The BBC Under Fire
President Trump is threatening to sue, and that’s just one of the broadcaster’s problems.
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The BBC’s biggest crisis in decades
It is tempting to view the sudden resignation of two top BBC executives on Sunday evening, in the wake of scathing criticism by the Trump administration, as an extension of the pressure that President Trump has put on news media organizations in the U.S.
The executives resigned after a leaked memo said the BBC had misleadingly edited a speech by Trump that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, splicing together comments that were actually about 50 minutes apart.
But the British Broadcasting Corporation is not CBS or ABC, both of which settled lawsuits brought by Trump over their coverage of him. Its current crisis — the gravest the BBC has faced in decades — is less about Trump, experts say, than about the insoluble tensions of a renowned public service broadcaster operating in a bitterly divided world.
Vilified by political enemies who accuse it of chronic bias — in this case, to the left — and targeted by rival news organizations who resent its public funding, the BBC is a perennial football in Britain’s political contests. With its global reach, it regularly runs afoul of foreign governments as well, including in India and the U.S.
A string of headaches
The Jan. 6 documentary was the immediate catalyst, but the departures of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and the chief executive of BBC News, Deborah Turness, follow a string of disputes over the broadcaster’s coverage of other sensitive issues, including the Israel-Hamas war and transgender rights.
Davie, a longtime BBC executive whose roots are in marketing, not journalism, has had to weather one crisis after another since he was named director general in 2020.
He has been criticized for failing to act more swiftly in the case of a BBC anchor accused of sexual misconduct. He also faced a mutiny after suspending a popular soccer broadcaster who had likened the Conservative government’s policy for asylum seekers to Germany in the 1930s.
In 2024, Davie was back under a microscope for what critics said was a failure to deal with charges of unwelcome physical conduct and inappropriate language toward colleagues by the presenter of MasterChef, Gregg Wallace.
The Israel-Hamas war brought a fresh raft of headaches. A 2025 documentary, “Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone,” came under fierce criticism after it emerged that the father of the 13-year-old narrator was a Hamas official. Davie pulled the film from BBC’s iPlayer service, saying he had lost faith in it.
Last summer, Davie was again on the defensive when the BBC did not cut away from Bob Vylan, an English punk rap duo, after they led a crowd at the Glastonbury Festival in chanting, “death to the I.D.F.,” referring to the Israeli military.
The Trump factor
Even before Trump entered the fray, the BBC was regularly targeted by Conservatives like Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister. He recently called for heads to roll as a result of the Jan. 6 documentary.
Nigel Farage, the right-wing populist who leads the anti-immigrant party Reform U.K., accused the BBC of “election interference.” He said he discussed the matter with Trump last Friday, and that the U.S. president had made his feelings known in “not a quotable form.”
Despite the constant din of criticism, the BBC is more trusted among viewers than the major American networks, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. During Davie’s tenure, it has also prospered in entertainment programming.
The British government has offered the BBC qualified support, though Trump’s role in the drama has put Prime Minister Keir Starmer in an awkward spot. He has tried to avoid conflict with Trump on issues like tariffs and the war in Ukraine. On Monday, senior officials portrayed the outcry as a “teachable moment” for the broadcaster. Even the BBC’s staunchest defenders agreed.
“What’s best for the BBC is to have a reset and address these issues,” said Claire Enders, a media analyst in London. “For the BBC to manifest political bias is the most dangerous thing it could do in this world.”
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U.S. Senate passed a deal to reopen the government
The Senate passed legislation yesterday to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, after a splinter group of Democrats broke with their party to stand with Republicans. The bill passed without a key health care concession that Democrats had spent weeks demanding.
The measure now goes to the House, which could take it up as soon as today. But the small Republican margin of control there, and intense Democratic opposition, could make for a close vote. Trump has indicated that he will sign the bill.
The U.S. government has been shut down for more than 40 days, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, millions of Americans at risk of losing food assistance and millions more facing air-travel disruptions.
OTHER NEWS
President Ahmed al-Shara of Syria met with Trump yesterday. He was the first Syrian head of state to visit the White House.
Ukraine’s anticorruption agencies said they had uncovered a major kickbacks scheme involving the state-owned nuclear energy company.
France’s former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was granted conditional release from prison.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to consider overturning its landmark 2015 decision to legalize same-sex marriage.
A car exploded in a crowded neighborhood of New Delhi during the evening rush hour, killing at least eight people.
Kenyan women who had babies out of wedlock while working in Saudi Arabia are marginalized and cannot leave the country, a New York Times investigation found.
SPORTS
Tennis: The WTA Tour season concluded with a thrilling clash of styles.
Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton called his first season with Ferrari “a nightmare.”
MEME OF THE DAY
“6-7”
— The catchy phrase popping up in classrooms and online has taken on a life of its own with Gen Alpha and Gen Z, even if its precise meaning is a bit of a mystery.
David Szalay’s “Flesh” won this year’s Booker Prize, beating the odds-on favorite, “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” by Kiran Desai, and four other shortlisted titles. “Flesh” tells the story of Istvan, a lonely Hungarian teenager who makes an unexpected rise to the height of British society.
Roddy Doyle, the author and chair of this year’s judging panel, called it a “singular” and “extraordinary” novel. “It’s just not like any other book,” he said. Read more.
What they’re watching … in Mexico
Juan Gabriel, a pop music legend in Mexico, has been dead for nearly a decade. But Gabriel, also known as the “Divo of Juárez,” is still drawing huge crowds. This weekend, a landmark concert that he gave in 1990 was screened in Mexico City’s central plaza and more than 170,000 people turned out.
The performance, recorded at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, a grand concert hall that had long been the preserve of symphonies, was a big moment for Gabriel. He sang in a sequined mariachi suit alongside the National Symphony Orchestra, to both shock and delight.
On Saturday, when the song “Amor Eterno” began to play, everyone cried, even the event’s security guards. “He’s my idol,” said one fan. “He changed culture. He changed music.” Read more.
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RECIPE
Hasselback potatoes are said to have been invented at Hasselbacken restaurant in Stockholm in the 1950s. The potatoes are thinly sliced, making for crispy edges and tender insides. Watch J. Kenji López-Alt make his Hasselback potato gratin.
Can you guess where this countryside is?
TIME TO PLAY
Here are today’s Spelling Bee, Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.
You’re done for today. See you tomorrow! — Katrin
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