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In your briefing today:

• As Donald Trump threatens a $1 billion lawsuit, what to make of the crisis at the BBC?

• Scottish Labour’s new economic report throws up some awkward questions

• The UK government’s approach to North Sea oil and gas is coming under greater scrutiny

📣 Donald Trump has threatened a $1 billion legal action against the BBC if it doesn’t make a “full and fair retraction” of a documentary which featured an misleading edit of a speech he made in 2021. The edits made it appear he was explicitly urging people to attack the US Capital after his election defeat. “Grovel - or I’ll sue”, as the Daily Mail puts it. (BBC) (Mail) (Guardian)

• BBC board member with Tory links “led charge” in bias claims (Guardian)

• Sketch: The BBC announces the BBC has launched a coup against the BBC (Times £)

• What to make of the crisis at the BBC? More later in today’s Early Line. ⬇️

📣 Economist and former University of Glasgow principal Sir Anton Muscatelli unveiled his report on the Scottish economy yesterday, and the BBC’s Douglas Fraser says it’ll make “uncomfortable reading” for the SNP government.

But he also notes it has some awkward questions for Labour, too - interesting, as Anas Sarwar commissioned the work.

Muscatelli sets out his case in his first sentence: “There is a need for much greater consistency, clarity of purpose, and sustained focus on the objective to drive economic and productivity growth.”

He calls for local devolution, changes to education policy, more flexible planning and a shift on immigration, among other ideas. (BBC) (Read the report in full)

• People being “put off” coming to Scotland by high taxes (Scotsman)

📣 Lloyds Banking Group analysed data from the personal bank accounts of 30,000 of its own staff to assess their financial resiliance during pay negotiations with their union.

An insights team compared the spending habits, savings and salary increases of employees to those of customers and presented them in pay talks with unions, the FT reports. The bank found employees had fared better than the general public during the cost of living crisis.

Lloyds said all of the data used was anonymous and “fully aggregated”. (FT £)

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AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 The Herald’s doing a big number on controversial plans to extend Edinburgh’s tram network. While it does a decent job of explaining what the council claims about the routes it’s considering, I couldn’t spot any mention of the analysis - previously featured in The Early Line - which calls into question some of the key assumptions in the consultation papers about costs, tram speed and impact. (Herald)

• A brief line in The Edinburgh Minute, yesterday, suggested neither tram route option may be taken up, such is the public backlash. (Edinburgh Minute)

📣 The UK government has its “head on backwards” over energy policy and risks a repeat of 80-style devastation of the oil and gas industry, a Labour party activist who chairs a UK energy company has warned. Mark Lappin, chairman at Deltic Energy, says Ed Miliband’s hostility to the industry risked “killing” it. (Times £)

• Anas Sarwar has “pleaded” with UK government colleagues to pursue North Sea oil and gas opportunities. (Scotsman)

📣 John Swinney privately welcomed a UK/EU fishing deal… only a month after calling it a “surrender” in public. (Express)

📣 Why is Edinburgh’s Radical Road, at Arthur’s Seat, still closed? (BBC)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 Eight people have been killed in Delhi after a car exploded near the Red Fort landmark. Home Minister Amit Shah says officials are “exploring all possibilities” as to what caused the blast, which also left 20 people injured.

📣 Nicolas Sarkozy has been released from prison after serving only three weeks of his five-year sentence. (Independent)

📣 Russia has deployed 150,000 troops to capture Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, as fighting intensifies. (Independent)

📣 The US Government shutdown continues to edge towards a conclusion: the Senate has approved a deal, which will now head to Congress. (AP)

SPORT

⚽️ Scotland head coach Steve Clarke has been forced to make changes to his squad for the two vital World Cup qualifiers against Greece and Denmark this week, after three players were ruled out with injury. (Scotsman)

• Hearts star Lawrence Shankland says he’s ready to step up for Scotland (Record)

⚽️ “Battle-weary” Martin O’Neill may not want to hold the fort at Celtic much longer, thinks John McGarry. (Mail)

IDEAS
What to make of the crisis at the BBC

📣 A few people asked why I didn’t say more about the BBC crisis yesterday. Truth is, after the story broke on Sunday night I wanted to gather my thoughts.

