The BBC has apologized to President Donald J. Trump for deceptively editing a video of his January 6 speech that made it seem as if he incited the riot that erupted in and around the Capitol Building. Two top executives were forced to resign over this fiasco, which the president rightly called one in which he is obligated to file a lawsuit. Whether he wins is not important; the process is the punishment (via NYT):
The BBC apologized to President Trump on Thursday for a misleadingly edited documentary about the attacks on the U.S. Capitol, but it refused to pay him any compensation.
It was not clear whether this would forestall a $1 billion lawsuit that Mr. Trump’s lawyer threatened to file in a Florida court. The lawyer, Alejandro Brito, demanded an apology, a retraction of the film and damages that “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.”
The BBC said it would not rebroadcast the documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance?,” which originally aired in Britain in October 2024, on any of its platforms. But it added, “We strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”
The decision to apologize to Mr. Trump but not pay compensation reflected both the relative weakness of the BBC’s editorial position on the film and its unique status as a partly publicly funded broadcaster.
The chair of the BBC’s board, Samir Shah, had already apologized for the splicing of two parts of a speech Mr. Trump gave in front of the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, hours before a crowd rampaged on Capitol Hill. Mr. Shah acknowledged that the editing “did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”
File the paperwork, Mr. President.
NEW: BBC to apologize for deceptively editing President Trump’s January 6 speech in an effort to make it look like he encouraged violence at the Capitol.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 9, 2025
The apology letter is reportedly expected to come early next week.
“Samir Shah, the BBC’s chairman, will write to the… pic.twitter.com/cJixU8mSDD
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