Quick Hits

Apologies for the low-quality blogging today. I'm under the weather and just trying to finish up so I can go to bed early.

The BBC was caught stitching together Trump's statements before January 6th to falsely show him as encouraging an insurrection.

Whistleblower Alleges BBC Doctored Trump January 6 Speech in Panorama Episode

A former BBC adviser's internal report accuses the broadcaster of splicing unrelated segments from Donald Trump's January 6, 2021, Ellipse rally speech in its October 25, 2024, Panorama episode 'Trump: A Second Chance?' to misleadingly imply he incited the Capitol riot. The edit combined an early call to march peacefully with a later reference to fighting electoral challenges, paired with pre-speech footage of supporters. The claims, detailed in a 19-page memo sent to BBC executives, have triggered a White House inquiry and criticism from UK politicians including Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, who call for defunding the BBC.

The Telegraph:

The BBC "doctored" a Donald Trump speech by making him appear to encourage the Capitol Hill riot, according to an internal whistleblowing memo seen by The Telegraph. A Panorama programme, broadcast a week before the US election, "completely misled" viewers by showing the president telling supporters he was going to walk to the Capitol with them to "fight like hell", when in fact he said he would walk with them "to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard".

The "mangled" footage was highlighted in a 19-page dossier on BBC bias, which was compiled by a recent member of the corporation's standards committee and is now circulating in government departments.

The dossier said the programme made the US president "'say' things [he] never actually said" by splicing together footage from the start of his speech with something he said nearly an hour later.

It claimed senior executives and the BBC's chairman had ignored and dismissed a string of serious complaints raised by the corporation's own standards watchdog.
Donald Trump Jr, the president's eldest son, accused the BBC of dishonesty and "fake news".

He reposted The Telegraph's story on X, writing: "The FAKE NEWS 'reporters' in the UK are just as dishonest and full of s--- as the ones here in America!!!!"

The Telegraph will soon publish other excerpts of the memo, which accuse the BBC's Arabic service of bias over its coverage of the war in Gaza, and accuse the corporation of "effective censorship" of its coverage of the transgender debate.

The document raises serious questions about the culture at the BBC, how it affects impartiality and how managers including Tim Davie, the director-general, are accused of turning a blind eye to evidence of bias.

The spliced together version of Trump's comments aired by Panorama made it seem that he said: "We're gonna walk down to the Capitol and I'll be 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."

In reality, the first part of Trump's speech: "We're gonna walk down to the Capitol and I'll be with you," came 15 minutes into the speech. The second half of the sentence that was aired by Panorama, "and we fight. We fight like hell..." came 54 minutes later.

Fifteen minutes into the speech, Trump actually said: "We are gonna walk down to the Capitol and I'll be with you. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."

It was completely misleading to edit the clip in the way Panorama aired it. The fact that he did not explicitly exhort supporters to go down and fight at Capitol Hill was one of the reasons there were no federal charges for incitement to riot.

That was not the end of Panorama's distortion of the day's events.

The Conservatives have demanded an immediate investigation into how the Panorama documentary was allowed to be broadcast.

Nigel Huddleston, the shadow culture secretary, said: "These are extremely concerning revelations that could seriously undermine the brand and reputation of the BBC.

"The BBC licence fee is justified on the basis of impartiality and trust.
"There can be no justification for this kind of deliberate manipulation and the spreading of misinformation. "This is not the first time that evidence of bias at the BBC has emerged, but it is one of the most stark and alarming examples to date.
"Licence-fee payers deserve an immediate explanation and apology from the BBC and a thorough investigation into this scandal must take place."

The most damaging disclosures involve a one-hour Panorama special called Trump: A Second Chance? that was broadcast in October last year.

As well as altering Mr Trump's words, the documentary also showed flag-waving men marching on the Capitol in Washington DC on Jan 6 2021 after the president spoke, which "created the impression Trump's supporters had taken up his 'call to arms'". In fact the footage, was shot before Mr Trump had even started speaking.

The report said Panorama's "distortion of the day's events" was so egregious that viewers would ask: "Why should the BBC be trusted, and where will this all end?"

Some of the footage that CBS chopped out of its 73 minute interview with establishment left-wing hag Norah O'Donnell:

posted by Ace at 06:20 PM

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