Joe Rogan and Adam Carolla slam BBC over edited Trump footage: ‘Deliberate act of media corruption’

AUSTIN, TEXAS: Podcaster Joe Rogan and actor Adam Carolla furiously criticized the BBC after the broadcaster issued an apology over a doctored edit of President Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech.

On the episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' that aired on Friday, November 14, the hosts argued that the manipulation of his words was not merely an error but a “deliberate act of media corruption.”

Joe Rogan and Adam Carolla slam BBC over doctored Trump speech edit

Rogan called the BBC’s actions “a perfect example of media corruption,” while Carolla echoed the sentiment, using strong language against the corporation’s former leadership. Carolla took aim at Tim Davie, the former Director General and Editor-in-Chief, and Deborah Turness, the former BBC News CEO, mocking their recent resignations.

He said that when they “confront the outgoing head who’s on the way out, they always go, ‘Yeah, we did this, but we’re not biased at all.’ And it’s like … well, it’s one or the other.”

Carolla also pointed out that the BBC’s flagship Panorama programme spliced together parts of Trump’s speech to make it sound like he was urging his followers to “fight.”

The doctored clip said, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

In reality, Trump said, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” Rogan insisted the edit was not accidental, calling it misleading manipulation. He said, “It’s not a thing that you can say you made a mistake when it’s literally 53-54 minutes later he says the second part of the sentence. That’s crazy.”

Carolla added that by doing this, the BBC “mortgaged its reputation by duping viewers,” concluding bluntly, “So, you’re biased and you’re cooking it. And that means we don’t need to listen to the BBC anymore.”

Their exchange came less than a week after Davie and Turness resigned. Davie did not directly mention the doctored footage in his resignation, merely saying there had been “some mistakes.”

Turness did refer to a Telegraph report, calling the controversy over the Panorama episode “causing damage to the BBC, an institution that I love.”

Trump threatens $1B lawsuit after BBC’s doctored speech edit

Following the resignations, Donald Trump publicly mocked the BBC, claiming they had been “caught red handed.” He then issued a threat to sue them for $1 billion, demanding they issue a “full and fair retraction” of the documentary, offer apologies, and compensate him for the perceived harm.

The BBC did eventually apologize but firmly rejected any defamation claim or request for payment.

The broadcaster defended itself by saying it had strong legal grounds, noting that the 'Panorama' episode did not air in the US and, when it was available, it was limited to UK viewers. In its apology, the BBC admitted that its editing “unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points.”

That, they said, gave the “mistaken impression that Trump had made a direct call for violent action.”