Newly uncovered evidence suggests the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) manipulated footage of former U.S. President Donald Trump's speech, creating a misleading narrative about his involvement in the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot. According to a report by the Telegraph, an internal memo written by a former independent advisor to the BBC confirms the broadcaster edited the president's words, presenting them out of context.
The Panorama Documentary and the Doctored Speech
The controversial edits were featured in an hour-long episode of the BBC's Panorama program titled "Trump: A Second Chance?" which aired in October 2024. Viewers of the documentary were shown a segment where President Trump appeared to tell his supporters, "We're gonna walk down to the Capitol and I'll be with you and we fight. We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not gonna have a country anymore."
However, the actual transcript of his speech reveals a significantly different message. In reality, Trump stated, "We are gonna walk down to the Capitol and I'll be with you. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." The memo highlights that the program spliced together two separate parts of his speech from different times, creating a false impression of incitement.
Systemic Problems and Executive Dismissals
The internal assessment was written by Michael Prescott, formerly an independent external advisor to the BBC's editorial guidelines and standards committee. In his memo, sent directly to the corporation's board of directors, Prescott concluded that the BBC has "serious and systemic problems" with its reporting.
When these distortions were brought to the attention of BBC executives, they were reportedly dismissed as "normal practice." The executives refused to acknowledge any breach of editorial standards. One executive even attempted to justify the editing by referencing a congressional meeting dominated by Democrats that had concluded Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election.
Additional Misleading Edits and Context
The memo details further manipulations within the documentary. Immediately following the doctored speech, the program cut to an audio clip of police warning about "300 Proud Boys" heading toward the Capitol, while showing footage of the group marching. This sequence insinuated they were acting in direct response to Trump's words.
The truth, as Prescott's memo points out, is that this footage was captured a full hour before Trump's speech even began, completely divorcing the events from the context presented to viewers.
Prescott's analysis noted that the fact Trump did not explicitly exhort supporters to violently storm the Capitol was a key reason he faced no federal charges for incitement to riot. The Panorama edit, therefore, "materially misled viewers" on a point of legal and historical significance.
This incident is not isolated for the broadcaster. The report comes as the BBC also publicly admitted it breached its own editorial policies after failing to disclose that the narrator of a separate documentary on Gaza was the son of a Hamas official.
