"President deeply concerned by purposeful, dishonest editing", says WH Press Sec Leavitt amid BBC row

While responding to a media query on the BBC on Wednesday, Leavitt said, "The President has made it very clear that this (BBC) is a leftist propaganda machine that is unfortunately subsidised by British taxpayers. And he thinks that's extremely unfortunate for the great people of the United Kingdom and Great Britain."

She added, "I think that the President was deeply concerned by the purposeful and dishonest editing of his speech that was so clearly fake news, and he rightfully dubbed that term many years ago-- this is a classic example of that. We see it in the United States all the time. We see it now in the United Kingdom. As you know, the president's external legal counsel has filed a lawsuit against the BBC. We expect that to continue. And whether they apologise or not is up to them."

On November 10, US President Donald Trump came down heavily on top BBC executives who resigned after reports had emerged of tampering with his speech delivered in 2021.

Calling his speech delivered in January 2021, "good" and "perfect", the US President, in a post on Truth Social, called the action "a terrible thing for democracy".

He said, "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!"

Two top executives at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) resigned on Sunday amid an escalating scandal over impartiality and bias, as reported by CNN.

Director-General Tim Davie and the chief executive of the news division, Deborah Turness, both quit, CNN said after the leak of a memo which revealed that the BBC had misleadingly edited a speech by US President Donald Trump to make it appear that he had directly called for violence on January 6, 2021.

According to CNN, which cited BBC, Davie announced he was resigning as director general of the British broadcaster in a note sent to staff on Sunday afternoon and said that his resignation was "entirely my decision."

Turness, who was also stepping down, 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," in a statement on the BBC website, as noted by CNN.

"While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong," she added.

CNN reported that the resignations come after an internal whistleblowing memo seen by British newspaper, The Telegraph, revealed the BBC had broadcast a "doctored" Trump speech, making it seem that he encouraged Capitol Hill rioters, telling them he was going to walk with them to "fight like hell."

In fact, Trump said in his speech in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 that "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women", CNN said.

Citing the leaked internal memo, CNN said that the documentary made the US president appear to say things he never actually said by splicing footage together. (ANI)