Does The BBC Get Its Trump Coverage Right?
Americast
BBC
4.3 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 September 2023
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How do we cover a headline-grabbing former president who falsely claims he never lost the election?
Two of our bosses step into the worldwide HQ of Americast for the kind of conversation we normally have in our morning meetings: what past mistakes can we learn from and what’s the BBC’s strategy for reporting on Donald Trump’s campaign and his court cases?
HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Sarah Smith, North America editor • Marianna Spring, disinformation and social media correspondent
GUESTS: • Paul Danahar, BBC News Foreign Editor • Adam Levy, BBC News Channel Executive Producer
GET IN TOUCH: • Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB • Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 • Email Americast@bbc.co.uk • Or use #Americast
Find out more about our award-winning "undercover voters" here: bbc.in/3lFddSF.
This episode was made by Daniel Wittenberg, with Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo and Hayley Clarke. The technical producer was Emma Crowe and the editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.
BBC SOUNDS CHAPTERS: 7:14 – Is Trump a special case? 21:59 – Does the BBC have a liberal bias? 28:33 – Should we show Trump's speeches live? 33:58 – How will the BBC cover the 2024 election?
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.9 | Hello, America Astas. |
| 0:06.3 | Now, as we get started today, |
| 0:08.2 | I'm going to take you back in time to 2020, |
| 0:11.2 | to the 5th of November, |
| 0:12.5 | remember, remember the 5th of November. |
| 0:15.0 | All the TV networks started pulling away |
| 0:17.7 | from the live address of the president |
| 0:20.0 | of the United States, Donald Trump. |
| 0:22.0 | This was election night, |
| 0:23.8 | and they felt it was too dangerous to broadcast |
| 0:26.2 | what he was saying without being able |
| 0:28.1 | to offer some scrutiny at the same time. |
| 0:29.9 | Can you count the legal votes easily when, |
| 0:34.0 | if you count the illegal votes? |
| 0:35.8 | And a MSNBC was the first network to pull away, |
| 0:38.9 | and they gave Trump only 35 seconds on it. |
| 0:41.5 | Yes, it came in late. |
| 0:42.8 | OK, here we are again in the unusual position |
| 0:46.3 | of not only interrupting the president of the United States, |
| 0:50.0 | but correcting the president of the United States. |
| 0:53.0 | And Ari Melbourne don't go far. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.