{"id":318488,"date":"2025-11-14T07:40:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T07:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=318488"},"modified":"2025-11-15T06:55:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T06:55:39","slug":"trump-vs-the-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=318488","title":{"rendered":"Trump vs the BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Let&#8217;s get ready to ruummbbbblllleeee!<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Kit Knightly \u2013 Off-Guardian Nov 12, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Donald Trump\u2019s threat to sue the BBC for one billion dollars is yet another fake division intended to prop up the make-believe \u201csides\u201d in the political debate.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the short version. Here\u2019s the backstory.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the BBC\u2019s flagship anthology documentary series Panorama aired an episode on the January 6th \u201cinsurrection\u201d which \u201caccidentally\u201d edited together two speeches by Donald Trump, making it seem he explicitly ordered people to attack the Capitol (he did no such thing, but that\u2019s old news).<\/p>\n<p>Under public pressure from the Trump administration, the BBC have now admitted the \u201cerror\u201d and both the Director General Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness have resigned.<\/p>\n<p>Now, President Donald Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for $1billion unless there is a full retraction and apology by Friday, the 14th of November.<\/p>\n<p>This has spurred British pundits and politicians alike to jump to the defence of the BBC, repeating age-old nonsense about being perceived as \u201cbiased against both sides\u201d:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">This tells me 2 things: first, we are too often an angry society incapable of, or unwilling to hear voices that challenge us \u2026and second, the BBC is probably roughly in the right place if everyone thinks they\u2019re on the opposite side! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4dTxvkaBuN\">https:\/\/t.co\/4dTxvkaBuN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim Farron (@timfarron) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/timfarron\/status\/1988223758994403632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 11, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Or how right-wingers are trying to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/bbc-crisis-censorship-politics-davie-b2862840.html\">undermine our faith in institutions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Or that the BBC \u201cisn\u2019t perfect but\u201d\u2026blah blah blah:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The BBC isn&#8217;t perfect. But it remains an institution defending British values against a populist, Trump-style takeover.<\/p>\n<p>Party leaders must unite to defend it. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Cgf9FrkRTK\">pic.twitter.com\/Cgf9FrkRTK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LibDems\/status\/1987950951542444464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Now, I hate this discourse because it is fake.<\/p>\n<p>Partly, because it is yet another pretend divide. A fake binary between the fake President and the fake journalists at the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>But mostly, I hate any discussion about media \u201cbias\u201d because it displays a fundamental misunderstanding of what the BBC <em>is<\/em> and how it works.<\/p>\n<p>To make my point, let\u2019s go back in time twenty-four years.<\/p>\n<p>On September 11th 2001, BBC correspondent Jane Standley was reporting live from New York to the BBC studios in London. She told the UK\u2019s rapt television audience that World Trade Centre Building 7 \u2013 the Solomon Brothers Building \u2013 had just collapsed due to fire.<\/p>\n<p>The only problem was that, not only had the building <em>not <\/em>collapsed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9GcjP9KVR7E\">it was actually visibly still standing just behind her left shoulder<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_80469\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/BBC-reports-the-collapse-of-WTC-BEFORE-it-fell.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-80469\" class=\"size-full wp-image-80469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/BBC-reports-the-collapse-of-WTC-BEFORE-it-fell.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/BBC-reports-the-collapse-of-WTC-BEFORE-it-fell.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/BBC-reports-the-collapse-of-WTC-BEFORE-it-fell-300x220.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-80469\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An infamous piece of BBC news coverage: reporter announces the collapse of WTC 7 BEFORE it actually fell and with it still standing in the background. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Jane Standly \u2013 BBC Clairvoyant Extraordinaire<\/p>\n<p>The real collapse occurred about thirty minutes later.<\/p>\n<p>Tellingly, neither the BBC nor the reporter herself have ever offered a real explanation for this incident, and certainly never meaningfully explored its implications. Indeed, they went to some lengths to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/blogs\/theeditors\/2007\/02\/part_of_the_conspiracy.html\">pretend it never happened.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is an infamous story. Cited often for good reason: It illustrates irrefutable fore-knowledge of the collapse.<\/p>\n<p>But it does more than that. It shows us how things work, and allows us to infer what went wrong. Broadly, one of two things must have happened:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The BBC was given the information and reported it early by accident.<\/li>\n<li>The BBC reported the information on time, but the implosion faced an unforeseen delay.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>We can deconstruct this further and then extrapolate out to learn a lesson about the media in general \u2014 namely, that the media report what they are told to report regardless of reality.<\/p>\n<p>Standley was in the middle of reporting to the country that a 47-storey building had fallen down <em>while it was still there<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>She could see it<\/strong>, but she told the entire world it was gone. Why? Because someone told her it was. She never checked because she\u2019s not employed to check. That is her function, that is what she\u2019s <em>for<\/em>. To paraphrase Chomsky, if she wasn\u2019t like that she wouldn\u2019t be there.