The White House press secretary has mocked the BBC following Tim Davie’s resignation as director-general.
Mr Davie resigned on Sunday evening, along with CEO of News Deborah Turness, following criticism that a BBC Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by US president Donald Trump.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted screenshots of two news articles, one showing Trump criticising the BBC, captioned “shot”, and another regarding Tim Davie’s resignation, captioned “chaser”.
The BBC had been expected to apologise on Monday following concerns about impartiality, including how a speech by US president Donald Trump was edited in an episode of Panorama.
Shot: Chaser: pic.twitter.com/n0U08PnUJb
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) November 9, 2025
A clip within the programme Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election, spliced clips together from sections of the US president’s speech on 6 January 2021 to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”.
It underlined previous concerns about impartiality within the broadcaster, which has been accused of bias by groups from across the political spectrum.
Ms Leavitt was highly critical of the broadcaster after details of the edited clip were revealed by The Telegraph, citing a memo by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee.
“This purposefully dishonestly, selectively edited clip by the BBC is further evidence that they are total, 100% fake news that should no longer be worth the time on the television screens of the great people of the United Kingdom,” she told the newspaper.
Mr Davie’s resignation was greeted with approval by politicians on the right, who have accused the BBC of institutional bias.
In a resignation statement published by the broadcaster, the former director general said he must “take ultimate responsibility” due to the nature of his position.
Mr Davie thanked the Chair and Board for their “unswerving and unanimous support throughout my entire tenure”, and emphasised that his decision to leave was “entirely my decision”.
He also paid tribute to the organisation, which he said is of “unique value and speaks to the very best of us” - although he accepted the broadcaster is “not perfect and must always be open, transparent and accountable”.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy thanked Mr Davie for his service and said he had led the BBC through a “period of significant change and helped the organisation to grip the challenges it has faced in recent years”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, meanwhile, called on it to signal in “the start of wholesale change”.
He added: “The Government need to appoint somebody with a record of coming in and turning companies and their cultures around. Preferably it would be someone coming in from the private sector who has run a forward-facing business and understands PR.”
But Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the BBC must take the opportunity to “turn a new leaf, rebuild trust and not give in to the likes of Nigel Farage who want to destroy it”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch welcomed the resignations but said “this has been a catalogue of serious failures that runs far deeper”.
She added: “The Prescott report exposed institutional bias that cannot be swept away with two resignations - strong action must be taken on all the issues it raised.”
