Editorial of November 13, 2025

Journalistic Integrity Counts

It’s no wonder people don’t trust the media. Just this week, BBC Director General Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, BBC’s head of news, resigned following a memo leaked by ex-BBC adviser Michael Prescott. Among other allegations, Prescott claimed that BBC’s news show, Panorama, misrepresented President Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech. BBC officials have since admitted that splicing parts of that speech together “did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”

According to an article in “The Guardian” by Rachel Leingang, published on Monday, November 10, “In a broadcast of the news show Panorama before the 2024 election, Trump’s speech was edited to put together two sentences that were actually 54 minutes apart, making it appear as though he was telling people they would walk to the US Capitol and “fight like hell.” In her article, Leingang wrote, “A dossier from a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee flagged the edit, among other instances of purported bias in the outlet’s coverage, which was leaked to the Telegraph. As a public sector organization, the BBC is required to be impartial, though it often faces claims of bias, particularly from the right.”