The BBC has been accused of selectively editing a Donald Trump speech to make it appear that he encouraged the US Capitol attack, according to a former external adviser to the corporation. An edition of Panorama, broadcast a week before the US election, spliced together clips of a Trump speech made on 6 January 2021.
The spliced clip suggested that Trump told the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.” However, the words were taken from sections of his speech almost an hour apart, and the programme omitted a part where Trump said he wanted supporters “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”.
Concerns were raised in a memo by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee. His dossier, first reported by the Telegraph, said the programme made Trump “‘say’ things [he] never actually said” by cutting together footage. The complaints relate to the October 2024 Panorama special, Trump: A Second Chance?
Prescott also complained that footage of marchers who appeared inspired by Trump was actually taken before his speech had been made. In a covering letter to the BBC’s board, he reportedly said he was circulating the document out of “despair at inaction by the BBC executive when issues come to light”.
A BBC spokesperson said: “While we don’t comment on leaked documents, when the BBC receives feedback it takes it seriously and considers it carefully. Michael Prescott is a former adviser to a board committee where differing views and opinions of our coverage are routinely discussed and debated.”
