The BBC has received more than 1,000 complaints about its output being biased in favor of Donald Trump, following a report about the president’s plans to use U.S. military might to “acquire” Greenland.
BBC News has consistently used the word “acquire” to characterize Trump’s ambitions for the semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, with viewers taking particular issue with a BBC Breakfast report on January 7.
During a roundup of the headlines, Breakfast presenter Sally Nugent told viewers: “Using the American military to acquire Greenland. The White House says it is one of the options President Trump and his team are discussing.”
The clip was posted on X/Twitter, where it was picked up by left-wing commentators, such as Owen Jones, who described it as “outrageous.” Jones pointed out that BBC News would not use the word “acquire” if Russia deployed its military to take control of Latvia.
“We all know what they [the BBC] would say. They would correctly say … that Russia is threatening to invade Latvia and annex it,” Jones continued. He posted a link to the BBC’s complaints website and encouraged his followers to voice their misgivings.
The BBC received a total of 1,064 complaints, summarizing the concerns like this: “[It was] inaccurate to say the USA might ‘acquire’ Greenland / bias in favour of President Trump.” The BBC has been approached for comment.
There is suspicion among the left that the BBC is cowering to Trump after being slapped with a $10B Florida lawsuit by the president following a Panorama documentary misleadingly editing a speech he made on January 6, 2020.
In November, similar concerns were raised when the BBC edited a flagship radio broadcast to remove an allegation about Trump being the “most openly corrupt president in American history.” Rutger Bregman, the Danish historian and author, said his 2025 Reith Lectures had been “censored.”
At the time, the BBC responded: “All of our programmes are required to comply with the BBC’s editorial guidelines, and we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.”