Why did Tim Davie resign and what was the Trump documentary montage?

2025-11-09 22:36:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

BBC Director General Tim Davie and Director of News Deborah Turness have resigned.

The BBC had come under fire for a Panorama documentary that was accused of misleadingly editing a speech by Donald Trump to make it appear as if he was inciting people to attack the US Capitol. In emails to staff, both Davie and Turness said mistakes had been made.

Why did they resign?

Their departures come after controversy over a Panorama documentary called "Trump/ A Second Chance?", which aired last year.

Davie did not mention the Panorama documentary in his statement, although he said: "While not the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision."

What were the claims about the Trump documentary?

Last week, the Daily Telegraph published an exclusive report, saying it had seen an internal BBC memo.

The memo came from Michael Prescott, a former independent external advisor to the broadcaster's editorial standards committee.

The memo suggested that Panorama's hour-long documentary had edited parts of Trump's speech together so that it appeared to explicitly encourage the January 2021 Capitol Hill riots.

In his speech in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, Trump said: “We will march to the Capitol and cheer for our brave senators, congressmen, and women.”

However, in the Panorama montage he was shown saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we're going to fight. We're going to fight like hell."

The two parts of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart.

The "war like hell" comment was taken from a section where Trump discussed how corrupt the US election was. In total, he used the word "war" 20 times in the speech.

According to the Telegraph, the document said that Panorama's distortion of the day's events would leave viewers asking: "Why should the BBC be trusted and where will it all end?"

The BBC has come under scrutiny for a number of other issues in recent weeks.

And on Thursday, the BBC upheld 20 impartiality complaints about how presenter Martine Croxall earlier this year changed a script she was reading live on the BBC News Channel, which referred to "pregnant women"./ CNA, translated by BBC