BBC bosses treating ‘systemic bias’ allegations seriously, Nandy says

The leaked memo came from Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the broadcaster’s editorial standards committee. He left the role in June.
Nandy said the Panorama issue was “very serious” but there were a series of “very serious allegations” that had been made about the broadcaster, “the most serious of which is that there is systemic bias in the way that difficult issues are reported at the BBC”.
She added she had “complete confidence” Shah and BBC director general Tim Davie were treating the allegations seriously.
Mr Prescott raised concerns over the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast last year and made for the BBC by independent production company October Films Ltd, which was also approached for comment.
In his speech in Washington DC on 6 January 2021, Trump said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
However, in the Panorama edit he was shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The two sections of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart.
The “fight like hell” comment was taken from a section where Trump discussed how “corrupt” US elections were. In total, he used the words “fight” or “fighting” 20 times in the speech.
The culture secretary added: “I do want to see [Shah’s] response to the select committee, and I will, of course, consider it and have further conversations with them about the action that they’re taking.”




