Trump Threatens BBC With Legal Action as Chair Samir Shah Fails to Apologise to Him
President Trump has threatened the BBC with legal action – as its Chair Samir Shah insists the corporation is not institutionally biased and fails to apologise to him. The Mail has more.
Mr Trump has fired off a legal letter after it emerged Panorama had selectively edited his speech before the 2021 Capitol riot to remove a section where he told supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
A BBC spokesman said: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”
The revelation comes shortly after Mr Shah used his first remarks since the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness to mount a defence of the corporation.
Mr Shah accused Michael Prescott, who wrote a critical memo that ultimately prompted the resignations, of offering a “personal account” which gives only a “partial” view of events.
In a 1,600-word letter to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee (CMS), Mr Shah admitted there were “occasions when the BBC gets things wrong” but claimed the leaked report did not present the full picture.
“Michael Prescott’s memo gives only a partial description of the evidence that editorial guidelines and standards committee received and considered,” he said.
He insisted there were no issues the BBC had sought to “bury”, adding: “That interpretation is simply not true. The issues raised by Mr Prescott are precisely the issues that have been considered by the Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee [EGSC] and the board.”
Mr Shah said Mr Prescott had relied on evidence compiled by the editorial guidelines and standards committee (EGSC), to produce the dossier.
“There is another view that has gained currency in the coverage that the BBC has done nothing to tackle these problems. That is also simply not true,” he said.
“Over the three years Mr Prescott was an adviser to the EGSC, the BBC has: published corrections where we have got things wrong; changed editorial guidance to make the BBC’s position on issues clearer; made changes to leadership where the problems point to underlying issues; and carried out formal disciplinary measures.”
In a furious social media post last night, Mr Trump condemned the BBC as “corrupt” and described its staff as “very dishonest”.
Today, Mr Shah said the corporation has received communication from Mr Trump, adding: “We are now considering how to reply to him.” But he failed to apologise personally to the President.
Worth reading in full.
Trump’s demand is for the documentary and “all other” defamatory content to be retracted or face a lawsuit for “no less than $1 billion” in compensation. From the Telegraph:
The letter, sent by the US President and reported by the New York Times, called for an immediate apology and compensation.
It demanded “a full and fair retraction of the documentary, and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading and inflammatory statements about President Trump in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published”.
The letter continued: “If the BBC does not comply with the above by November 14th 2025 at 5.00pm EST, President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 in damages. The BBC is on notice.
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Why is “Samir Shah” chairman? This is absurd.
As I posted earlier today it is worse than just an Indian chairman.
Chairman of the BBC – Shamir Shah born in India.
Controller of Radio 4 – Mohit Bakaya born in in India to the same mother as Shamir Shah.
Chief People Officer – Uzair Qadeer born in Pakistan.
Global HR Director for BBC News – Irene Asare born in Ghana.
Rather like the Home Office, staffed by foreigners.
It’s reported that the governer, along with Shah, knew about the falsification of Trump’s speech in May but did nothing about it and kept quiet. No surprise that the Chairman is obfuscating. He and the Panorama producers and editors should also be sacked. Trump should sue them individually. Why should licence payers pay for malfeasance?
Are there any British people left in the UK?
Why is this Islamist lunatic an MP? And there’s many more where he came from. There’s no ‘quiet part’, they’re saying it all out loud, but the oikophobes in charge of the country bend over for them anyway. He’s a raving nutjob. What ”oppression”, what ”injustice”?
”Emboldened after banning Jews from Birmingham, at the Second City’s “Your Party” event tonight — to an all-Muslim audience — the increasingly dangerous Iqbal Mohamed MP declared: “We must take over the whole of Birmingham, the whole of the West Midlands, the whole of the UK… we will not be taken for granted, and we will win.”
https://x.com/sirwg202110/status/1987667901009326372
This is like asking Stalin to apologise . As far as they are concerned, anything that annoys/hurts/rubbishes President Trump, is fine, the more the merrier.
GB News had a lawyer on today that had written to Donald to urge him to sue under various laws that are not mutually exclusive and could be part of a multiple lawsuit. He also pointed out the the Indian BBC Chairman has already admitted liability in his letter today. So go on Donald, bankrupt the Far Left BBC.
Problem is, it won’t be the BBC or any of its staff that pay any fines or compensation it will be the taxpayer, and Labour won’t even offset it against their license fee theft!
It will be lessons learned, must do better, usual pointless meaningless platitudes, but will they actually apologise to Trump personally, maybe somehow in the abstract, but they inherently believe he’s a cross between Hitler and the Anti-Christ, so will they?
But Ed Davey says that the BBC is the one institution protecting British values from a full Trump takeover. I cannot fathom how someone could say that with a straight face unless they had an IQ of less than 80 or was barking mad, or a very accomplished liar.
Personally I am more aligned with President Trump’s values on immigration than I am with the shower of treasonous incompetents sitting in Westminster and Whitehall.
You’re not alone in that!
Ed Davey is a 24 carat idiot, imo.
He got a first at Oxford. He cannot possibly believe the statement he made to be true in any real sense. He is either insane, or he is using hyperbole for effect.
He’s a moron (expletive deleted).
Or there is a question mark over the value of some of Oxford’s output….
Far too many useless – dangerous – Cabinet members and PMs have come off the Oxford production line for us not to be suspicious of its Quality Control
The quality defects are those of character and honesty, not intellect. People can believe or pretend they believe anything if their career etc depends on it
That number is probably closer to his IQ.
He should stick to being a clown. Perhaps he could team up with Lammy.
