Prescott says Panorama edit ‘probably’ does not damage Trump
Prescott has been pressed again by Liberal Democrat MP Cameron Thomas to answer whether he agrees with Trump’s argument that the 12-second video edit of his January 6 speech damages his reputation.
Thomas: “Do you agree that Donald Trump’s reputation has been tarnished by this documentary?”
Prescott: “Probably not”.
He offers a rueful smile.
Updated at 11.58 EST
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Caroline Daniel says from her experience on the standards committee there was always active discussion on editorial bias.
“It’s put the spotlight on issues of impartiality, which in my view, the BBC was actively engaging with on a regular basis.
“The fact that the committee was extremely robust, discussions were had, research was commissioned on a regular basis, and it was challenging research, I think that’s a really healthy organisation and a very healthy debate.”
SharePrescott memo did not reflect full report on BBC’s US election coverage – other adviser
Caroline Daniel says she thinks her fellow former adviser’s memo “does not provide a comprehensive view of what was in the David Grossman report.”
She is sitting right next to Prescott while giving her assessment of what she says was “a personal account rather than a comprehensive review of everything that was covered in the (standards) committee.”
MP: “What do you think was missing?”
Daniel: “I think the David Grossman report covered a lot of ground, significant errors, like the coverage of the election and the use of polling, issues like who is being represented on programs, issues of impartiality.
There was obviously a BBC response to it as well, which was also significant. They did engage with each of the details of the David Grossman report.
SharePanorama inaccuracy does not undercut broader BBC principles of accuracy, Daniel says
Caroline Daniel, the other external adviser to the standards committee alongside Prescott has also stepped into defend the Panorama edit.
“Obviously, issues of trust are foundational to the BBC. It is very important that they take inaccuracies extremely seriously,” she says.
She adds that it was “regrettable that this wasn’t recognised at the time” and that probably by the time Panorama was alerted to it, it was too late for the BBC to take practical action – more than a year after the episode had been broadcast.
She also stresses that David Grossman’s 20-page report on the US election “was really about a much broader, comprehensive view about US election coverage.”
“It wasn’t to try and micromanage a particular programme, edit an individual issue out of principle… I personally think that the BBC did take issues of impartiality and accuracy incredibly seriously. It’s the reason that the one of the most trusted news brands in the world.”
SharePrescott says Panorama edit ‘probably’ does not damage Trump
Prescott has been pressed again by Liberal Democrat MP Cameron Thomas to answer whether he agrees with Trump’s argument that the 12-second video edit of his January 6 speech damages his reputation.
Thomas: “Do you agree that Donald Trump’s reputation has been tarnished by this documentary?”
Prescott: “Probably not”.
He offers a rueful smile.
Updated at 11.58 EST
Committee questions Prescott on his own bias in leaked memo
MP Rupa Huq questions Prescott on his own political bias in his memo, noting that many of his concerns appear to come from a certain slant.
She points out some of the language he used are common phrases used in right-wing ideological circles, or that experts he references are “not completely neutral people”.
Prescott says that he didn’t have a “tick list”, and his memo just reflected reports “commissioned by the entire (standards) committee” for editorial adviser David Grossman to look into.
“We never knew what he would come back with. And if you take American presidential race, for example, it did come back saying, well, actually, it’s a little unbalanced.”
Huq says she watched the whole 70-minute Panorama documentary last night, and the 12-second edit does not change what the topic was about, which she says Trump would probably like because it includes many MAGA supporters.
Updated at 11.36 EST
Prescott is asked if he agrees with Trump that the BBC documentary constitutes defamation, given the US president has been indicted over the January 6 riots.
“I can’t think of anything I agree with Donald Trump on,” Prescott replies.
ShareWatch the questioning live
Just a reminder to readers, the live feed from the House of Commons session can be viewed right here in the stream embedded at the top of this blog.
ShareGlastonbury apology a sign of improvement- Daniel
Daniel however, the other external adviser, says there have been improvements including after systemic reviews on certain subject matters.
She gives the example of Tim Davie’s immediate response after the BBC’s live broadcast of Bob Vylan’s set at Glastonbury Festival where the singer chanted “Death to the IDF”.
I think that was a speedy apology, and rightly so. I think there are probably many other examples where the BBC has apologised, in the last few years.
But I would say I think the real issue is the culture of the BBC in terms of the level of attention paid to these issues. And again, in my view, the fact that we had a robust committee to debate issues of impartiality, the fact that we had David Grossman being commissioned to ask questions about the BBC’s coverage in order to help inform future coverage, was actually really significant.
I think there are a few organisations when you actually have that level of auditing internally on a regular basis, and this is an ongoing issue. This is not one and done.
Updated at 11.12 EST
Editorial mistakes weren’t being thoroughly addressed- Prescott
Much of the criticism from Prescott is around what he says is BBC News departments failing to throughly address editorial mistakes when pointed out by the panel.
What I was frequently seeing was that the BBC’s idea of dealing with something was to change the editors around, tweak the written guidelines, but there was never, it seemed to me, any willingness at exactly what went wrong and whether there were deep implications.”
He has described some of the responses as “defensive” and he says there’s a problem of some “cultural forces” within the BBC, without specifying what exactly.
When questioned further by the committee, he mentions: “You’ve got urban rural bias, possibly a London focus, London values versus values outside of the capital”.
Updated at 11.23 EST
‘No idea’ how memo was leaked – Prescott
Prescott is questioned on how his memo of editorial concerns was leaked to the Telegraph report.
“I have no idea”, he says.
His dossier pointed out failings in the editing of a Trump speech, allegations of bias in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and trans issues.
He’d said that he had also sent the memo off to the Ofcom regulator after sending it to the BBC board to highlight what he thought were editorial concerns.
He says the memo was “all my own work” and that he’d not written it with anyone else.
Updated at 11.21 EST
‘I’m a centrist dad’ – Prescott
Prescott is questioned on his own personal biases and refers to reports about Robbie Gibb’s Conservative background.
The Committee chair has been asking if one personality was more dominant than the other members on the standards committee. It has been alleged that Gibb’s political views steered the panel one direction.
“You’re asking about my preferences. I am no ideological soul mate of Robbie Gibbs. I’m a centrist dad.”
He is asked whether the fact his company received more than £100,000 in donations from a conservative Republican donor influenced him. He says he did want the BBC to be completely impartial.
Updated at 10.59 EST