I spent eight enjoyable, productive years at the Corporation, leaving only because another great job came along.

These days, I’m on the other side of the fence - the BBC’s a competitor - but I still think its core purpose matters, and is worth protecting. Maybe, in this age of misinformation and plain-sight dishonesty, it matters even more.

I also didn’t want to offer a “better in my day” sermon: when I worked at the BBC, I despised those. Every BBC generation faces its own, unique, challenges. And journalism’s hard. Everyone makes mistakes. What counts is how we stop them happening, and how we respond when they crop up.

So, in best Early Line fashion, six quick thoughts.

1. The Panorama edit of Donald Trump’s speech was a disaster. I’m baffled by how many smart journalists and ex-BBC people are defending it on the basis of “we all know what Trump is like”. Maybe that mindset is part of the problem. Editing speeches and interviews is normal, but fairness demands we the sense of what was said. Anything else is dishonest, even if the person being harmed is, themselves, dishonest: whataboutery isn’t a defence.
   

2. BBC people I’ve spoken to are left staggered by the failures of oversight. They can’t understand how the dodgy edit wasn’t caught - Panorama should have layers of checks. Worse, an internal report had already flagged issues months ago, yet nothing happened until The Telegraph started asking questions. Then came the bizarre PR line: “We don’t comment on leaks.” All that was mad, bad, passive comms, which should have been managed by BBC executives, but was frustrated by a BBC board that intervened, but then - for political reasons or other - dithered.
   

3. But all this isn’t about just one edit. The Guardian reports today that Robbie Gibb, a board member, has led criticism of the BBC’s coverage of issues including Trump, Gaza and gender. I sense that, because Gibb is a Tory, we’re expected to be appalled at this. The Guardian’s report also suggests board process was profoundly lacking - and that’s the chair’s fault. But a board member being critical isn’t unusual - he may just be doing his job - and on some issues he’s been handed a lot of ammunition by editorial mistakes. And the problems with the BBC’s journalistic process have likely come from the top. Tim Davie, is skilled, energetic and a strong leader, but he had no journalism background, and it showed. He missed obvious risks, like the Glastonbury broadcast featuring Bob Vylan’s anti-IDF rant.
   

4. That sort of very public mistake was bad enough, but they also made you worry about the things you couldn’t see. Was the BBC’s intricate systems of checks and balances working properly? You have to fear not. Even as I was leaving in 2021, I sensed a cultural shift: younger, activist staff pulling output to the left. Add to that the long-running struggle to manage on-screen talent and it’s all just more ammunition.
   

5. In that light, the resignations make sense. Tim Davie and Deborah Turness didn’t fall to a political coup, despite the hysteria. Their exits were sensible responses to systemic failures that have shaken confidence. When systems fail, leaders go - that’s the nature of the job, sometimes. Staying would have made things worse. In the end, their final decisions were probably among their best.
   

6. Finally, I don’t think this crisis is as existential as some think it is. Not yet. But it comes at a bad time for the BBC, as it starts to renegotiate a new Charter. The next DG will need to be immensely capable, strong-minded and politically adept. There are some, but not many, good candidates around. And the poorly-managed relationship between board ane executive should place the chairman’s role under scrutiny, too. It will put good people off the top jobs in the meantime. The crisis isn’t over.

If you’re one of The Early Line readers who works at the BBC (or, indeed, if you’ve just interested in the subject) do hit reply and let me know your thoughts. I’d be glad to reflect more on this and incorporate your comments, anonymously or otherwise, in future editions.

👍 That’s your Early Line for the day

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