BBC apologizes to Trump over its misleading edit, but says there’s no basis for a defamation claim

LONDON AP The BBC apologized Thursday to U S President Donald Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on Jan but declared it strongly disagreed that there was a basis for a defamation lawsuit The BBC mentioned Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit of the speech Trump gave before selected of his supporters stormed the U S Capitol It mentioned there are no plans to rebroadcast the documentary that spliced together parts of his speech that came almost an hour apart Trump s lawyer sent the BBC a letter demanding an apology and threatened to file a billion lawsuit The dispute was sparked by an edition of the BBC s flagship current affairs series Panorama titled Trump A Second Chance broadcast days before the U S presidential voting process The third-party production company that made the film spliced together three quotes from two sections of the speech delivered almost an hour apart into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and fight like hell Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump stated he sought supporters to demonstrate peacefully Shah apologized Monday for the misleading edit that he disclosed gave the impression of a direct call for violent action Director-General Tim Davie along with news chief Deborah Turness quit Sunday saying the controversy was damaging the BBC and as the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs the buck stops with me Source