BBC chaos and a porn scandal

Key Takeaways:

• President Trump has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC over a documentary that he claims was edited to make him appear to incite violence on January 6, 2021.
• The lawsuit hinges on a sloppy edit that links Trump’s call for people to walk up to the Capitol with his exhortation to "fight like hell" nearly 55 minutes later.
• The BBC has apologized and withdrawn the broadcast, and two top executives have resigned, but Trump is seeking further damages.
• The lawsuit claims that the documentary was available to viewers in Florida through the BritBox streaming service and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), despite the BBC’s geographical restrictions.
• Legal observers anticipate a possible settlement, citing the BBC’s admission of error and the potential for reputational harm.

Introduction to the Lawsuit
President Trump has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, a national institution of a trusted ally, over a documentary that he claims was edited to make him appear to incite violence on January 6, 2021. The lawsuit represents an audacious move against the press and is part of Trump’s continued strategy to take the media to court. The litigation hinges on an edit presented in a documentary of the president’s words on a fateful day, which Trump’s attorneys argue gives viewers the impression that he incited the violence that followed.

The Sloppy Edit
At the heart of Trump’s case stands an episode of the BBC television documentary program Panorama that compresses comments Trump made to his supporters on January 6, 2021, before they laid siege to the U.S. Capitol. The episode seamlessly links Trump’s call for people to walk up to the Capitol with his exhortation nearly 55 minutes later: "And we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell you don’t have a country anymore." Trump’s attorneys argue that the presentation gives viewers the impression that the president incited the violence that followed, and that his remarks had been doctored, not edited. The lawsuit alleges that the depiction was "fabricated" and aired "in a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election to President Trump’s detriment."

The BBC’s Response
While the BBC has not filed a formal response to the lawsuit, the public broadcaster has reiterated that it will defend itself in court. A Nov. 13 letter to Trump’s legal team on behalf of the BBC from Charles Tobin, a leading U.S. First Amendment attorney, argued that the broadcaster has demonstrated contrition by apologizing, withdrawing the broadcast, and accepting the executives’ resignations. Tobin also noted that Trump had already been indicted by a grand jury on four criminal counts stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including his conduct on January 6, 2021, on the Capitol grounds.

The Appeal of BritBox
The lawsuit claims that the documentary was available to viewers in Florida through the BritBox streaming service, despite the BBC’s geographical restrictions. However, NPR searched for Panorama documentaries on the BritBox streaming service through the Amazon Prime platform, one of its primary distributors, and found that the sole available episode dates from 2000. Trump does not mention podcasts, and Panorama is streamed on BBC Sounds, but its episodes do not appear to be available in the U.S. on mainstream podcast distributors such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Pocket Casts.

The Use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
Another way Trump’s lawsuit suggests people in the U.S. could watch the documentary is through a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Trump’s suit says millions of Florida citizens use VPNs to view content from foreign streamers that would otherwise be restricted, and the BBC iPlayer is among the most popular streaming services accessed by viewers using a VPN. However, analysts note that the demand for VPNs in Florida has increased due to a new law requiring age verification checks for visitors to pornographic websites, rather than a desire to watch foreign television shows.

Possible Settlement
Several First Amendment attorneys tell NPR they believe Trump’s lawsuit will result in a settlement of some kind, in part because there’s new precedent. In the past year, the parent companies of ABC News and CBS News have each paid $16 million to settle cases filed by Trump that many legal observers considered specious. The BBC has admitted it could have done better and essentially apologized, which may lead to a settlement to avoid reputational harm. However, some of Trump’s previous lawsuits against the media have failed, and he is currently also suing the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Des Moines Register, and its former pollster, and the board of the Pulitzer Prize.