Brendan Carr, head of FCC, asks if programme ever aired in US which is seen as key to any future litigation
A US media regulator led by a close ally of Donald Trump is examining whether an edition of the BBC’s Panorama broke US regulations in the way it edited one of the president’s speeches.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), led by Brendan Carr, has written to the BBC’s outgoing director general, Tim Davie, asking whether the programme was ever aired in the US.
Davie and the head of BBC News, Deborah Turness, resigned after complaints about the show by a former independent adviser to the broadcaster. The BBC has since apologised for splicing two clips of a speech Trump made before the Capitol riots in January 2021.
Trump has since threatened to sue the corporation in Florida for up to $5bn (£3.8bn), though no case has yet been filed. The BBC’s chair, Samir Shah, has told staff the BBC is “determined to fight” Trump’s claims that the programme defamed him.
