The broadcaster reportedly deliberately edited a video of a speech by Donald Trump ahead of the Capitol riots
Donald Trump Jr. has accused the BBC of “fake news” after it was reported that the outlet had “doctored” footage of a speech made by his father, President Donald Trump, to make it appear that he was urging on the January 2021 Capitol rioters.
On Monday, the president’s eldest son wrote on X: “FAKE NEWS ‘reporters’ in the UK are just as dishonest and full of s**t as the ones here in America!!!!”
The post referred to an article by The Telegraph published the same day which cited an “internal whistle-blowing memo” by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee.
The report concerned a BBC Panorama episode titled ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’, aired in late October 2024, about a week before the US presidential election.
In the program, Trump appears to tell supporters: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there 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.”
According to the memo, Trump’s words were altered: the footage spliced together remarks made about 54 minutes apart. The protesters, shown marching toward the Capitol immediately after the edited clip, had in fact been caught on film before Trump started addressing his supporters.
The memo said the documentary provided no indication that the video had been edited or shown out of sequence.
The Telegraph quoted Prescott as saying that “this created the impression that Trump said something he did not and, in doing so, materially misled viewers.” According to the paper, the BBC management “refused to accept there had been a breach of standards.” The episode is currently unavailable.
