to respond to Prescott’s memo, alleging that Turness was blocked from doing so by Shah. A BBC spokesperson previously declined to comment on the internal matters.