'We should have acted earlier, but we couldn't afford to' says BBC suit

A BBC big cheese has said the corporation ideally should have acted sooner on concerns about the way a Panorama documentary featuring Donald Trump was edited, exposing the corporation to the risk of being sued in UK courts. However, the delay has rather conveniently meant that the time limit for a libel case in the UK has expired.

The comments follow the smooth, even slick, smiling, resignation of the broadcaster's director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness.

The BBC has been under fire amid accusations that the documentary misled viewers, splicing sections from a Donald Trump speech on 6 January 2021 to make it appear he was explicitly urging people to attack the US Capitol.

The controversial edit was highlighted in a well-timed, leaked BBC memo published by the Telegraph newspaper last week.

'We can still be sued in the US' said the big chief, 'but that's the government's problem, so meh'