London [UK], November 10 (HBTV): 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 Chief Executive of the news division Deborah Turness stepped down after a leaked memo revealed that the BBC had misleadingly edited a speech by former US President Donald Trump to make it appear as though he had directly called for violence on January 6, 2021.
According to CNN, Davie announced his resignation in a note to staff on Sunday afternoon, stating that his decision was ‘entirely my own’.
‘Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as Director-General I have to take ultimate responsibility,’ Davie said, as cited by CNN.
Turness, who also resigned, 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.’ She added, ‘The buck stops with me,’ and offered her resignation to Davie on Saturday.
‘While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear that recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong,’ she stated.
CNN reported that the resignations followed a whistleblowing memo obtained by The Telegraph, which revealed that the BBC had aired a ‘doctored’ version of Trump’s speech, making it appear that he encouraged the Capitol Hill rioters by telling them he was going to walk with them to ‘fight like hell’.
In reality, Trump said during his January 6, 2021 speech in Washington DC, ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,’ CNN noted.
The leaked internal memo, according to CNN, indicated that the documentary had spliced together sections of Trump’s remarks, creating the impression that he had said things he never actually did.
(ANI)