The producer of Have I Got News For You has claimed the BBC is “nervous” about making jokes about Donald Trump amid the US president’s ongoing legal dispute with the broadcaster.
Trump has filed a $10m defamation lawsuit over the way a 2024 episode of Panorama edited a speech he made shortly before riots unfolded at the US Capitol on 6 January 2022.
He has accused the BBC of “intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctoring” his words. The BBC has apologised for the edit but says there is no basis for a defamation claim.
With the row rumbling on, Jimmy Mulville, the founder of Have I Got News For You production house Hat Trick, has claimed: “They are more nervous about us making jokes about Donald Trump.”
Speaking on Insiders: The TV Podcast, he continued: “The BBC is ultimately a very reasonable organisation, so you can have conversations with them.”
“They don’t tell you what to do, but I detect that they’re making a thing of it, and I just wish they would see it through a more common sense POV,” Mulville added.
The BBC declined to comment when approached by The Independent.
Trump filed his lawsuit against the BBC in Florida, claiming the 2024 Panorama documentary cost his various businesses reputational damage.
Last month, a judge in the state ruled the US president must provide detailed information about his companies’ finances in response to a motion filed by the BBC.
The decision could mean Trump’s lawsuit ends up backfiring as a major media organisation may be set to obtain new, previously nonpublic information about the Trump Organisation or the US president’s associated ventures, including his cryptocurrency empire.
In his speech on 6 January 2022, Trump, who was serving his first term as president at the time, told a crowd in Washington DC: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” More than 50 minutes later in the same speech, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
But in the Panorama documentary, it appeared as though he said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol... and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The furore surrounding the edit ultimately saw the BBC’s long-serving director-general Tim Davie and its CEO of News Deborah Turness resign from their positions.
The former has since been replaced by ex-Google boss Matt Brittin – who was recently forced to kick off his tenure by announcing £80m in budget cuts, which will see 550 jobs lost as multiple TV and radio shows are axed.
