A botched report, BritBox, and porn : NPR
Journalists report outside BBC Broadcasting House in London. In new lawsuit, President Trump seeks $10 billion from BBC for defamation.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/AP
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Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/AP
Not content with the apologies and resignations of two top BBC executives, President Trump filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the BBC on Monday, part of his continuing strategy to sue the press.
Beyond the legal attack against yet another media outlet, the litigation represents a bold step against a national institution of a trusted ally. It’s based on a montage featured in a documentary about the president’s words on one fateful day. Oddly enough, it also depends on whether a niche streaming service appeals to Florida residents and whether it uses a technological innovation embraced by porn enthusiasts.
A botched modification
At the heart of Trump’s case is an episode of the BBC television documentary program “Panorama” that summarizes comments Trump made to his supporters on January 6, 2021, before they laid siege to the US Capitol.
The episode seamlessly connects Trump’s call for people to march to the Capitol with his exhortation nearly 55 minutes later: “And we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you don’t have a country anymore.” »
Trump’s lawyers say the presentation leaves viewers with the impression that the president incited the violence that followed. They said his remarks were doctored, unedited, and noted the omission of his statement that protesters would “head to the Capitol building to make their voices heard in a peaceful and patriotic manner.”
As NPR and other news outlets have documented, many defendants in the Jan. 6 attack on Congress said they believed they were explicitly urged by Trump to block the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump’s lawsuit calls the documentary a “false, defamatory, misleading, derogatory, inflammatory, and malicious portrayal of President Trump.”
The lawsuit alleges the depiction was “fabricated” and disseminated “in a brazen attempt to interfere and influence the election to the detriment of President Trump.”
Although the BBC has not filed a formal response to the complaint, the public broadcaster reiterated that it will defend itself in court.
In a Nov. 13 letter to Trump’s legal team on behalf of the BBC, Charles Tobin, a leading U.S. First Amendment lawyer, says the network showed contrition by apologizing, pulling the show and accepting the executives’ resignations.
Tobin also noted, on behalf of the BBC, that Trump had previously been indicted by a grand jury on four criminal counts stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including his conduct on January 6, 2021, on the Capitol grounds.
The appeal of BritBox
Despite all the current consternation around the documentary, it didn’t get much attention at the time. The BBC aired the documentary twice in the run-up to the 2024 election – but never broadcast it directly in Florida.
This is important because the suit was filed in Florida, where Trump claims the program was intended to discourage voters from voting for him.
Still, Tobin notes that Trump won Florida in 2024 by a “huge 13-point margin, improving on his 2020 and 2016 performances in the state.”
Trump failed to demonstrate that Floridians were influenced by the documentary, Tobin wrote. He said the BBC did not broadcast the program in Florida on US channels. (The BBC has distribution agreements with PBS and NPR and their member stations for television and radio programs, respectively, but not to broadcast “Panorama”.)
It was “geographically restricted” to British viewers, Tobin wrote.
Hence the argument made in Trump’s trial that American viewers have other ways to watch him. The first is BritBox, a BBC streaming service that takes more inspiration from British mysteries set in seaside locations than the BBC’s coverage of American politics.
In March, then…BBC Director General Tim Davie gave evidence to the House of Commons that BritBox had more than 4 million subscribers in the United States. (The BBC did not detail how many subscribers it has in Florida or how often “Panorama” documentaries are viewed by subscribers in the United States or in the state, in response to questions posed by NPR for this story.)
“The Panorama documentary was available to BritBox subscribers in Florida and was in fact viewed by those subscribers through BritBox and other means provided by the BBC,” Trump’s lawsuit states.
NPR searched for “Panorama” documentaries on the BritBox streaming service through the Amazon Prime platform, one of its main distributors. The only episode available is from 2000. Trump does not mention podcasts. “Panorama” is broadcast on BBC Sounds. Its episodes do not appear to be available in the United States on mainstream podcast distributors such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Pocket Casts, according to an NPR study.
Software allowing anonymous browsing of porn
Trump’s lawsuit also suggests that Americans could watch this particular episode of “Panorama,” if they wanted, through a virtual private network, or VPN.
Trump’s lawsuit says millions of Florida citizens use VPNs to view content from foreign streamers that would otherwise be restricted. And BBC iPlayer is among the most popular streaming services accessible by viewers using a VPN, Trump’s lawsuit claims.
In response to questions from NPR, the BBC declined to detail how many people in the United States access BBC iPlayer via VPNs.
Demand for such software actually increased in 2024 and early 2025. Yet according to analysts — and even according to documents cited by the president’s team in its own case — the reason appears to have less to do with foreign TV shows than with online pornography.
Under a new law, Florida has begun requiring age checks for visitors to pornographic websites, notes Paul Bischoff, publisher of Comparitech, a site that reviews personal cybersecurity software.
“People use VPNs to get around these age checks and site blocks,” Bischoff says. “The reason is obvious.”
A Tampa Free Press article cited in Trump’s lawsuit to help promote the idea of a surge in interest in the BBC actually defeats the idea in its very first sentence – by focusing on this law.
“Demand for virtual private networks (VPNs) has skyrocketed in Florida following the implementation of a new law requiring age verification to access adult websites,” the first paragraph states. “This dramatic increase reflects a widespread effort by Floridians to circumvent restrictions and access adult content.”
Several legal observers anticipate a possible settlement
Several First Amendment lawyers told NPR they believe Trump’s lawsuit will result in some sort of settlement, in part because there is new precedent. Last year, the parent companies of ABC News and CBS News each paid $16 million to settle cases filed by Trump that many legal observers considered specious.
“The facts benefit Trump and the defendants might worry about reputational damage,” says Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who specializes in free speech issues. “The BBC also admitted it could have done better and essentially apologised.”
Some of Trump’s previous lawsuits against the media have failed. He is currently also pursuing New York TimesTHE Wall Street JournalTHE Register of Monks and its former pollster, and the Pulitzer Prize board.
