Will the BBC face down Trump in court?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 November 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The BBC has been set a deadline of Friday by Donald Trump's lawyer to apologise and "appropriately compensate" the US President for a Panorama edit of his January 6th speech.
If the broadcaster doesn't respond, the threat of a $1bn lawsuit looms. The outgoing head of the BBC Tim Davie today told staff to "fight for our journalism" - but it's not yet clear how it will respond to the unprecedented threat from Trump.
Should it have the courage to face down the threat and to challenge him in court? Many experts believe Trump's legal case is thin. So why are so many on the Right cheering on his campaign against the BBC?
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:08.7 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.6 | Morning everyone, good morning. |
| 0:14.7 | I just want to say a couple of things. |
| 0:16.2 | I'm here to lead and support the BBC. |
| 0:18.3 | I'm very, very proud of our journalists in this building. |
| 0:24.6 | They're doing work. I think it's incredibly important. I want to thank every one of them. They're doing a wonderful job. Also, everyone across the BBC doing their thing for the UK. |
| 0:30.6 | And personally, I'm here to lead and support them. The BBC's going to be thriving. |
| 0:35.6 | And I support everyone of the team. |
| 0:37.6 | I'm very proud of them. Thank you very much. |
| 0:39.2 | That is Tim Davy, the soon-to-be ex-director-general of the BBC, |
| 0:44.8 | arriving at new Broadcasting House, saying, we will soon be thriving. |
| 0:50.6 | Well, not if Donald Trump has his way, with the threat of a billion dollar lawsuit. |
| 0:56.6 | What does the BBC do? |
| 0:59.1 | Fight or wave a white flag? |
| 1:02.5 | It's a huge, consequential decision. |
| 1:06.3 | Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:12.3 | The news agents. It's John. The Newsagents. |
| 1:13.7 | It's John. |
| 1:14.6 | It's Emily. |
| 1:15.5 | It's Lewis. |
| 1:16.4 | Where are you? |
... |
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