The White House has accused the BBC of producing "fake news" amid claims the broadcaster edited a speech by US President Donald Trump.
Karoline Leavitt, the US President's press secretary, said taxpayers in Britain are being "forced to foot the bill for a leftist propaganda machine" as she delivered her damning verdict on the BBC.
She told The Telegraph: "This purposefully dishonest, selectively edited clip by the BBC is further evidence that they are total, 100 per cent fake news that should no longer be worth the time on the television screens of the great people of the United Kingdom.
"Every time I travel to the United Kingdom with President Trump and am forced to watch the BBC in our hotel rooms it ruins my day listening to their blatant propaganda and lies about the president of the United States and all that he’s doing to make America better and the world a safer place."
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The BBC allegedly edited a speech by Donald Trump in a documentary broadcast the week before last year's US election
|REUTERS
A leaked memo compiled by former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, Michael Prescott, claimed the broadcaster edited a speech by President Trump in a documentary broadcast the week before last year’s US election.
The programme allegedly spliced clips together from sections of his speech on January 6, 2021, to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to "fight like hell".
Mr Trump instead insisted that he would walk with his supporters "to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard".
The 19-page dossier concluded that Panorama had made Mr Trump "say things [he] never actually said" by "mangling" footage from the start of his speech with a segment from nearly an hour later.
Ofcom chair Lord Michael Grade has written to BBC chairman Samir Shah "to seek assurances" that Mr Prescott's concerns were being "considered seriously".
Typically, the communications regulator can only consider complaints made about the BBC where the complainant has completed the broadcaster's own complaints process first.
The BBC's Arabic news channel has also been accused of having "minimised Israeli suffering" in the war against Gaza in order to "paint Israel as the aggressor", according to a leaked internal report.
Claims and allegations against Israel were said to have been "raced to air" without appropriate checks, while BBC Arabic gave more time to statements from Hamas.
A committee of MPs has written to the BBC's chairman demanding information about the way the speech was edited
| GETTYA committee of MPs has written to Mr Shah demanding information about the way Mr Trump's speech was edited in the Panorama episode.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has asked the BBC's chairman what actions he will take to address the specific concerns raised and to request a copy of the memo on impartiality by Mr Prescott.
Dame Caroline, who signed the letter on behalf of the committee, said: "The BBC clearly has serious questions to answer regarding both its editorial standards and the way in which concerns are handled by senior management.
"The corporation must set the benchmark for accurate and fair reporting, especially in a media landscape where it is all too easy to find news presented in a less than impartial way.
"The committee needs to be reassured that those at the very top of the BBC are treating these issues with the seriousness they deserve and taking decisive steps to uphold the corporation’s reputation for integrity and public trust."
The BBC said it will respond to the committee’s letter directly.
A spokesman for the broadcaster said: "While we don’t comment on leaked documents, when the BBC receives feedback it takes it seriously and considers it carefully.
"Michael Prescott is a former adviser to a board committee where differing views and opinions of our coverage are routinely discussed and debated."
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch urged BBC director-general Tim Davie to sack the person responsible for the video.
She told GB News: “It’s absolutely shocking. That is fake news.
"Actually putting different things together to try and make something look different from what it actually was.
“And I do think heads should roll. Whoever it was who did that should be sacked."
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