Trump-BBC live updates: US president tells corporation to apologise or he will sue them for $1bn

Sir Robbie Gibb’s position on the BBC board is being questioned amid accusations of bias at the broadcaster.

Prior to his appointment to the editorial board, Sir Robbie served as Theresa May’s communications director while she was at Downing Street as the Conservative prime minister.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney said his position fueled doubts and debate about the BBC’s independence and impartiality.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Sir Robbie should be removed from the board immediately.

SNP leader Mr Swinney told LBC: “Robbie Gibb is a political figure on the BBC board who is very clearly committed to the party.

“If the BBC wants to be seen as an authoritative and impartial organisation, reflecting the independence of commentary, then I think Robbie Gibb’s position is untenable.”

Inside GuardSir Ed wrote that Sir Robbie should not have a say in choosing the BBC’s next director general.

BBC supporters, including journalists Guard And Financial Timesand some BBC staff believe, based on their statements, that there is a right-wing campaign to undermine the company.

“This is a crisis created by political and commercial opponents of public service broadcasting and the BBC,” said Diane Coyle, economist and deputy chairman of the BBC’s former board of directors.

Supporters say leaks of criticism of the memo are adding to the pressure on a daily basis, while high-profile figures such as former Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson are fueling the debate.

Alan Rusbridger, former editor Guard Who is presiding now? Possibility magazine said many people on the BBC board came from finance or business backgrounds or had not been in journalism for long. He said the company needed stronger management, as well as a new general manager.

“The board itself is not really in a good position to make editorial judgments,” he said.

“Any incoming director general wants to know who has their back and whether there are people who can make judgments, defend journalism when it needs to be defended, or make complex judgments about when it needs to be corrected or apologized.”

BBC media correspondent Katie Razzall and political presenter Nick Robinson said they were told there had been a disagreement with the board, and that news executives wanted to issue an apology, but the board prevented this.

The controversy arose because the company was “not willing” to listen to “the recommendations of its own internal systems to control bias,” one former presenter claimed.

Mark Urban, former diplomatic editor news night“This crisis arose because the BBC, including Deborah Turness, was not willing to listen to the advice of its internal systems and act energetically enough to control bias,” he told Sky News.

He highlighted news about gender issues, race and Gaza.

“And I think when you put all of that together collectively, we understand, and if you attend meetings as I have for many years, I think you’ve seen the change of the BBC in recent years, in common with many other news organizations and many other publicly funded organisations, but you’ve seen much more of it – for want of a better word – the trend among younger staff, and the tension between young people and older people.

“And of course that’s what’s erupting here.”

Tim Davie resigned after an explosive memo accusing the BBC of bias was leaked last week.

The report, prepared by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s broadcasting standards committee, claims:

• Panorama documentary Trump: Second Chance? “He appeared to take a clearly anti-Trump stance” and “materially misled viewers.”

• The note said some staff shared concerns about the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues. He said there were stories that “celebrated the trans experience without sufficient balance or objectivity.”

• Prescott said there was a “selection bias” in favor of certain stories being sent as push notifications to the BBC app. The note states that there is a bias against posting stories about immigration and refugees.

• He also said there were “poorly researched” stories about racism, including a BBC Verify story about the correlation between high car insurance premiums in ethnically diverse areas. The story has now been removed.

• Prescott highlighted concerns about biased reporting on the BBC’s Arabic service and other Gaza-related broadcasts.

US President Donald Trump threatened to sue the BBC because his speech was edited in a newspaper. Panorama Its lawyers said the company must withdraw the documentary by Friday or face a lawsuit of “not less than $1 billion.”

Chairman Samir Shah apologized Sunday for the “error in judgment” that triggered the resignation of Executive Director Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness over accusations of biased editing of Trump’s speech before a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.

An hour-long documentary – titled Trump: Second Chance? — Published days before the 2024 US presidential election. Three quotes from two parts of the speech, delivered almost an hour apart, appear to be a single quote in which Mr. Trump urges his supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.”

Among the pieces that were cut was a section in which Mr. Trump said he wanted his supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

Mr Shah said the broadcaster accepted that “the way the speech was edited gave the impression of a direct call for violent action”.

Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito demanded that the BBC “retract its false, defamatory, derogatory and provocative statements”, apologize and “appropriate compensation for the damage caused to President Trump”, otherwise a lawsuit for $1 billion in damages would be filed.

According to the BBC, Tim Davie’s salary was between £540,000 and £544,999.

He worked at the company for 20 years and was general manager for five years.

The controversies he encountered are: