The broadcaster’s staff are reportedly in a “civil war” against its management after the Trump documentary episode
The “woke pro-trans” staff at BBC News are “at war” with its governing board over the resignation of top figures over the doctoring of a speech by US President Donald Trump in a documentary, the Daily Mail has reported, citing insiders.
With criticism mounting, the British broadcaster announced on Sunday that Director General Tim Davie and CEO Deborah Turness would be quitting after it emerged that two clips of Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech at the US Capitol were spliced together despite being made nearly an hour apart.
The US president has threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion if they don’t make a “full and fair retraction” of the program by Friday, according to the broadcaster.
In a letter to Parliament on Monday, BBC board chair Samir Shah admitted that the “way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”
According to the Daily Mail, the scandal has led to an outright “civil war” at the BBC, with “woke pro-trans staff” rebelling against its board, presumably for admitting the mistake.
At the same time, the tabloid cited one well-known TV star, who asked to remain anonymous, as saying that they were amazed that Davie and Turness were not terminated earlier, given the number of scandals the BBC endured during their tenure.
The insider reportedly pointed out that the broadcaster had taken a woke direction in recent years, “captured by a minority ideology,” with “one-sided” reporting of transgender issues and the Gaza conflict.
Both Davie and Turness “failed” to deal with impartiality at the BBC, the Daily Mail cited their source as saying.
Just last week, the broadcaster censured veteran presenter Martine Croxall, after she raised her eyebrows and amended“pregnant people” to “women” while reading live on BBC News, earlier this year. Her facial expression gave the “strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter,” the broadcaster explained.
Last month, it was ruled that the BBC broke journalistic code by failing to disclose that a part of a Gaza documentary it released earlier this year was narrated by the son of a Hamas official.
