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Reporting Portfolio-Kaine Abela
BBC-Trump says he will take legal action against BBC over Panorama edit
Sullivan, H. (2025, November 15). Trump says he will sue BBC for at least $1bn over Panorama edit. Bbc.com; BBC News.
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Reporting Portfolio-Kaine Abela
BBC-Trump says he will take legal action against BBC over Panorama edit
Sullivan, H. (2025, November 15). Trump says he will sue BBC for at least $1bn over Panorama edit. Bbc.com; BBC News.
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Reporting Portfolio-Kaine Abela
BBC-Trump says he will take legal action against BBC over Panorama edit
Sullivan, H. (2025, November 15). Trump says he will sue BBC for at least $1bn over Panorama edit. Bbc.com; BBC News.
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Reporting Portfolio-Kaine Abela
BBC-Trump says he will take legal action against BBC over Panorama edit
Sullivan, H. (2025, November 15). Trump says he will sue BBC for at least $1bn over Panorama edit. Bbc.com; BBC News.
Summary
In this report from the BBC, it announces that Trump will be taking legal action against the BBC over how his speech was edited by panorama, and while they did apologies, they refused to compensate him.
Narrative Construction
The structure of this report uses the inverted pyramid method which places the most critical information (5 W’s and H) at the beginning followed by supporting details in descending order of importance. The first paragraph explains exactly what the article is about, with Trump saying “We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1bn (£759m) and $5bn, probably sometime next week”, and the BBC saying the edit had unintentionally given “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action” and it would not be broadcasted again. While the BBC apologised, they refused to pay financial compensation leading Trump to sue. The report continues with Trump saying “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth”, and former BBC editor Sir Craig Oliver addressing the situation with Trump calling the edit “egregious” and Oliver saying Trump doesn’t “understand the BBC, how it is funded or how it works”. The report changes shift explaining the edit that made Trump mad and the BBC sending a letter to Trump apologizing for the edit but disagreeing the basis for a defamation claim. The report concludes with the reason the BBC apologized that being a second similarly edited clip was revealed by the Daily Telegraph.
Treatment
The way information is gathered, organized and presented to suit the specific medium and audience. A key component of treatment is the structure of the report, which uses the inverted pyramid structure to organize the important details first and secondary information second. The way this report presents information is just by simply narrating what is going on now while providing links to previous events for new viewers to understand the context of the situation. This report has plenty of quotes from sources like Trump and BBC chairman Samir Shah, the former having a video being interviewed with statements that were quoted in the report.
Quality and Depth of Subject Matter
Refers to the accuracy, context, balance, and comprehensibility of the subject matter, to ensure the story is factually correct, easy to understand, and fair to all sides. Helen Sullivan Is the reporter of this article. She has worked for other news companies including The New York Times, the Observer, and the Guardian. According to the BBC website, this is the only story she has done related to the Trump vs BBC situation. Despite this however, it is clear she did research beforehand giving context to this situation as well as providing links to articles discussing the topic.
Helen Sullivan. (2016). About | H Sullivan. H Sullivan . https://www.helen-sullivan.com/about
Of course, considering how this report is about Trump suing the BBC for being biased, it is very hard to be convinced there isn’t a single amount of bias in this report. When reading this article there seems to be plenty of sources from people related to BBC. In fact, there is a section in the report where it list down fives arguments the BBC made for why there is no need for a lawsuit.
The role of the presenter/interviewer
It is the reporter’s responsibility to present news clearly and professionally, while also researching stories, conducting interviews, and writing scripts. The only interview I could find related to this subject was from Fox News who are notorious for being biased in favour of the Republic party (who trump represents). David Folkenflik. (2023, February 28). Rupert Murdoch says Fox stars “endorsed” lies about 2020. He chose not to stop them. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/02/28/1159819849/fox-news-dominion-voting-rupert-murdoch-2020-election-fraud
The interview is from the Ingraham Angle hosted by Laura Ingraham, and according to the video, is a second part of a previous interview that same day. Before we see the interview, she begins by saying “making the fake vindictive news pay”. She already demonstrates some bias towards the BBC already giving this interview a red flag. The questions she presents about the situation stem from whether he is going to do this or that, and they aren’t really challenging. Something else to note is that the topic of the BBC is only there for roughly 56 secs before she moves on to the next topic.
Foxs News. (2025). President Trump: This is “my thing.” Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9IU6xYC2gs&t=2s
The Interviewee as a character in the Story
An interviewee functions as a source of direct information, a character to add human interest, or a subject to be profiled. The angle of this report is Trump, the President of the United States, is suing the BBC one of the worlds largest broadcast news organisations. Of course, considering this is Fox News they are portraying Trump as someone wronged by BBC. When ask if he will move forward with suing the BBC he says he has an ‘obligation’ to do it, he even brings up the 60 Minutes programme with Kamala Harris (Helmore, E. 2025, July 2). What I’ve noticed while watching the interview, is that he tends to repeat what he says, like how he mentions BBC changing his speech or 60 Minutes changing the answers Kamala gave. Repetition is a powerful propaganda tool considering he is the President of the United States.
Technical Elements
Refers to camerawork, sound, music and/or editing. Something worth noting is the editing, they show the speech that was edited by the BBC. Something worth noting as well, in a different article from the BBC discussing this interview they cut the actual speech. Either the BBC wanted to focus on what Trump said or they don’t want to admit that they were wrong. The camera is mostly positioned on Trump since he is the interviewee, and I noticed in the background the American flag behind Trump probably to hammer the fact that he is the President.
The Report’s Cultural Context
Refers to the shared values, beliefs, social norms, and circumstances that influence how a story is created, presented and understood by the audience. Like many news companies, the BBC has been accused of political bias before, but the memo has proven these accusations. Something worth noting is that this memo was released by Michael Prescott, who was a former advisor to the BBC’s Editorial Standards Committee for three years. According to a report by Grierson, J. (2025, November 10). he did this due to concerns about the broadcaster’s impartiality. He said the BBC published “ill-researched material that suggested issues of racism when there were none”. There was also a “selection bias” against sending about migration and asylum seekers to BBC News app users as push notifications and mispresenting the percentage of Palestinian women and children killed by Israel’s military in Gaza.
The Presenter’s intention of telling the Story
A news reporters’ intention in telling a story is to inform the audience, make the information understandable and engaging, and maintain audience engagement. After the memo was leaked BBC General Director Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness both resigned from their posts. And because of this memo the President of the United States is filing a lawsuit against the BBC. The core message of this report is that a bias reporter is not a reporter, because a reporter is meant to inform people about events and to provide context. If you can’t do that then you are wasting everyone’s time.
KA Reporting 