BBC scandal reaches highest ranks as Trump threatens lawsuit; Jan. 6 program badly edited

British media outlet the BBC is facing a crisis, internal and external, after a leaked memo revealed that a documentary misled viewers by editing President Trump’s speech before the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

BBC executives have resigned, British lawmakers have defended the outlet and called for reform, a BBC higher-up issued an apology and, last but not least, Mr. Trump has threatened legal action with a $1 billion price tag.

Mr. Trump has prevailed over U.S. media companies in several legal cases this year, and the latest episode shows his influence extending across the ocean to the previously venerated British network.

The broadcaster’s “Panorama” documentary program edited together different parts of Mr. Trump’s speech, making it appear that the president called for violence from his supporters.

The documentary showed Mr. Trump saying, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” What wasn’t included was Mr. Trump saying he wanted his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

“We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action,” BBC Chair Samir Shah wrote to British lawmakers.

The editing was “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 and what was happening on the ground at that time,” Mr. Shah wrote.

The documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance?” was broadcast before the 2024 presidential election. It has been removed from the BBC’s website.

Mr. Trump said the airing of the documentary was an attempt to “step on the scales of a Presidential Election.”

A letter, said to be from the president’s legal team to the BBC, threatens a lawsuit against the broadcaster for “defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements.”

The letter’s demands are threefold: a full retraction of the documentary, an apology and compensation.

The BBC was given a Friday deadline to comply, or else Mr. Trump “will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights” and file legal action for no less than $1 billion.

Mr. Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, accused the BBC of defamation under Florida law. That means Mr. Trump and his legal team will have to demonstrate that the documentary was accessible in the state and that the president suffered a significant loss.

The BBC said it would “respond in due course.”

Before learning of Mr. Trump’s threat of legal action, Mr. Shah said, he was considering apologizing personally to the president.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said the “BBC belongs to all of us here in the U.K.” and his government should be “united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.”

The BBC is not directly government-funded, but it is primarily funded by taxpayers.

When discussing the BBC documentary, Mr. Trump asked Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, “Is this how you treat your best ally?” Mr. Farage said.

On Sunday, BBC Director-General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resigned because of public and political backlash.

The right-leaning publication The Daily Telegraph published parts of a dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the broadcaster’s editorial standards committee. It criticized editing of the speech, “ill-researched” stories on racism and an anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service.

Mr. Davie said in an email to BBC staff that he was taking ultimate responsibility after “some mistakes” had been made. Ms. Turness told journalists at the BBC’s London headquarters that “The buck stops with me” and that “BBC News is not institutionally biased.”

BBC staff have been invited to an all-staff call with Mr. Davie on Tuesday morning, it said.

BBC News Deputy CEO Jonathan Munro sent an email describing a “particularly challenging” time for its journalists.

On Monday, the BBC’s chairman said that since the memo was leaked Friday, the outlet had received more than 500 complaints. This prompted “further reflection,” said Mr. Shah, apologizing for an “error of judgment” in editing the speech.

“In hindsight, it would have been better to act earlier,” he said.

The executive said that although Mr. Prescott’s memo relied on research commissioned by the committee, it “does not present a full picture of the discussions, decisions and actions that were taken.”

Mr. Shah outlined a plan to ensure that all the BBC’s output is “bound by editorial guidelines,” including changes to the composition of the editorial standards committee, which is expected to be presented in December.

The network will review every item outlined in Mr. Prescott’s memo and take further action where necessary.

“We will be transparent about the conclusions we reach and the actions taken,” Mr. Shah said.

The BBC board considered the memo at a meeting on Oct. 17, and Mr. Shah has since met with Mr. Prescott to discuss next steps, he said.

The president has a history of suing or threatening to sue media outlets, including The New York Times, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal and CBS.

ABC News agreed late last year to pay $15 million toward Mr. Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertions that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. Mr. Trump was found liable for sexually abusing her.

He sued CBS’s parent company, Paramount, which alleged that the network deceptively edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign last year.

Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement to resolve the case, which will be allocated to Mr. Trump’s future presidential library and the plaintiffs’ fees and costs, the outlet said.

The CBS settlement did not include an apology, unlike what is requested of the BBC.