The BBC has come under fire after reports surfaced claiming the network edited President Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech to make it sound as though he encouraged violence at the U.S. Capitol.
According to The Telegraph, an internal whistleblower memo revealed that the BBC “doctored” footage of the speech in a Panorama program aired just a week before the U.S. election. The program allegedly misled viewers by showing President Trump telling supporters he would walk with them to the Capitol and “fight like hell,” omitting his actual words urging supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
The Telegraph reported that the whistleblower memo, part of a 19-page dossier on BBC bias compiled by a former member of the corporation’s standards committee, accused the network of “mangling” footage to make President Trump appear to be inciting violence. The report claims editors spliced together segments from different points in the speech to create a false narrative.
The dossier also alleges that senior BBC executives, including the chairman, ignored repeated complaints from the corporation’s own standards watchdog regarding the misleading edit.
Critics have drawn parallels between the BBC’s actions and the way Special Counsel Jack Smith and members of the January 6 Committee selectively quoted President Trump’s speech. Like the committee, Smith allegedly omitted the president’s call for supporters to demonstrate “peacefully and patriotically.”
“Jack Smith lied,” said constitutional attorney Alan Dershowitz, referring to the prosecutor’s indictment. “In his indictment, he outlines the speech that Donald Trump made on January 6 — a key part of the case — but he deliberately, willfully, and with malice leaves out the crucial words. He doctors the speech!”
Dershowitz emphasized that those missing words are central to the case and to the Constitution: “President Trump said, ‘I want you to protest peacefully and patriotically.’ Those are the two words that bring him squarely within the First Amendment.”