What to know about the BBC's latest crisis after its apology to Trump

LONDON (AP) — The BBC has issued a public apology to President Donald Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, but said it “strongly disagreed there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

Since it was established more than a century ago, Britain's public broadcaster has been no stranger to controversy. Over the past week, it has been embroiled in a major crisis as its director general stepped down, its head of news quit, questions were raised over the veracity of its journalism and Trump says he's poised to file a billion-dollar lawsuit.

“We'll sue them for anywhere between a billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week,” Trump said as he flew aboard Air Force One to Florida for the weekend.

Here's what to know.

Pressure on the broadcaster has been growing since the right-leaning Daily Telegraph newspaper published parts of a dossier compiled by the BBC's adviser on standards and guidelines on Nov. 3.

As well as criticizing the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues and raising concerns of anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service, the dossier said that an edition of the BBC’s flagship current affairs series, “Panorama” — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — broadcast days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election was misleading.

Specifically, it showed how the third-party production company that made the film spliced together three quotes from two sections of the Jan. 6, 2021, speech into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.”

By doing so, it made it look like Trump was giving the green light to his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.

The outcry from opponents of the BBC — and there are many both in the U.K. and abroad — was immediate and vociferous.

The broadcaster, which is funded by an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by all U.K. households who watch live TV or any BBC content, was accused of bias against Trump, symptomatic of they say an inherent liberal bias within the organization.

For days, the BBC said very little, saying it did not report to leaked reports. Many thought that was a misjudgement as it allowed the narrative around the edit to be led by its opponents.

By Nov. 9, the pressure on the BBC was becoming increasingly acute, prompting its top executive, Tim Davie, and head of news Deborah Turness to resign over what the broadcaster called an “error of judgment.”

It was also revealed that Trump was demanding a retraction, apology and compensation over the sequence — but that hasn't stopped him from planning to sue. “I think they defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it,” Trump said this past week.

Trump had set a deadline of Friday for the BBC to respond to his challenge.

While the BBC said earlier in the week that the edited portion of the program was an “error of judgement,” it did not apologize to Trump directly until Thursday evening.

In a statement, it said its chair, Samir Shah, had personally sent a letter to the White House saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit of the speech.

While the BBC statement doesn’t respond to Trump’s demand that he be compensated for “overwhelming financial and reputational harm,” the headline on its news story about the apology said it refused to pay compensation.

In addition to insisting that the apology won't stop a lawsuit, Trump said Friday night that he planned to speak to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer soon, noting: ”He actually put a call into me. He’s very embarrassed.”

“The UK is very, very embarrassed by BBC, what they did,” Trump said.

Legal experts have stated that Trump would likely face challenges in taking the case to court in the U.K. or the U.S. They argue that the BBC could demonstrate that Trump wasn’t harmed, as he was ultimately elected president in 2024.

While many legal experts have dismissed the president’s claims against the media as having little merit, he has won some lucrative settlements against U.S. media companies and he could try to leverage the BBC mistake for a payout, potentially to a charity of his choice.

However, this latest crisis pans out in the days and weeks ahead, the heat will remain on the BBC, especially in its newsrooms where any mistake, or seeming bias, will no doubt be picked up by opponents.

As a public broadcaster, the BBC must be impartial in its coverage of news events. It's a fine balancing act that often gets the BBC into trouble. Some think it leans too much to the right, while others think it goes the other way. Whatever the truth of the matter, many think that the BBC is often cowed in its coverage, particularly on domestic political matters.

Not only does it need to find a new director-general and head of news, it has to negotiate its future with the government.

The left-of-center Labour government, which is considered to be one of the most pro-BBC political parties in the U.K., will soon start the once-a-decade process of reviewing the BBC’s governing charter, which expires at the end of 2027.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the government would ensure the BBC is “sustainably funded (and) commands the public’s trust,” but did not say whether the license fee might be scaled back or scrapped.

Pedestrians are reflected as they walk outside BBC Broadcasting House in London, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Outgoing BBC Director-General Tim Davie outside BBC Broadcasting House in London, Tuesday Nov. 11, 2025. (Lucy North/PA via AP)

Pedestrian walks outside the BBC Headquarters in London, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A view of the logo outside the BBC Headquarters in London, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Alabama is forcing the committee that will set the College Football Playoff bracket to revisit an old question: Should a 12-team tournament to determine the national champion include a program with three losses?

And Duke is bringing up a new head-scratcher that nobody really thought of before: Could a team possibly make the playoff with five?

