{"id":7350,"date":"2025-11-11T21:29:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T21:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/11\/11\/bbc-trump-crisis-leaked-messages-reveal-how-staff-used-town-hall-to-vent-rage-at-board-deadline\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T21:29:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T21:29:58","slug":"bbc-trump-crisis-leaked-messages-reveal-how-staff-used-town-hall-to-vent-rage-at-board-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/11\/11\/bbc-trump-crisis-leaked-messages-reveal-how-staff-used-town-hall-to-vent-rage-at-board-deadline\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Trump Crisis: Leaked Messages Reveal How Staff Used Town Hall To Vent Rage At Board – Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tEXCLUSIVE<\/strong>: BBC<\/a> employees openly revolted against the UK broadcaster\u2019s board during an all-staff meeting Tuesday, according to leaked internal messages.<\/p>\n

\tDeadline has been sent a 56-page document containing countless screenshots of staff comments and questions during the town hall call with BBC chair Samir Shah<\/a> and director general Tim Davie. The document provides a window into staff anger over the BBC\u2019s handling of a botched Donald Trump<\/a> edit, which led to the shock resignations of Davie and news chief Deborah Turness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\tMany BBC employees questioned board member Robbie Gibb\u2019s role in the debacle, amid allegations that the former Conservative Party spin doctor staged a coup<\/a> at the corporation. Gibb\u2019s friends have said that this notion is \u201cnonsense.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\tWatch on Deadline\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tDespite the volume of comments about Gibb, Shah and Davie were not asked directly about the board member. Instead, a more general (but still heavily upvoted) question was posed: \u201cDo you think that the BBC board embodies and adheres to all six core BBC values that staff are required to uphold and take pride in?\u201d <\/p>\n

\tShah snapped back, telling staff it was \u201cdisrespectful\u201d<\/a> to attack individual board members, saying they are \u201cpeople who care about the BBC and its values.\u201d Listen to the audio, obtained by Deadline, below. <\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

\tEmployees were enraged by Shah\u2019s response, with at least two people saying it was \u201ctone deaf.\u201d A staff member added: \u201cI feel very concerned and upset about the inference that asking a fair question is disrespectful.\u201d Another described it as \u201cpathetic,\u201d while a third person quipped: \u201cIt seems we\u2019re all horrible, disrespectful little peons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tBBC staff message<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tOthers openly called on Shah to resign after he took a week to publicly respond to concerns about Panorama\u2019s<\/em> edit of Trump\u2019s January 6 speech<\/a>, for which the U.S. president is now threatening to sue the BBC for $1 billion. Shah told employees he \u201cshared that frustration\u201d about the delayed response, but said he needed to take his time to get the facts straight on complicated matters. \t<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tBBC staff message<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tAs well as the anger at Shah, there were numerous questions about Gibb, who was installed on the BBC board in 2021 by Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister. He is one of a handful of political appointees on the 12-strong board. <\/p>\n

\tGibb has served on the BBC board\u2019s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee, where he worked alongside external advisor Michael Prescott. Prescott penned the excoriating memo that is ground zero for this crisis. He exposed the Trump edit and skewered the BBC\u2019s perceived anti-Israel and pro-trans rights bias.<\/p>\n

\tMany felt their questions about Gibb were deliberately ignored by BBC moderators.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tBBC staff message<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\t\u201cI find Robbie Gibb\u2019s continued presence at the BBC to be incredibly demoralising. It feels as if he is fighting against and undermining the work we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d one person wrote. Others called for him to resign or be removed by the Labour government. One staffer said Gibb should have no involvement in the appointment of the BBC\u2019s next director general.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tBBC staff message<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tAn anonymous poster added: \u201cThere\u2019s a clear difference between having different views represented, and having a majority right-wing board heavy-handedly targeting and intimidating journalists within the organisation. Almost all of the journalists targeted by the memo were from minority groups, is that a coincidenc\u0435?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIt was not all bad news for Gibb. \u201cWhat is the problem that everyone seems to have with Robbie Gibb? Shouldn\u2019t there be a broad range of people on the board?\u201d one insider asked. Another person slammed colleagues for \u201cwhining\u201d about Gibb, arguing it was evidence that the BBC was \u201cbusted and biased.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tBBC staff message<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tEmployees were also critical of the board in general. \u201cI have no confidence in the board to look after and defend the BBC, not after this,\u201d observed a staff member. Another made the governance suggestion of having licence fee payers represented among directors \u2014 a suggestion that could come up during charter renewal.<\/p>\n

\tBBC employees are rarely shy about challenging their leaders, but insiders said the strength of feeling on the town hall call was unusually high. Some came away with the impression that Shah was under real pressure, and there is a feeling that a loss of confidence in the chair could damage the BBC\u2019s chances of attracting a capable director general. <\/p>\n

\tThe BBC was approached for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXCLUSIVE: BBC employees openly revolted against the UK broadcaster\u2019s board during an all-staff meeting Tuesday, according to leaked internal messages. Deadline has been sent a 56-page document containing countless screenshots of staff comments and questions during the town hall call with BBC chair Samir Shah and director general Tim Davie. The document provides a window […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}