Troubles Mount for the BBC

Tim Davie, the head of the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation, and Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News (and, formerly, the president of NBC News, from 2013 to 2017), announced their resignations on Sunday.

The reason for their departure was the latest in a series of scandals that has rocked the BBC this year. The Telegraph reported last week on a leaked dossier — compiled by journalist Michael Prescott, who had been hired to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines — which revealed that Davie and Turness had been informed last May that a BBC documentary had been edited to make it appear as though Donald Trump had explicitly encouraged the Capitol Hill rioters of January 2021. Prescott accused the corporation of “serious and systemic” bias. He also criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues, as well as the network’s anti-Israel bias evident in the BBC Arabic service. In February, the broadcasting regulator Ofcom had slammed the network for a documentary about Gaza that featured a child narrator who turned out to be the son of a Hamas official.

About the Author

John Fund

John Fund is National Review’s national-affairs reporter.

Featured Tags

Tim Davie, the head of the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation, and Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News (and, formerly, the president of NBC News, from 2013 to 2017), announced their resignations on Sunday.

The reason for their departure was the latest in a series of scandals that has rocked the BBC this year. The Telegraph reported last week on a leaked dossier — compiled by journalist Michael Prescott, who had been hired to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines — which revealed that Davie and Turness had been informed last May that a BBC documentary had been edited to make it appear as though Donald Trump had explicitly encouraged the Capitol Hill rioters of January 2021. Prescott accused the corporation of “serious and systemic” bias. He also criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues, as well as the network’s anti-Israel bias evident in the BBC Arabic service. In February, the broadcasting regulator Ofcom had slammed the network for a documentary about Gaza that featured a child narrator who turned out to be the son of a Hamas official.