Willem Marx
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
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?
Well, the head of news and the director general, the BBC's top executive, they've both stepped down over the past week.
The government's felt forced to back the BBC in Parliament with the UK's culture minister, a woman called Lisa Nandy, defending the broadcaster at a time of political polarisation and widespread misinformation.
And listeners and viewers have been expressing their anger at the idea that their money, which funds the BBC through what's known as a licence fee, could be used to pay a settlement or indeed legal damages to a foreign leader.
I spoke to Stuart Purvis, who previously ran ITN.
It's the major commercial news broadcaster in Britain, and it's thus the BBC's main rival on TV.
And he told me this criticism of the BBC was unprecedented.
Now, there are other pressures the BBC is facing for sure, Scott, in particular around its coverage of the war in Gaza.