Donald Trump has vowed to sue the BBC in a matter of hours after accusing the broadcaster of « putting words in my mouth » in relation to the ongoing doctored Panorama speech scandal. The US president said his libel suit would be fired « probably this afternoon or tomorrow evening ».
He said: « I’m suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth… I guess they used AI or something. They actually put terrible words in my mouth. » The BBC changed a speech the Republican made in an episode of Panorama, prompting him to come after them for a sum « from $1billion to $5billion ».
The broadcaster edited Mr Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, the day of the attack on the US Capitol building. It admitted to « showing excerpts taken from different parts of the speech ».
Panorama reported him as saying: « We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you and we fight.”
What he actually said was: « We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. »
The BBC responded: « This programme was reviewed after criticism of how President Donald Trump‘s 6th January 2021 speech was edited. During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech. »
« We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.
« The BBC would like to apologise to President Trump for that error of judgement. »
The scandal prompted the resignation of BBC director Tim Davie and CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness.
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