As the BBC flounders in the backlash of the hamfisted edit of Donald Trump’s January 6 speech (Reith lecturer accuses BBC of cowardice for censoring his remarks on Trump, 25 November) we have lost sight of the fact that Auntie Beeb has long been tethered by a political leash. I’m sure examples abound. My blinkers were removed when my father, EP Thompson, was asked to give the Dimbleby lecture in the mid-1980s. I well remember Jonathan Dimbleby and Bel Mooney discussing the project over lunch at my parents’ house outside Worcester.
Edward was disappointed, though hardly surprised, when the lectures were vetoed by the BBC’s top brass. It’s a shame. He was an inspired wordsmith. Not for the first or last time, nation was prevented from speaking peace to nation.
Mark Thompson
London
• Congratulations to the BBC. Its omission of the sentence describing Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history” from the broadcast of the first of this year’s Reith lectures, along with the consequent complaint by the author Rutger Bregman, has publicised the statement brilliantly. I expect that the audience for the rest of the lectures will be much enhanced.
Chris Barney
Birdingbury, Warwickshire
• You report that BBC journalists have been banned from quoting Rutger Bregman’s line that “Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history”, citing legal advice (Report, 27 November). In that case I’d advise staff to instead quote from a news item still on the BBC website from 2 December 2024, which quotes Joe Biden saying Trump is “the most corrupt president in modern American history”.
Alan Stone
Yarmouth, Isle of Wight
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