They have been publishing fake news about Donald Trump for years, including the repeatedly debunked but still surviving ”very fine people” hoax. It’s on the Internet and will not be hard to uncover. I hope they are sued, bankrupted, stripped of their assets, including their bastardised brand name which is an ongoing embarrassment to anyone British, and dispersed to the 4 winds.
Chair Samir Shah insists the corporation is not institutionally biased
This is either another deliberate deception by the Lie Factory (formerly known as the BBC), or it’s the result of groupthink brought on by the profound rot which has hollowed-out most of our institutions.
Whatever the cause, they should not be allowed to mark their own homework, or continue to benefit from their cosy relationship with ofcom
Where is OFCOM in all this?
Working out how to close down GB News.
Rather than sue for damages over a report that was broadcast 8 days before the last Presidential election it would be better to take action over foreign election interference. If Trump doesn’t do so I’d expect Congress to issue invites which, if declined, would lead to extradition requests. Then we could have prosecutions and incarcerations. At the very least I’m sure there are plenty of BBC and BBC Studio assets in the US that could be seized.
I wonder if D&O insurers will renew cover for the BBC and other media businesses which might have published or created for publishing material which lied about DJT. I wonder how many notifications have been submitted today by the BBC legal team to their insurers.
At Reform SME presentation today Nigel was very restrained in what he said about the BBC. Journos for their part seem unable to hold a policy or statement in their heads if it has more than a single dimension.
😂 I expect he knew what was heading towards BBC HQ later in the day.
I bet the artist “formerly known as Prince Andrew” loves the BBC for this distraction!
The British Brainwashing Corporation is the state funded propaganda arm of the UK regime. The BBC relies on the UK government junta for its funding by allowing it to tax the population with a license. The license is compulsory, and you will be fined if you don’t have one. The UK government appoints the Director General. Ergo the BBC is “state funded”, part of the UK and Western world “establishment” and is a very poor news media outlet and far from “independent”. If you try to correct their mistakes, they will block you from commenting on their website and on their facebook page. It has happened to me on their facebook page with 6 different identities. They accept early critical posts, then put you on their blacklist, then shadow ban you so you can see your own comments but no-one else can see them, then eventually block you so you can’t even access their facebook page. On their website every one of my innocuous posts disagreeing with their articles were deleted and I was emailed saying that my comment was against “house rules”. Because the BBC often lies, censors corrections on its facebook page and its own website… Read more »
.
Not that I’m defending the BBC but they don’t just suddenly ban you unlike the bloody Guardian.
In principle I like the idea of the BBC but it needs about 80% of its staff sacking for bias and censorship by omission eg Net zero, Covid Clown World etc.
It is nothing but a tool of HMG and wokery. Everyone who works there and reads the Guardian (save for a know thine enemy viewpoint) should be sacked for a start.
I wonder how many would be left….
Sack 80% by all means (not very practical) but would it not just grow back to how it was? Why should the state own a media empire? What part of essential public service is that?
A very good point TOF
I just don’t understand why we part from the assumption that we need a state broadcaster
The Guardian “moderated” my comments “below the line” about 15 years ago. They, like the BBC, allow a few dissenting comments but then gradually shadow ban you on their website. On The Guardian facebook page I have been allowed to criticise them since 2008 when I first started using facebook. I still criticise them to this day without any censorship. The BBC is far worse than The Guardian for censorship on facebook. I use Twitter/X to occasionally have a go at the BBC but X is nowhere near as good as facebook for any sort of dialogue. The BBC, The Guardian, The Independent are all “liberals” who promote their liberal agenda. The BBC is meant to be balanced and impartial according to their Charter but are far from it. At least with The Guardian and Independent you know they are “liberal”. I firmly believe the BBC should be banned from News and Current Affairs as their air of respectability is dangerous. I started to compile a list of all the BBC “fake news” when I had a keen interest in the events in Syria. There were so many including many which had nothing to do with Syria that I eventually… Read more »
Correction…“The BBC made some very good programmes” decades ago
BBC still ignoring it is anti semitic. As a minimum Jeremy Bowen should be sacked and the Arabic service shut
Panorama can be viewed in the US on BBC Worldwide News. There is also a cable channel for BBC programmes. The falsified speech by Trump following the contested voting patterns and evidence of vote dumps was used to shut down any protests or enquiry. In other words the BBC interfered in an election of an allied foreign country. In the US this is against their laws and charges should be brought with the automatic extradition to the those responsible for the action.
I’d love Trump and Musk to smash Britain to bits. Keep heaping shame on the country, make it worse than it is already. Teach the apathetic and the left consequences of their actions.
But the Left never acknowledge the consequences of their actions because that would damage their dedication to the Cause.
Chris Pattern’s interview on this evening’s PM was the most hilarious piece of complacent piffle I have ever heard, and why the conservatives cannot be trusted. He effectively justified as straight down the middle reporting for every biased agenda the BBC has recently been pushing. He is clearly on a different planet.
Shah…..says it all really 🙄
I look forward to the news reports that the BBC has lost a defamation case against Trump and has to pay a $1 billion fine … AND apologise.
I might even watch it on BBC “news” …. which I’ve boycotted for about a decade now.
Let’s be honest, it was not the first untruth the bbc broadcast. Anyone remember in the way back machine, the bbc told the country, the covid mRNA vaxxes were “safe and effective”, despite not one shred of scientific evidence. You people must be so disappointed in this outlet, which I understand you HAVE to pay for.
Shah should apologise unreservedly and be removed immediately. He represents the BBC culture of living high on other peoples’ money, so probably thinks the lawsuit won’t touch him financially.