 "An image of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Director-General Tim Davie is seen through the door at the BBC headquarters in London, Britain. The organisation faces its most difficult time following the exit of its two senior most executives. File image/Reuters")
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has found itself in a crisis with two of its senior most executives stepping down on Sunday (November 9) after criticism of the way the organisation edited a speech by US President Donald Trump.
The BBC said Director-General Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness had both decided to leave the corporation.
The resignations prompted strong reactions from the US president and the White House with the former saying “corrupt journalists” had been exposed, adding “these are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a presidential election”.
But who are Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, who have abruptly stepped down from the BBC? What led to their resignations?
Here are the answers to all of your questions.
Why have BBC’s Tim Davie and Deborah Turness resigned?
The departures of Davie and Turness from BBC stems from accusations that a documentary by BBC’s Panorama, titled Trump: A Second Chance?, edited a speech by Trump in a misleading manner.
The news of the speech being edited incorrectly came after The Telegraph reported that it had seen a memo which suggested that the one-hour Panorama documentary had edited parts of Trump’s speech together so he appeared to explicitly encourage the Capitol Hill riot of January 2021.
In his speech in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, Trump said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
However, in the Panorama edit he was shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
Notably, the fight like hell comment made by Trump came towards the end of his speech. “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said then.
Turness in her resignation said, “The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC — an institution that I love.” She said that “the buck stops with me” and conceded that “mistakes have been made” but insisted that “recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”
Meanwhile, Davie didn’t mention the Panorama programme, but said: “Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable.
While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.”
He further added: “Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”
What are the other allegations they are talking about?
However, the Panorama edit on Trump is just the tip of the iceberg. The BBC is facing criticism and scrutiny over a number of other issues.
In the memo accessed by The Telegraph, Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the broadcaster’s editorial standards committee, also criticised the BBC for its bias in reporting the Israel-Gaza war as well as its coverage of transgender issues.
On Gaza war, the Prescott letter raised concerns about BBC Arabic’s use of contributors who expressed anti-Semitic views. For instance, one contributor stated that Jews should be burned “as Hitler did”. The BBC has previously said he should not have been featured in the way he was.
Another featured contributor had described Jews online as “devils”. The BBC said in May that the person had been barred from being a contributor in future.
Responding to these allegations, the UK Culture, Media and Sport Minister Lisa Nandy said they were “incredibly serious”. She added that she was concerned about a tendency for editorial standards and the language used in reports to be “entirely inconsistent” whether it be on “Israel, Gaza… trans people or on this issue about President Trump”.
But who are Davie and Turness?
Tim Davie was appointed as BBC’s top boss in September 2020 and was put in charge of overseeing the corporation’s services and is its editorial, operational and creative leader. He rose to the top of the organisation after initially joining it in 2005 after leaving his role as vice-president of marketing and franchise at PepsiCo.
As head of BBC, Davie has weathered many controversies, even earning him the nickname of ‘Teflon Tim’.
In his tenure as director general, Davie has endured many scandals — the Gary Lineker furore , Bob Vylan at Glastonbury, the Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary, and the transgressions of a string of high-profile presenters.
It’s under his tenure that now disgraced BBC News presenter Huw Edwards was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after he admitted charges of making indecent images of children. There was also the scandal in the MasterChef series wherein both its presenters — Gregg Wallace and John Torode — were sacked following a report which upheld allegations against them.
There’s also the live broadcast of Bob Vylan’s performance at the Glastonbur y festival this year, during which the band’s singer led crowds in chants of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]” and made other derogatory comments.
Davie said that what had happened was “deeply disturbing”, adding: “The BBC made a very significant mistake broadcasting that.”
And what about Turness? She’s been the CEO of BBC News since 2022. Previously, she was the CEO of ITN, where she led the organisation’s post-Covid strategy for growth in its three major business areas — newsrooms, long-form production and commercial/branded content.
But before this, in 2013, she made history by becoming the first woman in US history to lead a network news division as president, overseeing a team of over 3,000 journalists and technicians. And four years later, Turness became the first president of NBC News International, the global arm of American news network NBC News.
What comes next?
The exit of Davie and Turness is unprecedented for the BBC and evoked reactions across the United Kingdom as well as from the Trump administration.
US President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform, “The top people in the BBC, including Tim Davie, the boss, are all quitting/fired, because they were caught “doctoring” my very good (perfect!) speech of January 6th. Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these corrupt “journalists.” These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a presidential election. On top of everything else, they are from a foreign country, one that many consider our number one ally. What a terrible thing for democracy!”
In the UK too, many leaders commented on the resignations of Davie and Turness. The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said the corporation needs “to turn a new leaf”, the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, called for “top-to-bottom” reform and Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, said it was the BBC’s “last chance”.
Now, the BBC will have to appoint a new director general, who will be the 18th director general in the BBC’s 103-year history.
It is left to be seen, however, if the BBC’s credibility is able to sustain this hit and move on from it.
With inputs from agencies