BBC: The news is 100% fake, says Donald Trump’s press secretary BBC

Donald Trump’s press secretary has described the BBC as “100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine” in a candid interview that comes after allegations of bias at the broadcaster.

Carolyn Levitt, a senior Trump White House official, said watching BBC bulletins during her trips to the UK “ruins” her day, saying taxpayers “are having to foot the bill for a left-wing propaganda machine.”

Levitt’s comments came after MPs said the company had “serious questions to answer” about the way the US president’s speech was edited for a BBC Panorama documentary.

An episode of the current affairs program “completely misled viewers” by stringing two parts of a speech together, a document leaked to The Telegraph suggested.

The program showed Trump saying he would march with his supporters to the Capitol building before the riot on January 6, 2021, and urged them to “fight like hell.” However, it deleted the portion of the speech where Trump urged the crowds to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

In an interview with The Telegraph, Levitt said: “This dishonest and selectively edited clip by the BBC is further evidence that it is absolutely 100% fake news and should not deserve time on the television screens of the great people of the UK.”

“Every time I travel to the UK with President Trump and have to watch the BBC in our hotel rooms, it ruins my day when I listen to their blatant propaganda and lies about the President of the United States and everything he does to make America better and the world a safer place.”

The newspaper said its report was based on a memorandum written by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards and standards committee. Prescott left office earlier this year and has not commented on the document, which is believed to have been leaked by a whistleblower.

She posted an excerpt that said: “The editing of the clip the way Panorama aired it was completely misleading. The fact that he did not explicitly urge his supporters to come down and fight on Capitol Hill was one of the reasons why federal charges of inciting the riot were not filed.”

The memo reportedly added that Prescott, a communications consultant and former political journalist, had raised concerns about the way BBC Arabic covered the war in Gaza.

The Telegraph said Prescott claimed there were “systemic problems” that were not being addressed by senior management, claiming there were “stark differences” between war coverage on BBC Arabic and on the BBC’s main website. One issue that Prescott is said to have highlighted is the frequent use of anti-Semitic or pro-Hamas commentators.

The 19-page dossier also reportedly criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues, saying the broadcaster had been “taken over by a small group of people”. [staff] Promoting Stonewall’s view of gender identity issues and that its LGBT office “will refuse to cover any stories that raise difficult questions.”

Stories that raise complex questions about transgender issues are said to have been suppressed, through a “relentless feeding of one-sided stories that celebrate the transgender experience without sufficient balance or objectivity.”

In response, the BBC said: “Although we do not comment on leaked documents, when the BBC receives comments it takes the matter seriously and considers it carefully.

“Michael Prescott is a former advisor to a Board committee where differing views and opinions on our coverage are routinely discussed and debated.”