Why is Trump suing the BBC? | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast on. YouTube, where we go behind the. headlines to find out more about a story. and why it matters. Today, we're going. to be discussing President Trump's. multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the. BBC. It's over the way a documentary. edited a speech he made before the riots. at the US capital on the 6th of January, 2021. The BBC has apologized, but says. there's no basis for a defamation claim. Let's speak now to our correspondent in.

Washington, Nomia Ikbal, and our UK. political correspondent, Rob Watson. Nomia, firstly, we're talking about a. huge amount of money here. What is. Donald Trump alleging the BBC has done? Well, in the lawsuit, he is basically. accusing the BBC of, to quote the. lawsuit, intentionally, maliciously, and. deceptively doctring his speech on. January the 6th outside the capital. So, this lawsuit, which was filed in federal. court in Miami, basically complains that.

the BBC, in the words of uh President. Trump, maliciously strung together two. comments uh that he made more than 54. minutes apart in order to convey the. impression that he'd urged his. supporters to engage in violence as. those electoral votes were being counted. to certify President Biden's election. victory. Now, um, just looking at the. lawsuit, I'm just going to quote you. what it says. Uh, it says, "It would. have been impossible for BBC's.

journalists and producers to splice. together two distinct parts of the. speech from nearly 55 minutes apart. unless they were acting intentionally.". It goes on to say, "Such a dramatic. distortion could never have occurred by. accident." So, basically, President. Trump is accusing the BBC of defaming. him. and he's filed this case in Florida. and a judge there is going to decide the. next steps. Why would he have taken the. decision to file the case there?

Well, I think the main reason is. probably because the UK's one-year. statute of limitations for defamation. has passed, whereas Florida offers a. 2year window. So, basically, there's. more time for them to compile the case. What's also interesting is that in the. in the lawsuit, uh, Donald Trump's. lawyers contend that the BBC shot many. of the scenes for that Panorama. documentary in Florida, and that's. around Donald Trump's Marilago estate in. Palm Beach. It's uh, where he lives. He.

is where he goes home over the weekends. Uh, the complaint also makes a point of. saying that the BBC has an office, which. we do, uh, in Coral Gables, that's just. south of Miami. So, I think it's. probably all those reasons why why they. have decided to to to file it in. Florida. >> And Rob, what's been the BBC's response. to this? >> So, Charlotte, the BBC says it will. defend the case. Now, that implies that. it will see, President Trump in court, but it strikes me, Charlotte, it also.

doesn't rule out the possibility of. there being some kind of settlement. between the two legal teams. But while. we're on the case, uh the BBC does say. whether this goes to court or not that. it it doesn't think there is a case to. answer. It has four defenses. Number. one, that it says the program couldn't. be legally seen in the United States. Uh. secondly, that there was no intent of. malice as the Trump team has suggested. Third, that it obviously didn't damage. President Trump's reputation. It wasn't.

um it didn't damage him because after. all, he was reelected. And then the. fourth one is just that the cover of. freedom of speech, which of course. freedom of speech laws are even more. generous in the United States than they. are here in the UK. >> I mean, whether the BBC wins or loses, this could still be really damaging for. the corporation, couldn't it? Well, it would certainly be worrying. potentially in terms of money because. again whether it goes to court or not if. you go to court and win. It would.

obviously cost a lot of money to the BBC. uh to hire a legal team in the United. States. I mean clearly if you lost uh. there would be uh legal costs to pay and. even if you were to settle out of court. that would imply some sort of transfer. of funds and and again the problem the. BBC faces is that whether it goes to. court or not uh President Trump is. President Trump is not popular at all in. the United Kingdom and the idea that the. BBC would have to pay over some of the. money that the uh people who watch the.

BBC or listen to the BBC or read the BBC. in the UK and who pay $233 $33 a year. for it. Uh that you'd have to pay some. money over to President Trump. My. goodness, that would be politically. unpalatable uh for the BBC. Although. clearly some money is going to have to. be spent somewhere. >> It's never a good time for this kind of. thing, but it couldn't really have come. at a worse time for the BBC given that. it's about to negotiate its charter with. the British government. >> The timing is absolutely not ideal, that's for sure, because one of the.

things that will be reviewed is how the. BBC is paid for. And interestingly, the. government is suggesting the BBC should. have more more funds. It should be it. should be able to compete with the big. boys like Netflix and Amazon Prime and. all those others. So, obviously, if the. BBC is going to have to pay some money. over to someone like President Trump. that BBC viewers, audiences have handed. over, that would not be popular. But. it's not all bad news because rather. interestingly the majority of. politicians in the UK who've spoken out.

on this Charlotte have spoken in defense. of the BBC and said look the BBC has. apologized for the edit edit but it. absolutely should stand up for itself in. court in the United States if it comes. to that that it should stand up to. President Trump and that Downing Street. the prime minister uh should back the. BBC and indeed there have been. suggestions that Sakir Starama should. call President Trump and say we're mates. call it off. We don't want you suing the. BBC because it's going to make lots of. people in Britain very unhappy and. poorer.

>> That would be a very like love actually. moment if that happened. Uh Nomia, this. won't obviously just impact the BBC. here. It could impact how other media. organizations in America deal with. President Trump. >> Maybe. I I think what I would say about. that is that President Trump doesn't. love the media. I mean, well, he has a. lovehate relationship with the media, I'd say. So he does this sort of thing. It's not unexpected. I mean, the list of. media organizations that he's gone after.

is pretty long. There's been various. outcomes. I mean, just to give you an. example, he he sued CBS, which is our. partner station last year, and this was. over an interview that CBS did with his. then rival, the presidential candidate, Camela Harris. and he basically said. that the interview was deceptively. edited in such a way that it tipped the. scales in favor of the Democratic party. Now, Paramount, which owns CBS, the. parent company, did settle for about $16. million, but they didn't express an.

apology. Um, and there's other examples. that CNN he went after in 2022, ABC News. in 2024, and he and he did reach. multi-million dollar settlements with. various outlets. And again, it was over false reporting, deceptive editing. He's got pending. lawsuits, I should add, against New York. Times and the Wall Street Journal. Donald Trump likes to sue. Um, it it's. something he did even before he became. president. I'm I'm sure you can trace it. right back to the late '7s. There's this.

sort of legendary tale that he went. after this late journalist called Wayne. Barrett, uh, who worked for the Village. Voice. You'll you'll have to search that. online. But the point is that that that. Donald Trump is doing something that is. that is not not shocking. It's not. unexpected. The BBC is just the latest. And. >> in terms of how it will affect us, well, I mean, I can tell you when when we go. into the Oval Office, when we go into. the cabinet meetings, when we're there. as the press pool, when you know, giving. press when he's giving press briefings,

um, as a journalist, you're always sort. of like you know, you're on your toes. with with President Trump. you know that. you can't just ask him a question and. he's not going to hit back at you or or. or try and you know throw you off course. in some ways. He has this sort of like. lovehate relationship with the press. So. I don't think that this particular. lawsuit against the BBC is going to. change a huge amount in terms of the. environment that that the media operate. here in in in the US with Donald Trump.

Um, as I said, he has this long history. of suing um, people, media. organizations. I think what what has. happened is that now he's president, the. leverage he has over the media has. increased exponentially. Nomia, thank. you and thanks to you as well, Rob. That. was Nomia Kabal and Rob Watson. And you. can hear more on this story on the. Global News podcast. You can listen. wherever you find your podcast. And if. you liked this, please subscribe to us.

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