Willem Marx

Thanks for having me on.

Well, they acknowledged that during a documentary broadcast as part of its flagship Panorama series, that January 6th speech by President Trump was edited in a way that it spliced together remarks made nearly an hour apart.

That created the impression he made a continuous call to fight like hell and march to the Capitol.

In a statement, the BBC said it accepted that the edit, quote, unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech.

And they acknowledged this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.

The documentary was broadcast a short time ahead of the U.S.

2024 presidential election.

And the chairman of the board of the BBC governor, Samir Shah, said it would not be broadcast again.

Well, in short, he said the apology from the BBC wasn't enough.

A week ago, his team had issued an initial threat that demanded a retraction, an apology and a financial settlement.

In that first letter, his attorney suggested he was willing to file a billion dollar lawsuit.

But last night, Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route to Florida, he and his attorneys would now sue the BBC for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion sometime next week.

The broadcaster had, he said, admitted that they cheated and, quote, changed the words coming out of my mouth.

Trump also said the UK government, in the form of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, was embarrassed by what had happened.

And he planned to call Starmer over the weekend.

Well, the BBC says that while it sincerely regrets the manner of the edit and it's refused so far to offer a financial settlement, legal experts I've been speaking to say that's likely because the documentary in question didn't air extensively in the United States.

So if Trump were to file suit in Florida as expected...

he'd have to prove Americans watched it and it harmed or damaged his reputation in some way.

While here in the UK, though, legal statutes of limitations for defamation, they've already passed.

What are the consequences for the BBC so far?