{"id":274010,"date":"2025-11-09T21:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T21:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/274010\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T21:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T21:16:10","slug":"why-has-tim-davie-resigned-and-what-was-the-trump-documentary-edit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/274010\/","title":{"rendered":"Why has Tim Davie resigned and what was the Trump documentary edit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

BBC director general Tim Davie and his head of news, Deborah Turness, have resigned.<\/p>\n

The BBC had come under fire over a Panorama documentary that was accused of misleadingly editing a speech by Donald Trump to make it look like he was urging people to attack the US Capitol.<\/p>\n

In emails to staff, both Davie and Turness said<\/a> mistakes had been made.<\/p>\n

Who are Tim Davie and Deborah Turness?<\/p>\n

Tim Davie was appointed director general of the BBC in September 2020. He was in charge of overseeing the corporation’s services and was its editorial, operational and creative leader.<\/p>\n

He was not a new figure to the BBC; prior to becoming director general, he had been chief executive of BBC Studios for seven years.<\/p>\n

Before joining the BBC, Davie worked for organisations such as Procter and Gamble, and PepsiCo.<\/p>\n

Deborah Turness had been the CEO of BBC News since 2022, overseeing BBC News and current affairs programmes<\/p>\n

In her role, she had responsibility for a team of around 6,000 people, broadcasting to almost half a billion people across the world in more than 40 languages.<\/p>\n

She was previously CEO of ITN and was president of NBC News from 2013.<\/p>\n

Why have they resigned?<\/p>\n

Their departures come after controversy over a Panorama documentary called Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast last year.<\/p>\n

In her statement, Turness said: “The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC \u2013 an institution that I love.<\/p>\n

“As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me – and I took the decision to offer my resignation to the director general last night.”<\/p>\n

She added: “While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”<\/p>\n

Davie did not mention the Panorama documentary in his statement, although said: “While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.<\/p>\n

“Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”<\/p>\n

What were the claims over the Trump documentary?<\/p>\n

Last week, the Daily Telegraph published an exclusive report<\/a>, saying it had seen a leaked internal BBC memo. <\/p>\n

The memo came from Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the broadcaster’s editorial standards committee. He left the role in June.<\/p>\n

The memo suggested that the one-hour Panorama documentary had edited parts of Trump’s speech together so he appeared to explicitly encourage the Capitol Hill riots of January 2021.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

The two sections of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

According to the Telegraph, the document said Panorama’s “distortion of the day’s events” would leave viewers asking: “Why should the BBC be trusted, and where will this all end?”<\/p>\n

When the issue was raised with managers, the memo continued, they “refused to accept there had been a breach of standards”.<\/p>\n

The BBC has come under scrutiny over a number of other different issues in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

The Telegraph also reported that Mr Prescott raised concerns about a lack of action to address “systemic problems” of anti-Israel bias in the coverage of the Gaza war by the BBC Arabic news service.<\/p>\n

The report also said Mr Prescott had raised concerns about the BBC’s coverage around trans issues.<\/p>\n

And on Thursday, the BBC upheld 20 impartiality complaints<\/a> over the way presenter Martine Croxall earlier this year altered a script she was reading live on the BBC News Channel, which referred to “pregnant people”.<\/p>\n

Why did Davie resign now?<\/p>\n

Tim Davie has weathered many scandals and crises during his five years at the helm of the BBC – including the Gary Lineker furore, Bob Vylan at Glastonbury, the Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary, and the transgressions of a string of high-profile presenters.<\/p>\n

Davie was nicknamed “Teflon Tim” by some in the media because nothing seemed to stick. <\/p>\n

He had tried to ride out the latest controversy, too, but it has gathered steam and the BBC was expected to issue an apology tomorrow over the Panorama documentary.<\/p>\n

This comes at a sensitive time for the BBC, with the government set to review the corporation’s Royal Charter – which essentially gives it the right to exist – before the current term expires in 2027.<\/p>\n

In his statement, Davie said: “You will ask why now, why this moment?”<\/p>\n

He said he was “BBC through and through”, and cares deeply about the corporation and wants it to succeed. <\/p>\n

“That is why I want to create the best conditions and space for a new DG to come in and positively shape the next Royal Charter. I hope that as we move forward, a sensible, calm and rational public conversation can take place about the next chapter of the BBC.”<\/p>\n

He added: “This timing allows a new DG to help shape the next Charter. I believe we are in a strong position to deliver growth.”<\/p>\n

How will the BBC choose Tim Davie’s replacement?<\/p>\n

The director general is appointed by the BBC Board, which is responsible for ensuring it delivers the corporation’s mission and public purposes.<\/p>\n

The BBC Board is led by chair Samir Shah and he is one of 10 non-executive members, plus four executive members, including the director general.<\/p>\n

When Tim Davie was appointed in 2020, the process for choosing who would get the role was led by the BBC Board’s nominations committee.<\/p>\n

The director general’s appointment is made under the terms of the BBC’s Charter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PA Media BBC director general Tim Davie and his head of news, Deborah Turness, have resigned. The BBC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-274010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}