What the Donald Wants from the BBC

As I’ve written previously, the BBC is almost certainly on a hiding to nothing in the Trump defamation suit. In the words of British barrister Daniel ShenSmith, “What the BBC have done is absolutely outrageous. They have doctored a clip… in order to have him allegedly declaring for violence, which he did not. He categorically did not.”

Even worse for the BBC’s case is that they’ve openly admitted they did it. BBC chair Samir Shah, stated in a letter to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, that:

The conclusion of the deliberation is that we accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression that of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologize for that error of judgment.

The only real thing that remained to determine was just how much President Trump was going to take the BBC to the cleaners for. Because he’s suing them under Florida law, he’s not bound by the UK’s cap on damages at $350,000. So, how much pain is he bringing for the BBC?

President Trump has filed a $US10bn ($15.07bn) lawsuit against the BBC after he accused the corporation of putting “terrible words in my mouth having to do with January 6”.

He sued the British public broadcaster for defamation and for a violation of Florida’s deceptive and unfair trade practices act, claiming $US5bn in damages for each.

If that sounds like a lot, recall that he sued CBS for $10 billion, not for deceptively editing his words, but the words of his opponent, Kamala Harris, attempting to make her sound more eloquent and cogent than she actually was. At which point CBS wisely settled for $16m, paid to the Trump Presidential Library.

Trump said at the White House: “In a little while, you’ll be seeing I’m suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth. Literally, they put words in my mouth. They had me saying things that I never said coming out. I guess they used AI or something. So we’ll be bringing that lawsuit.

“A lot of people were asking, ‘When are you bringing that lawsuit?’ Even the media can’t believe that one. They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with January 6 that I didn’t say and the beautiful words that I said … talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said, they didn’t say that but they put terrible words.

“They actually have me speaking with words that I never said and they got caught because I believe somebody at BBC said, ‘This is so bad, it has to be reported’. That’s called fake news.”

While the BBC have issued an apology and retraction, that’s not any kind of get-out-of-jail-free card in US law. It might be seen as a mitigating factor when it comes to assessing damages, but the bigger is the extent of reputational damage. Airing as it did in the immediate lead-up to the US presidential election, Donald Trump has a pretty good case that it was a least intended to inflict enormous reputational damage.

In the end, though, the unshakable reputational damage the BBC has inflicted is on itself. Entirely deservedly.