BBC head Tim Davie, Deborah Turness resigned over Trump speech edit scandal

By Anjali Sharma

WASHINGTON – The British Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday has announced that 2 of its top leaders, Director-General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness, have resigned after heavy criticism over a Panorama documentary that allegedly misled viewers by editing a speech made by former US President Donald Trump.

The controversy erupted after The Telegraph revealed details from a leaked internal BBC memo, which claimed that the programme had stitched together two separate parts of Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech, the day of the Capitol Hill riot, making it seem as if he had directly called for violence.

Tim Davie has several controversies. \

He was accused of political bias and mishandling of sensitive topics. Facing growing pressure from both inside and outside the organisation, he decided it was time to go.

Davie in a statement issued Sunday said, “Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable. While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.”

He added that although the BBC was performing well overall, “some mistakes have been made, and as director general, I have to take ultimate responsibility.”

Deborah Turness had served as CEO of News and Current Affairs for the past three years, also announced her resignation soon after.

She said that the controversy had “reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC” and that it was time for her to take responsibility.

“In public life, leaders need to be fully accountable, and that is why I am stepping down,” Turness said. “While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear that recent allegations claiming BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”

Trump told his supporters in Washington D.C.: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”.”

In Panorama edit, he was saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

Those two quotes were from parts of the speech that were more than 50 minutes apart.

The result made it look as though Trump was directly encouraging his supporters to storm the Capitol.

When the internal memo confirming the edit became public, outrage followed swiftly. The White House reportedly described the BBC as “100% fake news,” while Trump himself took to social media to celebrate the resignations.

“Top people at the BBC are quitting because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th,” he wrote.

“These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. What a terrible thing for Democracy!”

The fallout didn’t stop with Trump’s reaction.

Political leaders in the UK called the resignations a “wake-up call” for the organisation.

Some expressed hope that this would lead to greater accountability and transparency in how the BBC handles sensitive political issues.

The dual resignations have left one of the world’s oldest and most respected broadcasters at a crossroads.