London
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Two top leaders at the BBC resigned on Sunday amid an escalating scandal over impartiality and bias that plunged Britain’s public broadcaster into one of its biggest crises in recent years.
The BBC’s most senior executive, director general Tim Davie, and the chief executive of the news division, Deborah Turness, both quit after the leak of a deeply critical memo that, among other things, revealed that the BBC had misleadingly edited a speech by US President Donald Trump to make it appear that he had directly called for violence on January 6.
Davie announced he was resigning as director general of the British broadcaster in a note sent to staff on Sunday afternoon, the BBC said.
Davie said in his statement that his resignation was “entirely my decision.”
“Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as Director-General I have to take ultimate responsibility,” he said.
Davie said that he would work with the BBC’s board to transition to his successor.
Turness, who announced she was stepping down at the same time as Davie, said, “the ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love,” in a statement on the BBC website.
“The buck stops with me,” Turness said, adding that she offered her resignation to Tim Davie on Saturday.
“While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong,” she added.
The resignations come after an internal whistleblowing memo seen by British newspaper, The Telegraph, revealed the BBC had broadcast a “doctored” Trump speech, making it seem that he encouraged Capitol Hill rioters, telling them he was going to walk with them to “fight like hell.”
In fact, Trump said in his speech in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 that “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
According to the leaked internal memo, the documentary made the US president appear to say things he never actually said by splicing footage together.
After the report emerged, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., shared it on X, writing: “The FAKE NEWS ‘reporters’ in the UK are just as dishonest and full of s— as the ones here in America!!!!”
The allegations have led Donald Trump’s press secretary to blast the BBC as “100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine.”
British taxpayers are being “forced to foot the bill for a leftist propaganda machine,” senior White House official Karoline Leavitt said in a recent interview with the Telegraph.
Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, thanked Davie for his work at the BBC after he announced his resignation.
“He has led the BBC through a period of significant change and helped the organisation to grip the challenges it has faced in recent years,” Nandy said in a post on X,
“Now more than ever, the need for trusted news and high quality programming is essential to our democratic and cultural life, and our place in the world,” she said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
