BBC says it was wrong to say Donald Trump falsely claimed fraud the day after US election poll

One complaint said that this was inaccurate, as the BBC could not have known at the time whether the claim of fraud was in fact false. The public broadcaster's Executive Complaints Unit which considered the complaint in the light of its editorial standards of accuracy accepted it could not be substantiated at that time that the president's claim was false.

The ECU said: "Whilst it was accurate to report in the body of the article that the president had not provided an evidential basis for the doubt he had cast on the validity of the poll, neither the BBC nor any other media outlet was in a position to describe the claim as false (as distinct from unsupported), and the headline fell below the BBC’s standards of accuracy in that respect.

"However, the ECU noted that, by 8.46am, the word “falsely” had been removed from the headline to the article and from the short version of the headline in the site index. In the ECU’s judgement, the promptness of this action sufficed to resolve the issue of complaint."

However a tweet repeating the headline from BBC News (World) remains in place, which has been roundly criticised.

Steve Flatman remarked: "How can anyone state he has ‘falsely claimed fraud’ without identifying and investigating the specifics of his accusations. To dismiss such claims without even knowing what they are smacks of a cover-up."

And John Trafalgar said: "Oh look. The BBC has already forensically assessed Trump's claim and is in a position to categorise it as 'false'."

The text of the original story talked about the outcome of the US presidential election being "on a knife edge", with Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden neck and neck in key swing states.

It went on: "Mr Trump, a Republican, claimed to have won and vowed to launch a Supreme Court challenge, baselessly alleging fraud."

Later it says: "Millions of votes remain uncounted and no candidate can credibly claim victory as yet. There is no evidence of fraud."

The text was changed later the same day.

Before and after.

The headline was scrapped, and in its place was "US Election 2020: Tense wait as US election winner remains unclear"..

Also deleted was the reference to "baselessly alleging fraud" and "there is no evidence of fraud". They were replaced by reference to him not providing evidence of fraud.

The TV BBC News coverage was more moderated in its language, reporting that Mr Trump claimed the race would be his "and then said this".

Mr Trump is seen saying: "This is a fraud on the American public, this is an embarrassment to our country."

The BBC then report that he would take his fight to the Supreme Court.

The report added: "There is no evidence to support Donald Trump's claim of fraud and millions of ballots are still being counted as they should."

The former president was acquitted at his impeachment trial over the deadly attack on the US Capitol

He faced a single charge of inciting a mob of his supporters to ransack Congress

Fifty-seven senators voted to convict him - 10 short of the number needed to convict

Seven Republicans turned against their former president.

 Republican Mitch McConnell lambasted Trump's for promoting unsubstantiated theories about election fraud, and then for not doing his job "as the chaos unfolded" on January 6. But he said he could not convict him because he is now a private citizen,

A statement from Mr Trump called the verdict a witch hunt but vowed to carry on the fight.

In September, 2019  BBC director general Lord Hall reversed a decision  to partially uphold a complaint that Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty breached BBC guidelines by criticising President Donald Trump for perceived racism.

In July the BBC presenter took issue with comments made by the US President after he told opponents to "go back" to the "places from which they came".

The BBC said the Breakfast host was entitled to her own views but had gone "beyond what the guidelines allow for".

But Lord Hall told staff that Ms Munchetty's words were not "sufficient to merit a partial uphold" of the complaint against her.

She had been found to have breached the BBC's guidelines over comments she made about a tweet from Donald Trump about four female politicians of colour.

Lord Hall said he "personally" reviewed the decision of the complaints unit.

A complaint against Ms Munchetty was partially upheld after the BBC found she had criticised the US president's motives in saying four female Democrats should "go back" to "places from which they came".

At the time, the BBC said Munchetty had gone "beyond what the guidelines allow for".

On Monday, the director general reiterated that "racism is racism and the BBC is not impartial on the topic".

The reversal of the decision comes after dozens of black actors and broadcasters called on the BBC to overturn its decision.

The saga began when Mr Trump posted several messages that made references to the Democrat politicians Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.