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- author, Drafting
- author title, BBC News World
The BBC apologized to Donald Trump on Thursday for a panoramic documentary featuring edited snippets of the US president’s speeches, but a request for compensation was rejected.
The company acknowledged that the edits created a “false impression that President Trump was directly calling for violence,” and said it would not rebroadcast the show.
Mr Trump’s lawyers threatened to sue for $1 billion in damages if the BBC did not retract, apologize and compensate.
The scandal led to the resignation of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and news director, Deborah Turnes.
The apology comes after the newspaper daily telegraph A second similarly edited snippet aired on the show is now available news night In 2022.
In a corrections and clarifications section posted on Thursday night, the BBC said the Panorama program had been reviewed following criticism of the editing of Trump’s speech.
“We recognize that our editing unintentionally created the impression that a single continuous section of the speech was being shown rather than fragments of different moments, which created the false impression that President Trump directly called for violence,” the outlet explained.
A BBC spokesperson said the broadcaster’s lawyers had written to President Trump’s legal team in response to the letter they received on Sunday.
“BBC Chairman Sameer Shah has sent a separate letter to the White House making it clear to President Trump that the BBC and the company regret the editing of the President’s speech on January 6, 2021, which was broadcast on the program,” the spokesperson added.
“The BBC has no plans to broadcast the documentary ‘Trump: A Second Chance?'” on either platform.
“The BBC deeply regrets the way the video was edited, but strongly disagrees that the defamation claims have merit.”
“We’re going to march to the Capitol and cheer on our brave senators and congressmen,” President Trump said in a speech on January 6, 2021.
“And we will fight. We will fight as hard as we can,” he said after more than 50 minutes.
In 2024, Panorama shows footage of President Trump saying, “We’re going to march to the Capitol…and I’m going to be with you. And we’re going to fight. We’re going to fight as hard as we can.”
In a statement to fox newsPresident Trump claimed that his January 6, 2021 speech was “manipulated” and that the way it was presented “misled” viewers.
The BBC received a letter from Mr Trump’s lawyers on Sunday. It demands a “full and fair retraction” of the documentary, an apology, and that the BBC “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.”
The deadline for companies to respond is set for Friday, November 14th at 22:00 GMT (17:00 ET).
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