BBC Director-General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness have quit after widespread backlash on the US President Donald Trump documentary edit.
According to Al Jazeera, the head and top news executive of the British Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday, November 9, stepped down from their positions following the criticism over the broadcaster’s edit of Trump’s January 6, 2021, edit.
The resignations came after a week of accusations that the BBC edited the speech that Donald Trump gave on the day of the US Capitol attack after losing the 2020 presidential election to former President Joe Biden.
The director-general took “ultimate responsibility” for his mistake, and it was “entirely my decision” to step down from the role after five years.
Davie said, “I have been reflecting on the very intense personal and professional demands of managing this role over many years in these febrile times, combined with the fact that I want to give a successor time to help shape the charter plans they will be delivering.”
The BBC chief also acknowledged that the public broadcaster is not perfect and they must always be open, accountable and transparent.
Meanwhile, Turness said the controversy about the Trump documentary “has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC, an institution that I love. As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me.”
A week before the recent presidential elections in the US, Panorama aired a video that combined bits of Trump’s speech from various moments, sparking backlash after critics noticed that it omitted the part where Trump told his supporters to protest peacefully.
Moreover, The Telegraph also shared a leaked BBC memo suggesting that the Panorama documentary combined two separate sections of the speech to make it appear that Trump was explicitly urging the Capitol riot.
