Trump, Obama, the FBI and the BBC

It's all kicking off again. Not long after the BBC posted its Echoes of Watergate resurface as Trump-Russia links probe piece (not that there's a connection!), President Trump sent out four tweets claiming that President Obama has engaged in Watergate-style activities:

• Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
• Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
• I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
• How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

The BBC obviously doesn't buy it. The BBC News website's report states that Trump "gave no details to back the claim" and features a sarcastic analysis from Anthony Zurcher, who says "There is scant evidence supporting these allegations" and suggests it "could mark the beginning of a massive water-muddying effort" - something he also suggests, minus the caveats, in a tweet:

Jon Sopel, meanwhile, is being sarky about Trump's spelling and blaming it on Breitbart:

And Katty Kay - who links to a source debunking Trump's claim, saying that he was wire-tapped by the FBI and that (a) it's old news, (b) not illegal and (c) suggests the courts much have felt there were grounds to authorise it - is tweeting: 

Samira Ahmed, on the other hand, is living in hope of the lawyers:

Laura Bicker on BBC One's early evening news bulletin described Trump's tweets as a "tirade" and said he'd "trashed" the tradition that their should be "a peaceful handover of power", and the bulletin said that he'd "offered no evidence that it had taken place".

No-one at the BBC (as far as I can see) has quite got round to calling this 'fake news' yet. They clearly think it is though.