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The BBC Is Shaken by a Trump Editing Scandal With Executives Quitting, and Australian News May Be Next

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Low-Octane Gaslighting – THE BBC

  • This makes for a unique case of accountability.

After days of upheaval, jobs have been lost in the upper reaches of the BBC as a result of the editing scandal that emerged last week. Last Fall, days before the national election, the network put out a documentary about Donald Trump, and in it was seen a dose of malicious editing to make his speech given on January 6 sound like he had compelled the crowd to go to the Capitol and riot.

The outlet elected to eliminate the portions where Trump mentioned protesting peacefully, and cut in another unrelated segment from the speech, spoken nearly one hour later, to make it sound like Trump called for violence. The effort by the BBC to manipulate this in a slanderous fashion was seen in the portion where the audio was cut and pasted, and the video makes an edit to other images, while the audio is presented in an allegedly uncut fashion.

As a result of the release of an internal investigation that exposed this deceptive editing, on Sunday, the network saw Director General Tim Davie and CEO Deborah Turness each tender their resignations over the controversial editing.

Low-Octane Gaslighting 2.0 – THE ABC NEWS (Australia)

  • Given this was identical, more heads should roll.

In Australia, The ABC (unrelated to the U.S. network) has been shown to have committed the very same deceptive editing on Donald Trump's speech. Despite a nearly identical editing misdirection, the network is steadfast that its reporting was above board and proper:

"The quote in question from President Trump was used accurately by the ABC, did not change the meaning of that section of the speech and it did not mislead the audience. The program was consistent with the ABC's high standards of factual, accurate and impartial story telling. The ABC stands by Sarah Ferguson’s outstanding journalism."

Stealth Story Evolution – MSNBC

  • So that thing you complained about, you are now upset has ended?!

With the announcement that the government shutdown may be ending, with a new Continuing Resolution written to extend operations through the end of January, we have seen a number of ways this has been exposed as the Democratic effort behind the closure. Here is an MSNBC panel, complaining about an agreement being reached, after weeks of blaming the hardships on Republicans.

Pre-Written Field Reports – PBS / THE BULWARK

  • Will we ever see accurate reporting to back up this claim?

Famed documentarian Ken Burns sat in with John Avlon to bemoan the cutting of federal funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His argument was as expected. He trotted out the tired bromide that PBS is a vital media source to people in rural areas, and cutting the funds will lead to the new deserts canard.

What is forever overlooked in these audacious claims of the hicks in the hinterlands being denied news is the lack of evidence that there are areas where PBS stations broadcast, but no other affiliates exist. Add to this the need to also have no internet in these areas, and the number of homes affected becomes infinitesimal.

Border-line Obsessives – MSNBC

  • Once again, overlooking the criminality of dad is essential in these reports.

On MSNBC, the ICE-obsessed Jacob Soboroff covered last week's big story of a baby arrested when the father was detained at a Home Depot. Soboroff delivers a weepy tale of the baby being in an adverse condition while in ICE custody, and waves off the details of the dad being an illegal. With an outstanding warrant. With a stolen illegal weapon in the vehicle. That was transported from out of state.