<\/p>\n<p>She didn\u2019t just report it, she <em>believed<\/em> it.<\/p>\n<p>That is not just her, it\u2019s not even just the BBC, it\u2019s the media in general. They are not liars, they are biological megaphones amplifying messages they lack the capacity to analyse.<\/p>\n<p>Dummies, literally.<\/p>\n<p>Their corporate masters have all five fingers deep inside them and flap their wooden jaws to create the illusion of speech. When the BBC talks, you can barely see the Deep State\u2019s mouth moving.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why it\u2019s funny to me to talk about the BBC being biased. It\u2019s a na\u00efve acceptance that the BBC is what it pretends to be, a journalism outlet, rather than what it is \u2013 a state-backed entity designed with the sole purpose of maintaining state control over narrative.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC isn\u2019t biased. You need agency to be biased. You need personality, ideas and opinions.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC is worse than biased, it is a morally vacuous horseshit hosepipe, repeating \u201cthe truth\u201d as it is dictated to them from on high.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026and more and more people know that, or at least feel it. The allegedly plummeting number of license-fee payers is evidence of that.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings us back to Donald Trump and his pending lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>It is a contrived conflict intended to satisfy fans of either side by reinforcing pre-existing notions. Those invested people watching are so brainwashed into the fake divide that they don\u2019t even see the same things; their eyes cloud over with pre-programmed interpretations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TEAM A<\/strong> watches the news and sees big bad bully Trump attacking the well-meaning (but in this case accidentally in the wrong) BBC. They think they are the decent minority speaking truth to power.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TEAM B<\/strong> watches the same news and sees Daddy Donald being unfairly victimised by the media because he\u2019s fighting the good fight.<\/p>\n<p>Trump gets a boost to his fading credentials as an outsider, the UK government can whip up patriotic support for the poor little BBC.<\/p>\n<p>This kind of win-win is the tell-tale sign of the fake news false binary. If you doubt that, you need look no further than its origins for confirmation: A \u201cleaked\u201d memo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2025\/11\/06\/read-devastating-internal-bbc-memo-in-full\/\">handed to the Telegraph<\/a>, expressing \u201cconcerns\u201d about institutional bias.<\/p>\n<p>Or, indeed, see how it\u2019s already being used to brand the BBC as some kind of resistance hub:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u2018This is a moment where the BBC could lead the way against Trump.\u2019<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/arusbridger?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@arusbridger<\/a> explains why the US President&#8217;s threat to sue the BBC over editing his speech could backfire. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0vOkes6iZQ\">pic.twitter.com\/0vOkes6iZQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LBC (@LBC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LBC\/status\/1988018678752047612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Or to support previously unsupportable positions:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Trump DID call for a violent attack on American democracy at the Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>So the BBC Panorama was wrong to edit the footage to make his incitement more explicit than it was, but that&#8217;s exactly what he was doing. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/15N51KNiMe\">pic.twitter.com\/15N51KNiMe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Femi (@F_Politics_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/F_Politics_\/status\/1988170875145740298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 11, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>That\u2019s political activist Femi, arguing that <em>\u201cyes the BBC edited footage to change what Trump said, but that\u2019s OK because we know that\u2019s what he really meant\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The idea that there is some higher truth you can only achieve by lying is not something a rational society can support\u2026but here we are.<\/p>\n<p>So, in the case of Trump vs the BBC, who wins?<\/p>\n<p>Since the BBC already admitted to wrongdoing, and with so much \u201cthey\u2019re not perfect\u201d discourse, I\u2019m guessing Trump just scrapes a win here. Not a comprehensive one, but 55-45 split.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, don\u2019t be surprised if there is some kind of reform of the \u201cideologically captured\u201d BBC requiring a \u201ctemporary increase\u201d in the license fee or a change in the way it\u2019s paid, or increased penalties for refusing or whatever\u2026we all know how this works by now.<\/p>\n<p>But who wins and by how much isn\u2019t the point of the story; the spectacle is. Pick a side and cheer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Support Off-Guardian:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/offguardian\">Ko-fi<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.subscribestar.com\/offguardian\">Subscribestar<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?hosted_button_id=CKFB3MH8CGB9U\">Paypal<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2025\/11\/12\/trump-vs-the-bbc\/\">Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kit Knightly argues that the current row between Trump and the BBC is theatre, a staged confrontation between the fake President and the fake journalists at the BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":318493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318488"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318492,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318488\/revisions\/318492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/318493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}