Leftists say ‘mistakes’ when they mean ‘lies’

OPINION:

Two top executives for the British public service news channel BBC just resigned, citing “mistakes” that were made under their leadership in a documentary called “Trump: A Second Chance?” that aired before the 2024 presidential election and that showed President Trump seemingly calling his supporters to violently protest on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Umm. These aren’t “mistakes.” They’re called lies.

Moreover, they’re lies that were obviously designed to showcase Trump in a negative light and, given the date of the documentary’s airing, also part of a BBC media strategy to chill U.S. voters’ support for his reelection.  

Isn’t that just like leftists, though? Even when they’re acknowledging fault — even when they’re facing accountability — even when they’re taking blame — they’re not. Not really. Nobody does fake apology tour like a member of the mainstream, lame-stream, left-leaning, MAGA-hating media.

Here’s the story: BBC’s Director-General Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness resigned their posts after a leaked memo saying they ignored highlighting the creative edits of a Panorama-produced news documentary, and warning of its deceptive bias, went public. The truth of Trump’s remarks were this: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,” he said, on Jan. 6, 2021. The edited version — the lie — that appeared in the Panorama production went like this: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell,” Trump said.

But the “fight like hell” phrase of the speech was actually pulled from a portion of Trump’s speech where he was talking about the need to “fight like hell” against election fraud and corruption.

Moreover, the two sections of the speech that were spliced together were actually 50 minutes apart and the “fight like hell” remark came from a portion where Trump was speaking in general about corrupt and fraudulent U.S. elections.

It couldn’t be clearer.

BBC was purposely trying to show that Trump had called his supporters to violent action against congressional members — and that the timing of the documentary’s airing was strategically set to influence Trump’s campaign for reelection.

A former adviser named Michael Prescott warned Davie and Turness that the speech was edited in a way that gave a false impression of Trump’s actual words. But the warning was ignored. The documentary was aired. The damage — to Trump, to truth — was done.

Then the memo was leaked to the Telegraph — and now we know.

But the resignations aren’t fully satisfying, because they come alongside excuses.

BBC Chair Samir Shah called it an “error of judgement.” Davie said “there have been some mistakes.” And meanwhile, the BBC’s friends in left-leading media have dutifully picked up the baton of excusing bad press behavior by using soft and fuzzy and distancing language.

Reuters wrote of the resignations this: “BBC boss and head of news quit after criticism of Trump documentary edit.” CNN wrote this: “Analysis: Many factors, not just Trump, contributed to BBC resignations.” BBC, meanwhile, wrote this: “BBC not institutionally biased, News CEO Deborah Turness says after resigning.”

In other words: Don’t expect the BBC to change. Don’t expect the leftists in the media to change. More creative edits will come, and no matter how many leftists in the media are caught red-handed in their lies, they will always bill them as mistakes, as errors, as lapses in judgment — but never, never, ever evidence of bias or deception. 

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.