The BBC is facing renewed scrutiny after fresh allegations that Newsnight aired doctored footage of a Donald Trump speech, igniting a second editing controversy just as the broadcaster attempts to settle a threatened billion-dollar lawsuit from the former US president.
The new claims, reported by The Telegraph, point to a 2022 episode that spliced sections of Trump’s January 6 address nearly an hour apart – creating the impression he urged supporters to riot.
The revelations land at a sensitive moment for the corporation, following the high-profile resignations of director-general Tim Davie and BBC News chief Deborah Turness after Panorama was found to have aired a similarly edited version of the same speech.
🚨BREAKING: The Telegraph has revealed that the BBC edited Trump’s speech *A SECOND TIME* on Newsnight!
They even ignored concerns that were raised about it. They deliberately misled the public.
It just gets worse for the BBC.
Absolute disgrace. pic.twitter.com/7cHpl1VIK8— Lee Harris (@addicted2newz) November 13, 2025
Two edits, one speech, mounting fallout
According to whistleblowers quoted in The Telegraph, concerns about the 2022 Newsnight edit were raised at the time but dismissed on air by host Kirsty Wark and again the following day in editorial discussions.
A former White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, publicly called out the splice during the original broadcast, telling the program the “fight like hell” line appeared much later in Trump’s speech.
The disclosure risks widening the BBC’s editorial crisis.
The Newsnight clip predates Panorama’s edit by more than two years, challenging the notion that Panorama’s version was an isolated mistake.
A separate whistleblower involved in the program told The Telegraph’s Daily T podcast the concerns were “ignored”, while a leaked internal dossier has already triggered accusations of broader bias – claims the BBC continues to deny.
Director-general Tim Davie, and head of news Deborah Turness
Lawsuit pressure builds
The corporation has now apologised to Trump over the Panorama edit, with the broadcaster saying it “sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited” while rejecting the basis for a defamation claim.
BBC chair Samir Shah has issued a personal letter of apology and confirmed the program will not air again.
Trump’s legal team escalated the pressure following the Newsnight revelations, saying it is “now clear that BBC engaged in a pattern of defamation”.
The BBC has until Friday to respond to a legal letter alleging “overwhelming financial and reputational harm”.
At a White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the BBC as a “leftist propaganda machine” funded by British taxpayers and called the Panorama edit a “classic example” of “fake news”.
She added: “Whether they apologise or not is up to them – the lawsuit will continue.”
Leadership instability and next steps
The emerging timeline is likely to raise further questions about Jonathan Munro, Turness’s former deputy, now overseeing BBC News.
Munro was interim director of news and current affairs at the time Newsnight aired the disputed edit, holding ultimate responsibility for the program’s editorial output.
While the BBC says it is now reviewing the newly surfaced clip, the dual controversies have plunged the broadcaster into one of its most destabilising editorial crises in recent memory.