Those two mysteries were the main ones left after a day of shuffling in the conference title games set the stakes for Sunday’s big reveal.

Alabama’s 28-7 loss to CFP No. 3 Georgia and unranked Duke’s 27-20 win in overtime over CFP No. 16 Virginia were the key results Saturday — leaving the selection committee to sleep on which three teams out of five contenders vying for the final spots in the bracket are worthy, and which two stay home.

No. 9 Alabama (10-3), No. 10 Notre Dame (10-2) and No. 12 Miami (10-2) are in the hunt for two of those spots.

No. 25 James Madison (12-1) and Duke (8-5) — unranked but the newly crowned champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference — are the candidates for the other.

Normally, the sports world doesn’t start paying attention to Duke until hoops season reaches full swing. Maybe someone among the ever-present throng of Duke haters on social media would title this one: “Blue Devils ruin football, too!”

Duke’s win gives the ACC a champion with five losses, which places the conference on the cusp of not placing a single team into the tournament.

Blue Devils coach Manny Diaz is more than fine with comparing his team to James Madison.

“They don’t have a win like this. They don’t have a win against a team like that. That’s a big-time team right there in Virginia,” he said. “Seven wins in this conference? Seven Power Four wins compared to zero? No, that’s a playoff team. These guys deserve to be in.”

It is true that Duke’s strength of schedule is about 50 spots higher than James Madison’s. But in most of the rest of the metrics — including that all-important loss column — the Dukes of James Madison look much stronger than Duke.

This is how the ACC got into this pickle:

— No. 20 Tulane won the American Conference.

— The No. 25 Dukes won the Sun Belt.

— The unranked Blue Devils beat Virginia.

CFP rules call for the five best-ranked conference titlists to earn automatic spots in the 12-team bracket. Four of those spots, or so the thinking went, were supposed to go to the Power Four conferences. But that’s not what the rules say, and so, it comes down to whether the committee ranks Duke ahead of James Madison to keep the unthinkable from happening.

Because two teams from outside the top 25 won their conferences and will receive automatic bids, it means the top 10 teams — not 12 — from Sunday's rankings will make the playoffs.

Heading into Saturday, one thought was that the committee placed Alabama at No. 9 last week, flip-flopping it with Notre Dame, so that if the Crimson Tide lost, there would still be room to slip them into the playoff, even with that 10-3 record.

The ugliness of Saturday's loss — a 21-point beatdown that looked worse at times — might change that calculus.

Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer is leaning on the idea that a team shouldn’t be penalized for playing in its conference title game.

“How that can can hurt you and keep you out of the playoff?” he said.

Last year, Alabama was the odd man out after being idle on championship Saturday, but watching SMU slide in ahead of it after — what else? — a loss in its conference title game. But that loss was close. Alabama's wasn't.

Notre Dame and Miami, which were idle Saturday, are looking at other things.

Irish coach Marcus Freeman is leaning on the argument that the real comparison should be between his team and Alabama — not between Notre Dame and BYU or Notre Dame and Miami. He wants nothing to do with that Miami comparison, because the Irish lost to the Hurricanes in Week 1.

Committee chair Hunter Yurachek has been opaque, at best, about how the committee judges that result.

One possibility Sunday is that, thanks to No. 11 BYU's lopsided loss to Texas Tech, Notre Dame and Miami could be scrunched right next to each other in the rankings. That, some believe, would make it almost impossible to ignore the head-to-head matchup.

That’s what Miami coach Mario Cristobal is banking on.

“Same record. Identical metrics and then, again, Miami beats Notre Dame,” he said.

The game pitting the two best teams in the country didn't have much impact on anything regarding playoff seeding.

No. 2 Indiana beat No. 1 Ohio State 13-10 in a thrilling, defensive slugfest that will make the Hoosiers — yes, the Indiana Hoosiers — the top team in the country heading into the playoff.

All the discourse about Alabama and the meaning of title games aside, it would be hard to see Ohio State dropping below the No. 4 spot and forfeiting the first-round bye that goes to the top four.

Maybe the committee places the Buckeyes at 2 or 3 to at least keep alive the tantalizing prospect of a rematch in the national final on Jan. 19.

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Alabama head coach Kalen Deboer speaks to an official during the first half of a Southeastern Conference championship NCAA college football game between Georgia and Alabama, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Georgia defensive back Daylen Everette (6) runs an intercepted ball against Alabama wide receiver Germie Bernard (5) during the first half of a Southeastern Conference championship NCAA college football game, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)