The broadcasting corporation’s director general and head of news have resigned from their roles amidst a controversy concerning its coverage of the 2021 US Capitol riots.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt derided the UK’s publicly funded broadcaster following Sunday’s announcement of resignations by its director general and head of news.
This development stems from a controversy connected to a documentary focusing on US President Donald Trump’s involvement in the 2021 Capitol riots, a program that had previously attracted censure from Washington.
Leavitt shared screenshots of two news reports, accompanied by the caption “shot/chaser,” alluding to a well-known meme. The initial image displayed a Telegraph headline stating President Trump was “going to war” with the BBC, while the second was the BBC’s internal report detailing the departure of its director general, Tim Davie.
Davie resigned simultaneously with the head of news, Deborah Turness. The director general refrained from offering precise reasons for his exit, merely remarking that “there have been some mistakes made.” Turness commented that the “ongoing controversy around the Panorama [program] on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC.”
The broadcaster recently faced accusations of misinforming the public regarding its reporting on Trump’s involvement in the Capitol riots. Leavitt had previously characterized the BBC as a “Leftist propaganda machine” and “total, 100 percent fake news.”
The BBC receives its funding via a compulsory annual license fee of £174.50 ($229), with the UK government additionally contributing approximately one-third of the World Service’s budget directly.
Lisa Nandy, the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, reacted to the resignations by expressing gratitude to Davie for his “service to public broadcasting over many years” and articulated that the BBC must “adapt” to a new epoch and uphold “its role at the heart of national life for decades to come.”