Michael Prescott’s leaked memo elevating issues over BBC impartiality has introduced down two of its high bosses.
US President Donald Trump has swiftly weighed in to model the company “corrupt” and “dishonest”.
With the BBC now in disaster, who’s the person who began all of it?
Michael Prescott
An ex-journalist, Michael Prescott was an unbiased adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Tips and Requirements Board for 3 years earlier than leaving in June.
Learning at Oxford, he labored for 17 years as a journalist, with a decade spent working on the Sunday Instances, initially as chief political correspondent earlier than rising to political editor.
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Mr Prescott has additionally labored in a sequence of company advisory roles – as company affairs director for BT, the place he helped launch BT Sport and was a part of the telecoms firm’s merger with EE.
Forward of that, he was managing director of company communications and public affairs at world PR firm Weber Shandwick, the place he suggested organisations together with Virgin Media, Balfour Beatty, British Nuclear Fuels, MasterCard, IKEA, air site visitors management physique NATS and quite a few universities.
He at present holds roles at Hanover Communications, a global communications and PR company.
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Ridge and Frost evaluation on what’s subsequent for BBC
Mr Prescott can also be a member of the federal government’s Advisory Committee on Enterprise Appointments, providing unbiased recommendation to the Prime Minister, amongst others.
What did his memo say?
The memo, despatched in the summertime by Michael Prescott, a former exterior adviser to the BBC’s editorial requirements committee, highlighted the edit of a Donald Trump speech in addition to different issues about impartiality.
The issues regard clips spliced collectively from sections of a speech made by the US president on 6 January 2021, featured within the Panorama programme Trump: A Second Probability?
It made it seem that Mr Trump advised supporters he was going to stroll to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”, though the quotes had been made throughout separate elements of the speech.
Mr Prescott has stated he wrote a memo in “despair at inaction by the BBC Executive when issues come to light”.
He went on: “On no other occasion in my professional life have I witnessed what I did at the BBC with regard to how management dealt with (or failed to deal with) serious recurrent problems.”
His memo additionally raised issues about different areas of BBC output – together with protection of trans points, and the warfare in Gaza.
This memo was later leaked to The Telegraph, resulting in the disaster on the high of the BBC, leading to two resignations.
Who else is concerned?
Picture:
Tim Davie. Pic: PA
Tim Davie
Ex-BBC boss Tim Davie had earned himself the nickname Teflon Tim on account of his endurance by quite a few controversies. However now it appears he is seen one controversy too far.
Beforehand vice-president for advertising and franchise for drinks large PepsiCo Europe, he was made CBE in 2018 for companies to worldwide commerce.
Becoming a member of the BBC in 2005, he rose to the highest place of director-general in 15 years.
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Why ‘Teflon Tim’ resigned from BBC
Controversies he beforehand weathered embrace former Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker’s 2023 temporary suspension, Gregg Wallace’s sacking and Bob Vylan’s 2025 Glastonbury set.
Earlier this 12 months, the breaching of the BBC’s Broadcasting Code over documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone dented the company’s popularity additional, adopted by the edit of Donald Trump’s 6 January 2021 speech in flagship present Panorama – which has provided the decisive blow.
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Watch: Outgoing BBC Information CEO rejects claims of bias
Deborah Turness
A linguist, Deborah Turness studied in Surrey, adopted by a postgraduate diploma in journalism in France, on the College of Bordeaux.
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What did the BBC do to anger Trump?
What has Donald Trump obtained to do with it?
Mr Davie’s and Ms Turness’s resignations come off the again of inner issues over the edit of a Donald Trump speech in an episode of the BBC’s Panorama programme.
The issues regard clips spliced collectively of the US president’s speech on January 6, 2021.
That was the day of the storming of the Capitol constructing in Washington by Trump supporters who believed the 2020 election had been stolen by Joe Biden.
The edit was a part of the documentary Trump: A Second Probability?, which was broadcast by the BBC earlier than final 12 months’s US elections.
Responding to the resignations, Mr Trump posted a prolonged assertion on Fact Social.
“The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught “doctoring” my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th,” he wrote.
“Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.’ These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!”
