Minister suggests BBC should apologise to Trump over editing error – but doesn’t comment on his $1bn lawsuit threat
Good morning. Yesterday the BBC in crisis story, that had primarily been about the resignations of its director general and its head of news, veered into international diplomacy when Donald Trump threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn over the way it edited a clip of the speech he gave before his supporters attacked the US Capitol and people working there on 6 January 2021.
This is obviously awkward for the government, not least because the BBC is funded with taxpayers’ money and so any payout to the president would ultimately come from them.
This morning there is quite a lot of legal comment around addressing the question of whether or not Trump has much of a legal case. I’ll summarise some of it later, but, bluntly, the answer is no. But a lot of this analysis falls under the heading of category error; Trump has launched several high-profile cases against US media organisations with little or no legal merit, and almost always they have settled, not because they thought Trump had a case, but because being in ongoing dispute with the White House created other risks and it was safer and easier to cave.
The BBC probably does not need the approval of the Federal Communications Commission for any deals in the US, but there are countless other ways that the Trump administration could make life difficult for it.
Perhaps Trump will just drop his legal threat and let the whole row blow over. For the BBC, and the UK government, that would be the ideal outcome. But it does not seem likely.
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is due to make a statement to MPs about the BBC later. As well as addressing what can be done in the immediate term to restore confidence in the BBC, and what might be done in the medium term to give it a secure funding model (Reform UK was making the case for the abolition of the licence fee yesterday), she will also have to respond to questions about Trump’s threat. Not easy for a minister in a government where any criticism of the president is more or less banned.
Alison McGovern, the local government minister, has been doing interviews this morning. In an interview with Times Radio, asked about Trump’s threat to sue, she just said that was a matter for him and for the BBC.
I think the president can say what he wants, and he will do. And we know that.
Asked again about his threat, she replied: “Well, that’s for him, and the BBC, I’m sure, will respond to whatever happens. And that is for them to do.”
In a separate interview on LBC, McGovern was asked if the BBC should apologise to Trump for the way his 6 January 2021 speech was edited in the Panorama programme about him shown just before last year’s election. McGovern replied:
If they’ve made an editorial mistake, then they should apologise … I think the BBC is probably chock full of policies on what they should do when they make editorial mistakes, so I think they should stick to it.
Yesterday the BBC did apologise for the way the speech was edited in the programme. But that was in a letter to the Commons culture committee. McGovern seemed to be saying the BBC should apologise to Trump directly.
I will be mostly focusing on the BBC story today, but there is other politics around. Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Keir Starmer is due to appear on ITV’s Lorraine, in a pre-recorded interview.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
2.30pm: Peter Kyle, the business secretary, gives evidence to the Commons business committee.
After 3.30pm: Lammy is expected to make a statement about prisoner release mistakes, and Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is expected to make a statement to MPs about the BBC. Lammy will probably go first, but that has not been confirmed yet.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm BST at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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Updated at 04.24 EST
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Trump ally says BBC will win if case goes to court in Florida – but president likely to sue anyway as part of war on ‘fake news’
On the Today programme, Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, a rightwing news organisation in the US, and someone who has been a friend of Donald Trump for years, was interviewed about Trump’s threat to sue the BBC. Here are the main points he made.
Ruddy said that, if the BBC were to fight the case in the Florida courts, they would probably win. He explained:
The fact is, I’m from the state of Florida. I’m very familiar with the Florida libel laws.
I have no doubt the BBC misrepresented what the president said. And that’s pretty clear. I think everybody agrees, otherwise you wouldn’t have had those resignations.
I’m also very assured that if the BBC took the case to court, they would prevail. They would prevail because the state of Florida has pretty strong libel laws that defend media companies and free speech.
But Ruddy also acknowledged that other media organisations sued by Trump had decided to settle rather contest his claims. “What’s happening is that a lot of media companies would prefer not to go through the media spectacle of all this,” he said.
Ruddy said that, when Trump forced other media organisations to settle, he viewed that as proving his case that they were peddling “fake news”. Referring to the CBS and ABC lawsuits (see 9.22am), Ruddy said:
I think he sees these as victories … He sees this as legitimising his claims that there’s fake news, that the news is out to get him.
