Embarrassment at NBC as Former NBC News President Turned CEO of BBC News Resigns After Brutal Report on Far Left Bias

The chief executive of BBC News, Deborah Turness, is out amid the uproar over the British network’s misleading edit of President Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech and allegations of a pervasive, liberal bias, marking another embarrassment for the former NBC News president. Ms. Turness made history after she was named the president of NBC News in 2013, marking the first time a woman led an American network news division. Her tenure was marred by scandals, such as her controversial call to suspend and not fire Brian Williams for falsely claiming he was in a helicopter that was forced down by enemy fire in Iraq in 2003, among other deceptions. The former NBC executive turned head of the BBC is in the spotlight again after she resigned following outrage over the British broadcaster’s investigative documentary series, “Panorama,” and its editing of Mr. Trump’s speech on January 6. An internal dossier, which has been leaked to the public, focused on allegations of bias at the BBC. The document, compiled by a former journalist and advisor to the BBC, Michael Prescott, said that the “Panorama” special titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” was “neither balanced nor impartial.”According to Mr. Prescott’s dossier, Ms. Turness “tried to justify the doctored video and mangled timeline of the day by citing the US Congressional Committee on Trump’s role in the January 6th riots.”“This was a Democrat-packed Committee, not an objective source of truth. I can see no justification for editing video clips so that a presidential candidate appears to say something he never did – and this defence did nothing to change my mind,” the memo states. While Ms. Turness defended the edit, Mr. Prescott writes that the episode “seemed to be taking a distinctly anti-Trump stance. Critics of the Republican presidential candidate vastly outnumbered those who argued for him.”He noted that the “Panorama” episode “spliced together two clips from separate parts of his speech” and “created the impression that Trump said something he did not and, in doing so, materially misled viewers.” The clip left out Mr. Trump’s call for his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”Mr. Prescott also said, “Trump’s ‘speech’ clip was followed by video footage of the Proud Boys marching towards Congress. This created the impression Trump’s supporters had taken up his ‘call-to-arms’.”Mr. Prescott said in his dossier that he raised concerns over the editing in the “Panorama” documentary to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board, EGSC. However, he said his concerns were dismissed. The network’s global director, Jonathan Munro, told Mr. Prescott that there was “no attempt to mislead the audience about the content or nature of Mr Trump’s speech before the riot at the Capitol.”Mr. Trump sent a letter to the BBC demanding a retraction of the documentary, an apology, and compensation for harm caused by what he says are “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory” statements about him. He is threatening to sue the network for “no less than” $1 billion if it does not comply by November 14. Mr. Prescott’s memo also said that top executives at the BBC dismissed other allegations of bias and defended the network’s coverage. On gender issues, Mr. Prescott said he was “told that time and time again the LGBTQ desk staffers would decline to cover any story raising difficult questions about the trans-debate.”“The allegation made to me was stark: that the desk had been captured by a small group of people promoting the Stonewall view of the debate and keeping other perspectives off-air. Individual programmes had come to lack their own reporters as a counterweight,” the dossier reads.Mr. Prescott also detailed allegations of anti-Israel bias at the BBC and BBC Arabic. He noted that on the day of Hamas’s October 7 attack, the BBC News English website had 19 articles about hostages taken by Hamas, while there were none on BBC Arabic’s website. “By contrast, every critical article about Israel that appeared on BBC News English website was replicated by BBC Arabic,” he wrote. He added, “Claims against Israel seem to be raced to air or online without adequate checks, evidencing either carelessness or a desire always to believe the worst about Israel.”Mr. Prescott warned members of the EGSC that there are “systemic issues with the BBC’s coverage” of American elections, race and gender issues, and Israel, which “could be even more widespread than this summary might suggest.”In the conclusion of his dossier, he said he was “surprised just how defensive” Ms. Turness and Mr. Munro have been “whenever issues are raised.”Ms. Turness defended the BBC, telling reporters that she believes the network is “not institutionally biased.” Instead, she dismissed allegations of bias as the result of “mistakes.”While Ms. Turness’ resignation shocked the media world, commentators were not surprised.A far-left media commentator and former MSNBC host, Keith Olbermann, wrote on X, “What? Deborah Turness helped eff up ANOTHER news organization, @BBCNews? Nobody here who saw her at NBC News could’ve imagined this. And when I say ‘nobody’ in fact I mean everybody.”A former Trump White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, wrote on X, “After being canned by NBC in the US — Deborah Turness moved to the UK to lead the BBC – and has been canned there as well.”Ms. Turness left her job at NBC News in 2017 to become the president of NBC News International.Her tenure was marred by controversy, such as her decision not to fire Mr. Williams after it was disclosed he falsely said a helicopter he was in while he was covering the war in Iraq was hit by enemy fire and forced down. Instead of firing him, the network suspended him for six months. However, he was stripped of his gig as the host of the “Nightly News” and given the less prestigious role of hosting “The 11th Hour” on MSNBC. In 2021, he left MSNBC, ending nearly three decades with NBC. Ms. Turness was essentially demoted in 2015 when NBC brought back Andrew Lack as the head of the news division and he operated without Mr. Turness’s input. She was also at NBC, in a greatly diminished role, in 2016 when the Washington Post broke the news of the existence of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, which NBC had in its possession.NBC News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication. The BBC did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Embarrassment at NBC as Former NBC News President Turned CEO of BBC News Resigns After Brutal Report on Far Left Bias

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