November 29, 2025 - 8:00am
Salman Rushdie has labelled the BBC “cowardly” for its removal of a line about Donald Trump from one of this year’s Reith Lectures.
Speaking to The News Agents podcast, the Booker Prize-winning author criticised the corporation’s decision to cut from broadcast a comment made by Dutch historian Rutger Bregman which accused Trump of being “the most openly corrupt president in US history”. Rushdie said that “the BBC continues to be really stupid, and there’s no cure for stupidity,” adding: “It’s just dumb, and it gives ammunition to people who would like to take down public broadcasting.” He also argued that “I don’t believe that the BBC, even five or 10 years ago, would have done that […] it’s a cowardly thing to do.”
Bregman gave the address, titled “A Time of Monsters”, last month, and the offending remark was removed when the lecture was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this week. The historian responded that he was “genuinely dismayed” by the corporation’s decision, adding that it had come “from the highest levels within the BBC” and “happened against my wishes”. He also accused executives of “self-censorship through fear”. Speaking to The News Agents about the dispute, Rushdie called it “pre-censorship, censorship before you need to do anything”. The novelist stated: “I think the BBC is an enormously valuable institution, but it seems to have done some dumb things of late.”
Earlier this month, Director-General Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness resigned following the publication of leaked details from an internal memo written by former journalist Michael Prescott. It included numerous incidents pointing to a perceived bias in reporting, including on topics such as climate change, transgender rights, and the war in Gaza. Most consequentially, it provided evidence that the BBC’s Panorama had deliberately “doctored” a speech by Trump to falsely suggest that he had “made a direct call to violent action” when protesters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. In response, the US President this month threatened to sue the corporation for up to $5 billion.
In the new interview, Rushdie claimed that “the Trump reinvention of the Republican Party” is driving “enormous” attacks in America “against television networks, against comedians, against universities”. Ahead of last year’s election, he said a Trump victory would make America “unliveable”, calling the prospect “unbearable, unthinkable, because he’ll be much worse this time. He’ll be unleashed. He’s a liar and a bully, and cares about nothing except himself.” Speaking to The News Agents, Rushdie criticised “a fracturing in society, where people take up very embedded, entrenched positions”. He added: “The fracture is very deep and very wide, and it’s actually quite hard to see how you repair it.”
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