I congratulate that the BBC and people resigned, and they were held accountable. In American media organisation oftentimes you don’t see that and there’s not a sense of accountability.
The president sees this as a big victory for him in his claim the media is out to get him.
He may very well sue the BBC because he’s had a winning record on bringing these suits.
I think that he he feels that there are very big wealth funded organisation and if they did him wrong then and he could be compensated for that. And I think he sees that as a win for him and a win for truth.
I do think that it [legal action] doesn’t hurt his relationship [with the UK government]. He has a very good relationship with Keir Starmer. He’s certainly widely respects King Charles.
He does not see this as impinging at all on the very good relationship that he has with Britain. I was with him at Windsor Castle, when he was there [for the state visit]. I think he and Melania felt that was one of the high points of his presidency so far.
Chris Ruddy. Photograph: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 04.54 EST
Tim Davie, the outgoing BBC director general, has arrived for work at Broadcasting House, according to the BBC’s live blog. He said he was “very, very proud” of the BBC journalists working in the building, adding:
The BBC is going to be thriving and I support everyone on the team.
He did not answer questions about Donald Trump’s proposed lawsuit.
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How Trump has track record of using the law to threaten media organisations
Here is an analysis by Jeremy Barr of how Donald Trump’s threatened legal action against the BBC is just the latest example of how he has always used “legal threats and lawsuits to pressure news companies who put out coverage he does not like”.
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Minister suggests BBC should apologise to Trump over editing error – but doesn’t comment on his $1bn lawsuit threat
Good morning. Yesterday the BBC in crisis story, that had primarily been about the resignations of its director general and its head of news, veered into international diplomacy when Donald Trump threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn over the way it edited a clip of the speech he gave before his supporters attacked the US Capitol and people working there on 6 January 2021.
This is obviously awkward for the government, not least because the BBC is funded with taxpayers’ money and so any payout to the president would ultimately come from them.
This morning there is quite a lot of legal comment around addressing the question of whether or not Trump has much of a legal case. I’ll summarise some of it later, but, bluntly, the answer is no. But a lot of this analysis falls under the heading of category error; Trump has launched several high-profile cases against US media organisations with little or no legal merit, and almost always they have settled, not because they thought Trump had a case, but because being in ongoing dispute with the White House created other risks and it was safer and easier to cave.
The BBC probably does not need the approval of the Federal Communications Commission for any deals in the US, but there are countless other ways that the Trump administration could make life difficult for it.
Perhaps Trump will just drop his legal threat and let the whole row blow over. For the BBC, and the UK government, that would be the ideal outcome. But it does not seem likely.
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is due to make a statement to MPs about the BBC later. As well as addressing what can be done in the immediate term to restore confidence in the BBC, and what might be done in the medium term to give it a secure funding model (Reform UK was making the case for the abolition of the licence fee yesterday), she will also have to respond to questions about Trump’s threat. Not easy for a minister in a government where any criticism of the president is more or less banned.
Alison McGovern, the local government minister, has been doing interviews this morning. In an interview with Times Radio, asked about Trump’s threat to sue, she just said that was a matter for him and for the BBC.
I think the president can say what he wants, and he will do. And we know that.
Asked again about his threat, she replied: “Well, that’s for him, and the BBC, I’m sure, will respond to whatever happens. And that is for them to do.”
In a separate interview on LBC, McGovern was asked if the BBC should apologise to Trump for the way his 6 January 2021 speech was edited in the Panorama programme about him shown just before last year’s election. McGovern replied:
If they’ve made an editorial mistake, then they should apologise … I think the BBC is probably chock full of policies on what they should do when they make editorial mistakes, so I think they should stick to it.
Yesterday the BBC did apologise for the way the speech was edited in the programme. But that was in a letter to the Commons culture committee. McGovern seemed to be saying the BBC should apologise to Trump directly.
I will be mostly focusing on the BBC story today, but there is other politics around. Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Keir Starmer is due to appear on ITV’s Lorraine, in a pre-recorded interview.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
2.30pm: Peter Kyle, the business secretary, gives evidence to the Commons business committee.
After 3.30pm: Lammy is expected to make a statement about prisoner release mistakes, and Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is expected to make a statement to MPs about the BBC. Lammy will probably go first, but that has not been confirmed yet.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm BST at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Share
Updated at 04.24 EST
