The BBC has admitted “errors” in its reporting about critiques of Liz Cheney made by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has already threatened to sue the British public broadcaster for misleading edits.
While the BBC has not issued a public correction, an internal memo has reportedly admitted that it spread inaccurate claims about President Trump and his longstanding feud with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, London’s Daily Telegraph reported.
Shortly before voters went to the polls for the 2024 presidential elections in the United States, a presenter for BBC World News America claimed that Trump “appeared to suggest Liz Cheney should face a firing squad for her stance on foreign policy.”
BBC North America editor Sarah Smith is also quoted as accusing Trump of “ratcheting up the violent rhetoric,” adding: “In the latest spat, Donald Trump has been accused of being petty, vindictive and a wannabe tyrant because he suggested that one of his political opponents should face guns, have them trained on her face.”
However, in reality, then-candidate Trump merely made the so-called ‘chicken hawk’ argument about the Cheney heir, accusing the former Vice President’s daughter of advocating for war while remaining safe at home.
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her face. OK? Let’s see how she feels about it,” he quipped.
Although the publicly-funded broadcaster did not issue a retraction, an internal memo reportedly admitted that they had covered the comments falsely.
“BBC News accepted that the Liz Cheney story was not covered accurately by the BBC, and the EGSC [editorial guidelines and standards committee] concluded errors were made on this specific issue,” the memo is quoted as saying.
The memo was complied by the director of the editorial complaints unit Peter Johnston and submitted to the BBC board in October.
It was produced in the wake of a dossier from former independent ethics advisor Michael Prescott accused the broadcaster of having “materially misled” its audience by splicing two sections of President Trump’s speech in Washington DC on January 6th to falsely imply that he had urged supporters to “fight” at the Capitol.
The Johnston memo found that BBC staff maintain they were not acting out of an anti-Trump bias, however, the broadcaster was forced to issuance a formal apology and both BBC Director General Tim Davie and the CEO of News, Deborah Turness resigned in disgrace following the revelations.
Regardless, President Trump has said that he plans on suing the BBC for up to $5 billion. He said last month that he feels an “obligation” to do so because “if you don’t do it, you don’t stop it from happening again with other people.”
A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC has published Peter Johnston’s note, which is a public acknowledgement of these matters, and we’ve made clear that we will be publishing a more detailed analysis in due course.”
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