Donald Trump’s Press Secretary described the BBC as “100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine” in an anonymous interview that comes with allegations of bias.
Karoline Leavitt, a senior White House official in the Trump Administration, is said to have watched BBC Bulletins while on trips that were “forced by taxpayers for a leftist propaganda machine”.
Leavitt’s comments came after the Corporation said it had “serious questions to answer” about the way a speech in a US documentary was edited out of a BBC Panorama documentary.
A document that went through the telegraph suggested that an episode of the current program of events “completely misled” viewers by splicing two parts of the speech.
The program showed Trump saying he would walk with his supporters to the Capitol ahead of the riots on January 6, 2021, urging them to “fight like hell”. However, it did not include a section of the speech where Trump urged the crowd to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Leavitt said: “This objectively unreal, selected edited clip of the total news of the great people of the great People of the United Kingdom.
“Every time we travel to the United Kingdom with President Trump and are forced to watch the BBC in our hotel rooms, this is about the president of the United States and everything he is doing to make this a safe place.”
The newspaper said its reporting was based on a memo written by Michael Prescott, a former editor of the BBC’s Editorial Committee. Prescott left his role earlier this year and has not commented on the document, understood to have been leaked by a whistleblower.
It published an extract that reads: “It is completely misleading to edit the clip in the manner of the attack on the Capitol. The fact that he did not set the reasons for the flow of the Federal charges that there are no federal reasons for the flow of the seizure of the seizure of the incitement of the incitement of the riot.”
The memo reportedly added that Prescott, a communications consultant and former political reporter, had raised concerns about the GBA’s approach to warfare.
The Telegraph reported that Prescatoth said there were “systemic problems”, which were not addressed by senior management, claiming there were war content on the BBC website and on the BBC’s main website. One issue Prescott is said to have highlighted is the repeated use of commentators who are antisemolic or pro-Hamas.
The 19-page Dossier is also reported to have criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues, saying the broadcaster was “captured by a small group of [staff] It is emphasized that Stonewall Views “on issues of gender identity and that the LGBTS Desk” will disappear to cover any stories that raise difficult questions “.
It has been said that stories that raise complex questions about transformative issues are celebrated in one-sided stories without sufficient balance or purpose”.
In response, the BBC said: “While we do not comment on leaked documents, when the BBC receives feedback that it is serious it takes it seriously.
“Michael Prescott is a former advisor to a board committee where the different views and opinions of our range are discussed and debated.”