'If the BBC backs down to Trump, it doesn’t deserve to survive’
What’s the next move for the BBC, after Donald Trump’s threat to sue the broadcaster for a billion dollars – and why what it decides will influence much more than its own future.
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In brief…
- Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars over a clip which was edited to make it appear as though he directly incited the insurrection on January 6 2021.
- The News Agents believe, if the case goes to court, the US president will lose because he will not be able to prove the BBC’s broadcast amounted to defamation.
- They add that the BBC should not be “cowed” to the president’s threats, and if it uses licence-fee payers money to settle the case, it may not deserve to “survive”.
What’s the story?
Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars over the edited clip of his January 2021 speech, made to supporters before many rioted at Washington’s capitol building.
Many people arrested for their involvement said the president’s words inspired their actions, but the edit broadcast in November 2024 as part of a BBC Panorama documentary made Trump’s words seem more implicit than they were at the time.
Trump has said he will sue if the BBC does not retract the documentary, apologise and "appropriately compensate" the US president by Friday this week.
This, it has been estimated, could run into the millions.
“This is not normal,” says Lewis Goodall.
“It is not normal for someone with the power and prestige of that office to be spending his time suing major media organisations.”
Trump's threats against the BBC have been described by some as a "global" assault on the media, following legal challenges to broadcasters in the US.
Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has urged people in the UK to switch to GB News instead.
Can Trump win a defamation case against the BBC?
The BBC has admitted it made a mistake in broadcasting the edited clip, and in doing so failed to live up to its commitment to impartiality.
That much is beyond doubt, but what Trump would need to do to win a legal case would be to prove that in doing so, the BBC defamed him.
And this is where the president is likely to come unstuck in court.
“Trump does not have a case if this were to go to court,” Lewis says.
“According to every legal analysis I have read, the BBC would win.”
"Yes, it is true that the BBC, in that Panorama program, misrepresented what he said that day – but it did not misrepresent what he did that day."
“He did lie about the election. He did encourage those people to do what they did, not through an explicit call to arms, but in everything that he said about that election,” Lewis adds.
“Quite frankly, on January the sixth, Donald Trump does not have a reputation to defame.”
Emily Maitlis says there are also serious doubts over whether a BBC documentary would have changed anyone’s minds in America – a place where its iPlayer streaming service is not even available, on an incident that occurred four years prior.
“The Panorama episode went out more than a year ago for the first time. Trump didn't see that piece a year ago. He didn't care about Panorama. He didn't worry about an edit a year ago,” she says.
“He cannot say that his chances in the 2024 election were materially damaged by the Panorama edit.
“On a very strict question of whether he could even take this case very far, it would be quite an uphill struggle.”
'Donald Trump wants licence-fee payers' money'
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, tells The News Agents he hopes the BBC fights Trump in court.
"This is one of the most outrageous examples I've ever seen of foreign interference in our media and in our politics," Davey says.
"I hope not just the BBC, but also the Prime Minister, tells the White House to back off. They're coming, not just for the BBC, but for licence fee payers. What Trump is essentially saying is he wants the licence fee payers to give him money.
"He was egged-on in that by Nigel Farage. So all those Reform voters, or people thinking about voting for Nigel Farage, let them ask Nigel why he wants them to pay their licence fee to Donald Trump."
Davey describes Trump as a "classic bully", and believes the BBC has an "extraordinarily strong" case to push back against his legal threats.
What does the BBC do next – and why it matters
Trump has given the BBC a tight deadline to respond to his demands – but its response may have bigger implications than simply determining the future of the broadcaster.
“If the BBC does settle, how would it sell to the licence-fee payer that we have made Donald Trump richer?” Jon asks.
“Fearless journalism is what terrifies politicians, and it must not be cowed."
Trump has been joined by the likes of Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees Mogg and even the Russian embassy in calls for the end of the BBC as we know it.
“Jacob Rees Mogg presents a programme on GB News, and would very much like GB News to overtake the BBC as the 'broadcaster of record’,” says Emily.
“Rees Mogg would like to call himself a British patriot – except when it involves Donald Trump or GB News, at which point he'd much prefer to see the BBC sunk. He'd much prefer to see Donald Trump triumph.”
Trump’s ultimate goal, and that of the MAGA movement, Lewis adds, is to rewrite history to suggest what happened on January 6 was neither an insurrection, nor was it caused by Donald Trump, and that is what this legal threat is really about.
"If the BBC just backs down, they will be playing into and legitimising an entirely false and fake narrative of events," he says.
"And frankly, if the BBC does that, then it doesn't deserve to survive."