BBC Chair Samir Shah Apologises Over Trump Speech Edit — “We Should Have Acted Earlier” | APT - video Dailymotion

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BBC Chair Samir Shah has apologised for how the broadcaster edited a speech by former U.S. President Donald Trump, calling it an “error of judgment.”  Speaking in London on November 10, Shah said the Panorama programme team mishandled Trump’s January 6 address, admitting that the edit was misleading and should have been reviewed earlier.  The controversy has deepened after Trump’s lawyers threatened the BBC with a $1 billion lawsuit unless the documentary is retracted by November 14.  Shah, however, rejected claims of systemic bias within the BBC, defending its record of “impartial journalism” and praising outgoing Director General Tim Davie after his resignation over the issue.  #BBC #SamirShah #DonaldTrump #BBCNews #BBCPanorama #TrumpSpeech #TrumpNews #MediaEthics #UKNews #USPolitics #BBCChair #TimDavie #DeborahTurness #GlobalNews

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00:00The apologizing is for the way the team edited President Trump's speech to his supporters

00:09on January the 6th.

00:11It was public.

00:12We discussed it.

00:13Indeed, the reservations and some people on the board felt very strongly it was wrong.

00:20Others defended it.

00:21It was discussed at Panorama, so they knew about that.

00:25But I think the point I'm making is, in hindsight, we should have acted earlier and taken a more

00:31formal position on it, which we've done more recently.

00:35Part of the problem is the way it was edited, but what was the consequence of that?

00:40I think we just needed to go into a bit more detail, which is what we finally did, which

00:45was the impression it left on the British audience, as opposed to the intention of the programme

00:51was to give the British audience some understanding of how President Trump's supporters were reading

00:58it.

00:59Now, that's quite a complicated set of thoughts, and we need to get that right.

01:05Let's be clear about the role of the board.

01:06We are a non-executive board.

01:08Ten of us are non-execs, four execs.

01:10The job of the board is to review BBC output and to maintain and to represent the public interest.

01:16It is not our job to determine who or who should not be the director of news.

01:21That is the job of the director general.

01:23It is for him to say and for him to determine.

01:27And that's the only position I take and I insist that the board takes.

01:31I did not want to lose Tim Davie.

01:34I think Tim Davie has been an outstanding director general.

01:38And may I say, nor did any member of the board.

01:41We were upset by the decision.

01:45I do understand it at a very human level.

01:48Tim has gone through a lot of attacks.

01:51It's been relentless.

01:52It's also a very, very difficult job.

01:56We do take it really seriously.

01:57I mean, there are real issues here.

02:00They're over a three-year period.

02:03And just let me say, the BBC in those three years has produced hundreds and hundreds of

02:09hours of outstanding journalism on television, on audio, on online.

02:15We have and we do a great job there.

02:18But inevitably, we make mistakes.

02:20And what he's identified are mistakes, either individual ones or ones that point to underlying

02:25problems, which we accept.

02:27The statistics say that the British people trust BBC News more than anything else.

02:32If there was this consistent institutional bias, do you think we'd have those figures?

02:37We wouldn't.

02:38So I don't think that's right.

02:41That's not to say that there aren't real problems, real issues, both underlying and specific.

02:49I don't think there's a systemic bias in anti-Israel.

02:51I mean, there are loads of arguments that suggest almost the opposite, you know.

02:56I think that we have issues, as we have to put underlying problems, and we've made changes

03:05in leadership to try and deal with that.

03:07But I think, you know, it's worth talking about the scale of the BBC and how much it does,

03:14and how much excellent, impartial journalism it does.

BBC Chair Samir Shah Apologises Over Trump Speech Edit — “We Should Have Acted Earlier” | APT

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