ROGER KIMBALL: Doctored Footage Fallout: Trump vs. the BBC.
In the doctored clip, Trump is shown saying, “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be with you, and we’ll fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.” A leaked internal report on BBC bias noted that the doctored clip made Trump “ ‘say’ things [he] never actually said by splicing together footage from the start of his speech with something he said nearly an hour later.”
The BBC’s perfidy did not end with mangling the words Trump spoke. The program also featured scenes of angry, flag-waving men marching towards the Capitol, apparently spurred on by Trump’s pugilistic rhetoric. As that leaked report notes, this “created the impression Trump’s supporters had taken up his ‘call to arms.’” Unfortunately for that narrative, the footage was shot before Trump had even started speaking.
The New York Times was correct in describing this incident as “one of the worst crises in [the BBC’s] 103-year history.” It is also correct that it takes place against the background of a larger concern with “progressive” bias at the BBC. The government-licensed organization is supposed to be independent and nonpartisan. In fact, it has been a reliable purveyor of left-wing attitudes and talking points at least since the 1970s. Pick the topic: the war in Gaza, climate change, the debate over so-called “transgender” ideology, immigration, “Islamophobia,” or anything having to do with Donald Trump. You have only to name the subject and the players to know what line the BBC will be pushing.
And the Beeb goes on: White House fury at Trump ‘monster’ jibe in showpiece BBC lecture: US President ‘dubbed a fascist’ during flagship speech commissioned by broadcaster.
The row between the BBC and Donald Trump has escalated further after it was revealed the broadcaster commissioned a fierce critic of the US President to deliver its flagship annual lectures.
Dutch author Rutger Bregman used the high-profile events to draw parallels between Trump’s America and the rise of fascism in the 1930s.
In one talk, entitled A Time Of Monsters and due to air next week, he likened Mr Trump, Nigel Farage and tech billionaires such as Elon Musk to fascists, according to one audience member. He is said to have used the term ‘a bit fashy’ to describe them.
The BBC’s decision to invite Mr Bregman – who has previously described opposition to Mr Trump in the US as a fight between ‘good and evil’ – to deliver the showpiece Reith lectures will fuel ongoing accusations that the corporation has an institutional left-wing bias.
The White House tonight branded Mr Bregman ‘a rabid anti-Trump individual’.
So, so, “fashy:” The Speed At Which Federal Judges Are Waging Lawfare To Stop The Trump Administration is Jaw-Dropping.