BBC slammed for ‘doctoring’ Trump speech to falsely imply riot incitement

British state-funded legacy media outlet BBC is facing a storm of criticism after a former adviser accused the broadcaster of deliberately editing Donald Trump’s January 6 speech to make it appear as though he had incited the 2021 Capitol riot.

Michael Prescott, who served for three years as an external adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee, alleges the corporation “doctored” Trump’s remarks in a 2024 Panorama episode. His 19-page dossier, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, outlines what he describes as a culture of denial and bias at the BBC’s highest levels.

The disputed edit spliced together two separate moments from Trump’s speech — one where he told supporters to walk “peacefully” to the Capitol, and another nearly an hour later when he warned, “we fight like hell.” Prescott said the manipulation distorted the timeline and misled viewers into believing Trump had directly encouraged violence.

He said his repeated attempts to raise concerns with BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness and global news director Jonathan Munro were “dismissed or ignored.” In a covering letter, Prescott wrote that the BBC’s leadership “failed to act on serious editorial breaches and often refused to admit there was any problem at all.”

The allegations have triggered outrage from both sides of the Atlantic. Donald Trump Jr. blasted the network on X, calling UK journalists “as dishonest as the ones in America.” Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also weighed in, accusing the BBC of using a flagship programme “to tell palpable untruths about Britain’s closest ally.”

A BBC spokesperson said the organisation does not comment on leaked documents but “considers feedback carefully.” Critics, however, say the response falls far short of addressing what they see as a deliberate attempt to rewrite political history.