(MENAFN) White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has ridiculed the BBC following Sunday's resignation announcements by its director general and head of news.

The departures follow controversy surrounding a documentary examining US President Donald Trump's involvement in the 2021 Capitol riots, which had previously attracted condemnation from Washington.

Leavitt shared screenshots of two media reports with the caption 'shot/chaser', referencing a popular meme format. The first featured a Telegraph headline asserting Trump was "going to war" with the BBC, while the second displayed the BBC's own coverage of its director general Tim Davie's resignation.

Davie stepped down alongside the head of news, Deborah Turness. The director general declined to specify reasons for his exit, stating merely that "there have been some mistakes made." Turness acknowledged the "ongoing controversy around the Panorama [program] on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC."

The British broadcaster recently faced accusations of misleading the public in its portrayal of Trump's connection to the Capitol riots. Leavitt previously characterized the BBC as a "Leftist propaganda machine" and "100 percent fake news."

The BBC receives funding through a compulsory annual license fee of £174.50 ($229), with the UK government also directly financing approximately one-third of its World Service budget.

UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy responded to the resignations by thanking Davie for his "service to public broadcasting over many years" and emphasized the BBC must "adapt" to a new era and preserve "its role at the heart of national life for decades to come."

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