Trump vs BBC: Allegations of Manipulated News Spark Media Shakeup
DID Press: Trump threatened to take the BBC to court for manipulating his words and demanded $1 billion in damages. We also know that the BBC’s Director-General and the head of its news division resigned immediately after Trump’s complaint. The question now is: what caused so much panic and fear at the BBC? Was it really the $1 billion claim that shook the organization, or is the root of the fear elsewhere?
In my view, the real earthquake at the BBC was not due to Trump’s claim, fear of him, or even the serious mistake committed by the production team of the documentary Trump: A Second Chance. The main shock was the exposure of a long-concealed and painful secret that could be professionally fatal for the BBC. The secret is that for many years, the BBC’s work has not been about reporting the news, but about making the news—manipulating the structure and content of events, adding or omitting details, and reshaping reality according to political, economic, and cultural motives.
In that controversial speech, Trump made these three statements, each in a distinct cognitive and cultural context:
“We are heading to the Capitol building”
“I will be there with you”
“We fight. We fight hard.”
What the BBC’s news-making team did was to combine these three separate statements into one:
“We are heading to the Capitol building… and I will be there with you, and we fight. We fight hard.”
This effectively destroyed Trump—using Trump’s own words—creating a manipulated narrative that suited the BBC’s agenda.
Had no one noticed this manipulative assembly, everything would have unfolded exactly as the BBC intended. Trump would have effectively been ruined by his own words.
The reality is that it was neither Trump nor even his team, but the Daily Telegraph, that uncovered this hidden secret of the BBC, leading to the Director-General’s figurative “heart attack.”
Now imagine if neither Trump nor the Daily Telegraph had been involved—would the veil over the BBC’s covert manipulations have been lifted? No. The BBC would have continued, as always, performing the role of a “professional” and seemingly neutral media outlet. The fact is, the BBC’s foundation is built on news-making—constructing and shaping news to steer global political currents.
We know this has been the case in Afghanistan and remains the case today. We understand that the BBC’s work around the world has not been about reporting the news, but creating and fabricating it. The BBC shapes news in a way that prepares the psychological and cognitive environment for intervention by major powers.
News-making is the BBC’s working culture; otherwise, how could such a colossal “mistake” occur without any of the BBC’s control and review centers noticing it?
By Dr. Mir-Hussain Mahdavi