The ABC has hit back at claims that it committed the same “journalistic sin” as the BBC, which was found to have edited President Donald Trump’s January 6 speech.
Over the weekend, a leaked memo from former BBC Editorial Guidelines and Standards committee adviser Michael Prescott was published by The Telegraph, suggesting that the BBC’s “Panorama” program edited Trump’s speech to make it sound like he encouraged the Capitol riots last year.
Prescott’s memo said “Panorama” edited Trump’s speech to be: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you and we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.” Prescott wrote that Trump said the part beginning with “and we fight” 54 minutes after “we’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you.”
The leak resulted in the resignation of BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of news Deborah Turness, while Trump has threatened to sue the broadcaster for $1 billion.
Since then, Sky News host Chris Kenny claimed that the ABC made an “almost identical act of deception” in its 2021-aired “Four Corners” episode, “Downfall – the Last Days of President Trump, in that it omitted a part of Trump’s speech similar to the BBC.
“Our ABC has committed the same journalistic sin, surely,” Kenny said.
“They have clipped up the speech to suit their narrative rather than reality, and the true meaning of what Donald Trump said.”
On Wednesday, ABC Managing Director, Hugh Marks,...
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