The habit of the dregs of the former British Empire to rely on state-run television is a practice America has been trying to shed. Defunding public broadcasting is something the UK or Canada would likely never accomplish, let alone seriously consider. And why bother? Until recently, America’s so-called privately owned and operated media was ideologically captured. Its citizens had few, if any, options.
The competitors, at least with regard to news and reporting, were all on the same side and increasingly partisan in their editorial choices and voices.
From selective elective editing to outright lies, they’ve all been proven in the courts and those of public opinion, willing to do anything to undermine truth and fairness. So, when the story broke that the BBC edited a segment aired before the 2024 elections to make Trump look guilty of insurrection, no one was surprised.
No one who knew they were another franchise in the partisan media industrial complex.
The “Panorama” episode, which aired one week before the 2024 presidential election, spliced together two clips from the speech, creating the impression that Trump said, “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you / and we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”
The BBC was accused of editing the separate remarks to mislead viewers.
In the original remark, the first part of the spliced footage, “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you,” came 15 minutes into the speech, and the “We fight like hell” line came a full 54 minutes later.
Given the timing, it was obviously an in-kind contribution to the Kamal Harris campaign presented as news, but that’s what most of the news is. No one at the BBC is sorry, and not even the Potemkin theater of two of its top executives heading to the exits is evidence of planned change.
The head of the BBC and its top news executive resigned on Nov 9 after the broadcaster was accused of misleading viewers by editing President Donald Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, 2021.
The BBC confirmed it was cutting ties with Director-General Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness in a series of statements on Nov. 9.
Director General Tim Davie, despite getting caught red-handed in what ought to subject him, Turness, and the BBC to a massive defamation suit, continued to prop up the lie.
“In these increasingly polarised times, the BBC is of unique value and speaks to the very best of us. It helps make the UK a special place; overwhelmingly kind, tolerant and curious. Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable,” Davie said.
What a wanker.
The times are polarizing because of assholes like these two and the BBC’s partisan political antics. It could find the truth if it embedded itself into its body corporate like a tick. And even then, you’d be looking for a way to give it a very deliberate partisan spin.
“This purposefully dishonest, 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,” Karoline Leavitt told the newspaper.
I agree that the BBC has helped make the UK “special.” It will likely be the first modern Western Democracy, the intellectual holy land of individual rights and liberty, to succumb to the tyranny and conquests of the Islamic Theocracy. A place, ironically, where, once lost, the BBC’s messaging cannot just pretend the state doesn’t control it. It will have no choice.
It will be a tool of the Mullahs.
I’m not looking forward to the day, hoping I don’t live long enough to see it, but as has become customary, you get what you vote for or didn’t show up to vote against.
In the case of the BBC, you didn’t have much choice —and isn’t that the best reason for ending government-funded broadcasting of any sort, anywhere?
[Update] Trump Threatens to Sue the BBC for $1 Billion After Jan. 6 Documentary (paywalled)
“A lawyer for President Trump said the BBC’s editing of a speech he gave was “defamatory.” The broadcaster apologized on Monday for an “error in judgment.”
