The director general of the BBC announced his resignation Sunday following a row over the editing of a documentary about Donald Trump as the US president attacked “corrupt journalists”.Tim Davie and the broadcaster’s head of news, Deborah Turness, resigned after accusations that a documentary by its flagship Panorama programme had edited a speech by Trump in a misleading way.Reacting to the news, Trump said “corrupt journalists” had been exposed, adding “these are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election”.Announcing his resignation Davie said in a statement posted on the BBC website: “Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable.”While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision… I have to take ultimate responsibility.”The latest controversy follows a Daily Telegraph report this week that said concerns were first raised in the summer in a memo on impartiality by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee.Earlier Sunday, the UK Culture, Media and Sport Minister Lisa Nandy called the allegations “incredibly serious”.The BBC has promised “a full response” to parliament’s culture media and sport committee on Monday.- Trump speech edited -The criticism emerged over clips spliced together from sections of a Trump speech on January 6, 2021, when he was accused of fomenting the mob attack on the US Capitol seeking to keep him in power despite losing his re-election bid. The edit made it appear he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them and “fight like hell”.In the undoctored clip, however, the president urged the audience to walk with him “and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women”.At the time, Trump was still disputing President Joe Biden’s election victory, in a vote that saw him ousted after his first term in office.The edit was included in a documentary entitled “Trump: A Second Chance?” that was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.- ‘Bias’ allegation -Nandy had said earlier Sunday that the Trump edit was one of several concerns about editorial standards at the BBC.”It isn’t just about the Panorama programme, although that is incredibly serious,” she told BBC television in an interview.”There are a series of very serious allegations made, the most serious of which is that there is systemic bias in the way that difficult issues are reported at the BBC,” she said.Nandy said she was concerned about a tendency for editorial standards and the language used in reports to be “entirely inconsistent” whether it be on “Israel, Gaza… trans people or on this issue about President Trump”.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt seemed to rejoice over the news, posting on X a screen-shot of the BBC news site announcing the resignation.Leavitt was previously quoted by the Telegraph condemning “this purposefully dishonestly, selectively edited clip by the BBC”.The BBC is funded by a licence fee paid by anyone who watches live TV in the UK.Earlier this year, it issued several apologies for “serious flaws” in the making of another documentary entitled “Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone”, broadcast in February.In October it accepted a sanction from the UK media watchdog for what was deemed a “materially misleading” programme, whose child narrator was later revealed to be the son of Hamas’s former deputy agriculture minister.

Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted Sunday in New York on federal charges involving rigged bets on individual pitches in Major League Baseball games.The Dominican right-handers had been placed on leave by MLB since July while the league conducted an investigation into sports gambling surrounding them.Ortiz was arrested Sunday in Boston and will appear in court on Monday while Clase is not in custody.Prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Clase, a 27-year-old closing reliever, and Ortiz, a 26-year-old starter, with being part of a scheme with corrupt bettors who placed hundreds of thousands of dollars in wagers on specific throws.Charges included wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy.”Professional athletes, like Luis Leandro Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase de la Cruz, hold a position of trust — not only with their teammates and their professional leagues, but with fans who believe in fair play,” US attorney Joseph Nocella said.”As alleged, the defendants sold that trust to gamblers by fixing pitches,” he added.”When corruption infiltrates the sport, it brings disgrace not only to the participants but damages the public trust in an institution that is vital and dear to all of us.”The announcement follows the late October arrests of two prominent NBA basketball figures, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, in a separate far-ranging probe into illegal gambling.Prosecutors in the baseball case said the pitchers agreed in advance with their co-conspirators on specific pitches they would throw, the bettors using that inside information to place hundreds of fraudulent bets.Clase agreed to the scheme around May 2023 to rig “prop” bets on particular pitches he threw, with wagers on the speed and type of throws he would make, coordinating with Clase at times during games, prosecutors said.”Clase often threw these rigged pitches on the first pitch of an at-bat,” a statement from prosecutors said. “To ensure certain pitches were called as balls, Clase threw many of them in the dirt, well outside the strike zone.”Clase received kickbacks from the bettors for the information and sometimes provided money to finance the scheme, according to charges.Among the rigged pitches was one in New York in a game against the host Mets.Prosecutors claimed Clase caused his co-conspirator bettors to win at least $400,000 in fraudulent wagers.- June pitches eyed -This past June, charges claim, Ortiz joined the conspiracy, agreeing in advance to throw balls rather than strikes on certain pitches in two games in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.Before a game on June 15, Ortiz allegedly agreed to throw a ball on a particular pitch in exchange for a $5,000 bribe with Clase getting a $5,000 bribe for arranging the rigged pitch.Ortiz allegedly agreed to throw another rigged pitch on June 27 in exchange for a $7,000 bribe for himself and another for Clase.Clase allegedly withdrew $50,000 in cash and provided $15,000 to a co-conspirator to wage on Ortiz’s rigged pitch during the June 27 contest, with Ortiz producing at least $60,000 in winning wagers for the co-conspirators.Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on wire fraud conspiracy, 20 years for honest services wire fraud conspiracy, five years on conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and 20 years on the money laundering conspiracy charge.