President Donald Trump’s press secretary has branded the BBC a “leftist propaganda machine” and “100 per cent fake news” after the broadcaster was accused of bias in some of its reporting.
The corporation was accused of misleading viewers in a Panorama episode by selectively editing a speech made by Trump ahead of the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021.
MPs said there were “serious questions to answer” after a memo leaked to the Telegraph said the BBC had “completely misled” viewers with the editing choice.
The programme showed Trump urging his supporters to “fight like hell” before the riots, but omitted a section where he told the crowd “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”.
“This purposefully dishonest, selectively edited clip by the BBC is further evidence that they are total, 100 per cent fake news that should no longer be worth the time on the television screens of the great people of the United Kingdom,” Leavitt told the Telegraph.
“Every time I travel to the United Kingdom with President Trump and am forced to watch the BBC in our hotel rooms, it ruins my day listening to their blatant propaganda and lies about the president of the United States and all that he’s doing to make America better and the world a safer place.”
The memo, said to have been written by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee, is understood to have been leaked to the paper by a whistleblower.
Mr Prescott, who left the role earlier this year, has not publicly commented on the leak.
The extract read: “It was completely misleading to edit the clip in the way Panorama aired it. The fact that he did not explicitly exhort supporters to go down and fight at Capitol Hill was one of the reasons there were no federal charges for incitement to riot.”
The BBC said of the controversy: “While we don't comment on leaked documents, when the BBC receives feedback it takes it seriously and considers it carefully.”
Over 2,000 people stormed the Capitol building as a joint session of Congress took place to formalise President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 elections.
Five people, including a police officer, died following the incident. Over 174 police officers were said to have been injured. The attack caused serious damage, amount to an estimated $2.7 million.
The Independent has contacted the BBC for comment.
