Rising Above Partisan Divides, The BBC Will Help NZ Audiences Navigate The US Presidential Election Like Never Before

The BBC will bring multi-platform coverage plans of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election with live coverage and in-depth analysis across BBC.com and the BBC app, the BBC News channel, newsletters, and audio platforms. Additionally, it will launch BBC Verify U.S., a dedicated unit to counter disinformation in the run up to Election Day.

“In this critical election year, the BBC will rise above the divides to deliver even more of our unique brand of trusted news across new platforms and in new formats,” says Deborah Turness, CEO of BBC News. “Where disinformation brings chaos and confusion, the BBC will bring clarity and accuracy, facts not opinion, analysis consumers can trust. We are investing in the tools, techniques, and talent to combat fake news and we are leading the industry in our efforts to earn trust through transparency in our journalism.”

Driven by its commitment to pursuing the truth with no agenda and to delivering the news with clarity and transparency.

Core to the BBC’s multi-platform election coverage, is a new BBC Verify U.S. unit. Following BBC Verify’s success in the U.K. and around the globe, the new U.S. unit, based out of Washington D.C., will combat the growing threat of misinformation and disinformation surrounding the U.S. election, using a range of forensic investigative skills and open -source intelligence capabilities. Led by Ros Atkins, BBC News’ analysis editor who is best known for his expert and viral explainer videos, the BBC Verify U.S. coverage will be digital-first and bring audiences along with them as they closely examine videos, analyse data, and distil complex stories to uncover the truth.

BBC Verify, which launched last year, aims to build trust with audiences by showing how BBC journalists use ever more sophisticated techniques and technology to check and verify information to uphold BBC’s rigorous editorial standards.

In New Zealand, the BBC News channel is available on Sky, the channel’s Chief presenters Caitríona Perry and Sumi Somaskanda will anchor the BBC’s coverage stateside as well as host conversations and insights into foreign policy and the global consequences of major election moments. Senior journalists Helena Humphrey and Carl Nasman will report from across the U.S., giving audiences an inside look at the issues impacting this election. The channel will also feature work by the BBC Verify U.S. team.

The BBC’s Special Correspondent Katty Kay, who has more than 25 years’ experience reporting from Washington as a foreign journalist and as an “expat insider” in America, will offer global analysis on the U.S. election in regular contributions across digital, TV and audio.

As Americans head to the polls in just under 200 days, the new BBC.com and BBC app will be leading destinations for impartial journalism, in-depth and forensic analysis, and comprehensive coverage led by the BBC’s U.S.-based journalists. The team will provide insights from BBC’s Voter Panel, a longstanding group of Americans from across the political spectrum who are polled regularly on what the election means to them and the issues they care about. A key part of this coverage is the BBC’s dynamic live reporting where an expert team of journalists will provide breaking news, real-time results, explainers, fact-checking, and reactions from around the world. The BBC features team will also offer readers content that complements this election coverage and examines the untold or often misunderstood stories of American culture, history and communities.

The award-winning Americast podcast will be available twice a week as an audio and visualized podcast. The podcast is hosted by the BBC’s North America editor, Sarah Smith, disinformation and social media correspondent, Marianna Spring, North America correspondent, Anthony Zurcher, as well Justin Webb, host of The Today Programme, the UK’s biggest speech radio show. In each episode, the hosts - half of which are in the U.S. and half in the U.K. – will take audiences along as they try to make sense of the most polarised U.S. election in history and will be on the ground speaking with voters about what matters to them. Additionally, The Global Story, the BBC’s daily podcast hosted by Katya Adler, will dive deep into key questions, and make sense of the latest news around the election.

Audiences who want the BBC’s unparalleled election coverage direct to their inbox can subscribe to Anthony Zurcher’s U.S. Election Unspun, a weekly newsletter which cuts through the noise by focusing on what actually matters in the race to the White House. A veteran American journalist with more than 30 years’ experience covering U.S. politics, Zurcher will help readers stay well-informed by covering both the serious and lighter aspects of the contest.

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