BBC execs step down after network accused of deceptive edit of Trump’s January 6 speech
Tim DAvie. Photo by Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images
Davie issued a memo to his staff on Saturday and claimed that it was completely his decision to step down.
“I wanted to let you know that I have decided to leave the BBC after 20 years. This is entirely my decision,” Davie wrote, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The director said he had been reflecting on the “very intense personal and professional demands” that come with his role and claimed that “in these increasingly polarized times, the BBC is of unique value and speaks to the very best of us.”
Without directly mentioning the video editing controversy, Davie called the BBC a “critical ingredient of a healthy society.”
‘As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me.’
Turness, however, was openly self-deprecating in her decision to resign.
“The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC — an institution that I love,” she wrote in a memo. “As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me — and I took the decision to offer my resignation to the Director-General last night.”
She added that “in public life, leaders” must be “fully accountable, and that is why I am stepping down.”
Still, Turness said despite the mistakes, any “allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”
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CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness, October 13, 2022 in London, England. Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images
As the BBC is a government-run institution, the ruling Labour Party chimed in on the controversy.
“I want to thank Tim Davie for his service to public service broadcasting over many years. He has led the BBC through a period of significant change and helped the organization to grip the challenges it has faced in recent years,” said U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.
Nandy said the BBC charter, which defines “Object, Mission and Public Purposes” for the organization, will be reviewed to help the BBC “adapt to this new era” and secure its role at the “heart of national life” for the future.
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