Trump’s assault on the Beeb is giving me the heebie-jeebies - Vladimir McTavish
As the nights grow longer, and the weather turns from bad to abysmal, this is definitely the time of year to settle in for a night in front of the telly.
I don’t know what’s on the BBC’s schedules this weekend, but let’s enjoy the Beeb while we still can. Because if Donald Trump gets his way, it may not be here for much longer.
One of the more ridiculous new stories of the week involves the President of the US threatening to sue the Corporation for $1 billion, due to a Panorama programme last autumn which he claims caused him reputational damage. Hang on, it can’t have damaged his reputation that much. It was broadcast in October 2024. Less than a month later, he won the presidential election by a landslide.
Trump has branded the BBC as “corrupt”. And admittedly the edit of his speech on the Panorama programme in question was crass, because we have all seen that speech before. Anyone with a brain and two eyes can make up their own mind about what happened and many people believe that Trump incited the attack on the Capitol. You really don’t need to go around doctoring video to help people come to that conclusion.
According to legal experts, in order to win his case Trump would have to prove that people in the USA actually watched that episode of Panorama. Given that very few people in the UK tuned in at the time, I would imagine that number to be minimal. Which leads to the impression that this is not about Trump’s reputation or about the money. Although a billion bucks can come in handy when you’re demolishing half your house to build a ballroom.
This should be seen as nothing less than an attack on freedom of the press in this country by a foreign government. And much of it has been fuelled here in the UK by Trump’s fellow travellers, such as Reform UK, The Daily Mail and GB News. Nigel Farage makes no secret of wanting to scrap the licence fee and effectively shut down the BBC.
And we heard this week that the corporation has been undermined from within by a member of its own board, Sir Robbie Gibb, a former adviser to Theresa May who was appointed to the BBC by Boris Johnson. When I read that, I’m sure I’m not the only person who thought “Robbie Gibb? Was he not one of the Bee Gees? And didn’t he die years ago?”
Trump has already thrown his weight about at the broadcast media back home, having sued both CBS News and ABC News for millions. The logical next step was to try to silence overseas broadcasters in countries where they speak the same language, and see how much he squeeze out of them.
For all its flaws, the BBC is an organisation that we should treasure. Its news reporting is the envy of the world, which is why Trump and Farage want to close it down. They have a gold standard track record in producing shows like Blue Lights, Strictly Come Dancing and The Traitors.
They also did a show a few years back called The Apprentice, which was a spin-off from the US version starring Donald Trump. Maybe the BBC should sue him for that damage to their reputation.