At GB News, Ben Leo and Bev Turner discuss with an American guest the now-notorious Panorama edit of Donald Trump’s speech from 6 January 2021:
Guest: That clip was used to cancel the president’s bank accounts, his social media accounts, to completely go after his businesses, his privately owned businesses, so absolutely I think that he should sue and I think he’ll win.
Ben Leo: Yeah, absolutely, Tony, that’s such a good point. What we’re forgetting in this conversation, in this scandal, the severity and the context of that clip. It was a massive, massive occasion. He was cancelled, they tried to jail him for it…
Bev Turner: He was impeached, of course for that, and he was cleared in the end.
This, of course, is a ludicrous misrepresentation of the timeline: the Panaroma documentary, called “Trump: A Second Chance?”, was broadcast in late October 2024, and as such had absolutely no bearing on the difficulties faced by Trump in 2021 as a result of the attack on the Capitol.
The reason the Panorama edit went unnoticed and unremarked until recently is because it aligned with the general view of Trump’s culpability that was formed at the time, based on reports across the media in both the UK and the US. Here’s Boris Johnson on 7 January 2021, for instance:
in so far as he encouraged people to storm the Capitol, and in so far as the president has consistently cast doubt on the outcome of a free and fair election, I believe that was completely wrong.
I believe what President Trump has been saying about that has been completely wrong and I unreservedly condemn encouraging people to behave in the disgraceful way that they did in the Capitol.
And Piers Morgan, the day before:
My god.. Trump supporters have stormed the US Capitol building. Never seen anything like this… scary situation, all driven by President @realDonaldTrump ’s insane behaviour & rhetoric. Shameful.
These quotes are now current again as part of the discussion on Twitter/X (here and here), but in both cases it has been suggested in response by some users that they perhaps reflect a false impression that was created by the BBC. The implied argument may be that the Panorama clip is indicative of earlier BBC coverage, but based on the GB News exchange it is reasonable to suppose that some people are simply confused about when the documentary aired and hold it responsible for events that occurred in 2021. This is despite the fact that Trump’s lawyer’s letter to the BBC refers to broadcast just before the 2024 US elections as grounds for complaint.
As part of the controversy, GB News was recently commended to the British public by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Bev Turner is also known to Trump, although he declined to be drawn when she recently attempted to elicit an attack on Keir Starmer on grounds of religion.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »
