Were the situation not so serious it would be tempting to urge the BBC to take the fight to Donald Trump. The U.S. president is threatening to sue the British public broadcaster for up to $5 billion for a clumsily edited documentary that made it appear he directly incited the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The case is overblown and Trump’s graceless, grasping threat is yet another White House assault on press freedom, this time targeting the publicly funded, internationally renowned and sometimes beloved national broadcaster of a foreign state. The BBC has apologized for the misleading edit but insists it will contest any lawsuit. It’s a show of bravado that fits its self-conception as an institution unafraid to speak truth to power. After all, standing up to bullies has long been part of plucky Britain’s own self-mythologizing.
Unfortunately, viewing the Trump imbroglio through this misty-eyed lens ignores the depth of the mess the BBC has got itself into, a lapse that’s potentially existential. Even though the president is furiously milking the BBC’s blunder for all its worth, he’s not in the wrong here.
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