Trump Says He’ll Sue BBC For ‘$5 Billion’ Despite Apologies, Resignations Over Editing Gaffe
from the thin-skinned-bullies dept
Last week we noted how the BBC has been tripping over itself to apologize to Donald Trump for some edits made to a BBC documentary. Admittedly the edits weren’t the best idea; they effectively cobbled together two different parts of Trump’s January 6 speech 54 minutes apart not to misrepresent, but to make it more clear that Trump actively encouraged an open, violent insurrection that resulted in fatalities.
Obviously our mad, idiot king didn’t much like that.
Despite multiple resignations and numerous CEO apologies (and a promise to never air the documentary again), Trump insists he’s going to sue the BBC anyway, for between $1 and $5 billion:
“US President Donald Trump says he intends to sue the BBC for between $1 billion and $5 billion “probably sometime next week” despite the broadcaster’s apology to him over a documentary Trump’s lawyers described as defamatory.
“I think I have to do it,” Trump told reporters. “They’ve even admitted that they cheated … They cheated, they changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
Again, the edits didn’t entirely “change the words coming out of Trump’s mouth,” because he actively did vocally support a violent insurrection against the government. They did however cobble together two different parts of a speech to make it sound like they were said all at once, something the documentary editors should have known better than to do given king dingus’ litigious nature.
Granted Trump may not have as much fun in British courts, where Justices and Judges are likely to be less receptive to Donald’s incoherence. UK defamation laws are also an entirely different affair, with Trump being particularly challenged by the fact the BBC edits occurred more than twelve months ago, and defamation action in UK courts must occur within twelve months of the alleged offense.
Last week we noted how the BBC’s over-groveling undermined the most important thing: that Donald Trump really did actively incite a violent insurrection resulting in $2.7 million in damages to the Capitol, 174 assaulted police officers, and four belated law enforcement suicides. And he’s abusing the courts to stifle journalism critical of his radical extremist authoritarianism.
It sounds like BBC leadership isn’t entirely invertebrate. While BBC officials like Chair BBC chair Samir Shah admit the edits were an “error of judgment” (unlike executives at CBS) it appears they’ll actually be putting up a fight in court of Trump follows through:
“I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”
As Trump’s health, power, and influence wanes, this sort of bullying is only going to become less and less effective and more and more toothless. In the interim, it would be nice if some major media institutions could dig deep and find a little backbone; especially given how many lawyers and donors would be happy to help fund a pro bono acceleration of Donald Trump’s inevitable collapse.
Filed Under: defamation, documentary, donald trump, insurrection, journalism, lawsuit, media, uk
Companies: bbc
Comments on “Trump Says He’ll Sue BBC For ‘$5 Billion’ Despite Apologies, Resignations Over Editing Gaffe”
So here’s the plan. We get control of the White House and hold worldwide trade at ransom for…
one-hundred \looks nervously at JD Vance\ billion dollars!
And why not? This is what the American justice system was made for. Suing those who will hurt less than you.
Tax payers get to foot the bill, he can’t be sued back, and our courts don’t punish people for filing bs.
How does he have standing to sue?
So Trump is upset that the BBC showed a documentary in the United Kingdom more than a year ago, and now he’s going to sue for billions of dollars?
Is he really going to sue the BBC in the United Kingdom? Does he have lawyers that are familiar with British law?
Though like with his other lawsuits, I’m sure he has no case whatsoever and he’s hoping they will settle with him for a few million dollars. After all, ABC and CBS settled with him, so why can’t he bully other networks?
Re:
I expect his case to fall apart about 45 seconds after the BBC files for discovery
The BBC can’t afford to, and has no particular reason, to bend over for an insane foreign despot no matter how delusional he is
Re:
He wants to sue in Florida which is pretty rare in that it has a two year time limit for these kinds of cases
If anyone in Florida saw the UK only documentary and can state with a straight face that it ruined his chances of becoming USA President….
Then their Oscar is in the bag and they’d probably be able to sentence the Judge to twenty years hard labor too
Re:
His standing to sue clearly resides right there in the FYTW clause of the constitution, particularly the part where he can unilaterally impose tariffs on countries that displease him.
Re:
I mean it sounds like you already know the answer to your question.
Crowdfunding moment, maybe?
I imagine whoever runs the global Fuck The Orange Halfwit King Into An Early Grave fundraiser is going to need a veritable army of finance and legal folk within about six hours.
Re:
…if somebody dies at 79 I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count as an early grave.
Editing gaffe
Was it fuck.
If only europe had some experience on the effectiveness of appeasement...
As much disgust as I have towards Trump threatening yet another news outlet for saying something he didn’t like I can’t help but feel a good measure of schadenfreude for the BBC’s suffering here. Exactly what did they expect would happen when they immediately backed down, that he’d accept their grovelling apology and attempts at appeasement and consider the matter closed?
They showed that they’d cave to threats and like every other time someone tried appeasement he took that as an excuse to escalate and apply even more pressure and demands.
Hopefully the BBC’s fate will finally be enough for every other outlet to understand that standing your ground may be more expensive in the short-term but the alternative is perpetual grovelling and attempted appeasement because to a tyrant anything less than complete and utter submission is unacceptable.