The BBC Under Fire - The New York Times
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Nov 11, 2025, 2:30:33 PMNov 11
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11/11/2025
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The BBC under fire
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 has 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.”
Le directeur général de la BBC, Tim Davie, ainsi que la patronne de l’information du grand média public britannique, vont démissionner, mis en
cause après le montage contesté d’un discours de Donald Trump, a annoncé ce dimanche 9 novembre 2025 soir la BBC à la Saint-Théo.
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Habimana IM
« Le mois de novembre est malsain :
il fait tousser dès la Toussaint.
C'est la Toux Sainte. »
Allez ! Bonne soirée et puis aussi bonne chance.
Tel un bijou d'émail, un crapaud bagué d'or,
11.11.2025
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