Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to executives at the BBC, NPR and PBS on Wednesday announcing that the agency has launched a probe into the BBC’s alleged deceptive editing of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
The letter obtained by Fox News Digital was addressed to BBC Director-General Tim Davie, NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger, asserting that the British public broadcaster was “caught intentionally distorting a speech that President Trump gave in January of 2021.”
Carr noted that PBS and NPR were included in the letter because the two American outlets air BBC programming to their audiences.
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“As you know, the BBC was recently caught intentionally distorting a speech that President Trump gave in January of 2021,” the letter began. “It did so by splicing together one portion of the speech with an entirely separate portion of the speech that came 54 minutes later. In doing so, the BBC program depicts President Trump voicing a sentence that, in fact, he never uttered.”
“That would appear to meet the very definition of publishing a materially false and damaging statement,” Carr continued.
The FCC chairman quoted Michael Prescott, a former independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee, who told the BBC that its decision “created the impression that Trump said something he did not and, in doing so, materially misled viewers.”
“Likewise, the Prescott Report states that the BBC program was ‘neither balanced nor impartial — it seemed to be taking a distinctly anti-Trump stance.’ In sum, it was a ‘distortion of the day’s events,’” the letter continued.
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Although the BBC’s previous director-general and CEO have resigned, and the outlet has issued an apology, Carr noted that “concerns remain.”
Turning his focus to U.S. broadcasters in partnership with the BBC, Carr inquired whether the British broadcaster provided NPR or PBS with “the video or audio of the spliced speech,” and if so, requested that the American outlets provide the FCC with “transcripts and video of any such broadcasts of the relevant program.”
“As you may know, broadcasters regulated by the FCC have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest. Those public interest requirements include prohibitions on news distortion and broadcast hoax. After all, the FCC has stated that ‘rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest.'”
“I am committed to holding broadcasters accountable to their public interest obligations, and your prompt response will help aid me in that effort,” the letter concluded.
The FCC did not issue any further comment to Fox News Digital regarding Carr’s letter to the BBC, NPR and PBS.
When contacted by Fox News Digital for comment, the BBC confirmed receipt of the letter and referred to its public statement. NPR and PBS did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Last week, the British news organization was hit with criticism over a BBC “Panorama” documentary about Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech that he delivered before the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Critics believe the documentary was misleading because it omitted Trump urging supporters to protest “peacefully,” and stitched together remarks the president made nearly an hour apart to make it appear like one long statement.
The BBC apologized to Trump last week and said it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary, but stopped short of admitting to defaming the president. “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim,” a BBC spokesperson said.
This prompted Trump to tell reporters on Air Force One on Friday that he planned to take legal action.
“We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and $5 billion probably sometime next week,” Trump said.
Trump’s legal team has not contacted the BBC about any potential lawsuit since the president’s comments, according to the network.
“We have had no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point. Our position remains the same,” a BBC spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Monday.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team referred Fox News Digital to Trump’s Air Force One comments, implying a lawsuit remained imminent.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
