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Subscribe to RSSBBC Director General George Entwistle resigned on Saturday as the BBC spiraled further into scandal over its coverage of two separate sex abuse cases – one, a cover up, and the other, a possible wrongful accusation. NBC's Keir Simmons reports.
The director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation, George Entwistle, resigned Saturday after only 54 days in the role - the latest to be caught in the wake of a child sex-abuse scandal that has thrown the 90-year-old publicly funded behemoth and other U.K. institutions into deepening turmoil.
The scandal, which began with allegations against a single former BBC employee, has since engulfed hospitals, children’s homes, even the police.
It also poses questions for Mark Thompson, Entwistle's immediate predecessor, who on Monday becomes chief executive of The New York Times.
For an entire week, one of the BBC's key news shows suggested a leading Conservative party politician, who wasn’t named, had been involved in the rape of a young boy in Wales decades ago. The man accused denied it; the victim himself now says it was a case of mistaken identity.
Many networks ran interviews with the victim -- one even asked whether a pedophile network had been protected by a masonic conspiracy. Did a judge who led an early inquiry into the abuse at a North Wales children’s home deliberately hide the names of famous or influential abusers?
Max Nash / AP
The BBC Director General, George Entwistle, announces his resignation from the BBC outside New Broadcasting House in central London, Saturday Nov. 10.
In front of 1 million television viewers, a morning TV host handed a list of alleged pedophiles to the British Prime Minister David Cameron live on air. That list, allegedly including the names of other senior politicians, was compiled based on unsubstantiated Internet rumors.
The revelation that all of this was a mistake is once again causing Britain's media organizations to question their own values, only months after news of newspaper phone-hacking. It has filled Britain with outrage, astonishment and self-doubt.
The scandal had begun with separate claims that BBC - one of the most respected brands in journalism worldwide - had failed to expose the late BBC children's television personality and fundraiser, Jimmy Savile, as a pedophile even though it had interviewed several victims who made allegations against the star.
It’s now clear those allegations are well founded. Yet the same BBC program, 'Newsnight', that shelved the original and apparently accurate Savile story was the first to broadcast the latest false allegations.
'Newsnight' has apologized on air for its mistake, another inquiry has been launched, and the program has temporarily suspended all its investigatory work. On Saturday, Entwistle, who took his post in September, resigned in response to the growing scandal after a humiliating interview on the BBC’s own flagship radio news program, 'Today'. The BBC is in crisis.
BBC boss Entwistle quits amid turmoil over network's child sex abuse scandal
On Sunday, the head of the BBC's governing body - former Thatcher-era government minister Lord Patten - admitted the issue of public trust in BBC journalism was paramount, and said a "thorough, radical, structural overhaul" of the organization was now necessary.
Savile had been a British institution, presenting TV shows during the 1970s and '80s that attracted huge audiences. Now police investigators suspect that he was abusing hundreds of children, even on BBC property.
One man described how, at the age of 9, he went to be part of the audience for the Savile show "Jim’ll Fix It." He says Savile abused him in a dressing room.
“He put his hand on my knee and started touching me,” the man said in an interview. “And grabbed my hand and forced it on top of his trousers. I was absolutely petrified.”
The allegations became public only weeks after the departure of Entwistle's predecessor, Mark Thompson, who starts his job as NYT chief executive on Monday.
In a statement last month, quoted by The New York Times, Thompson said, “During my time as director general of the BBC, I never heard any allegations or received any complaints about Jimmy Savile.”
Lewis Whyld / AP
Jimmy Savile is shown in a March 2008 file photo.
But NBC News has spoken to one of the journalists who broke the Savile story. He says he called Thompson’s office in May and outlined the allegations to his personal assistant.
“I absolutely remember saying it,” says Miles Goslett. “I always felt it extraordinary that no senior people in the BBC including Mark Thompson as director general addressed this issue.”
When asked about Goslett’s allegations, the BBC sent NBC News a prepared statement regarding Thompson’s knowledge of the affair:
“Mark Thompson has repeatedly made clear he had no personal knowledge of the allegations. While Ms. Cecil recalls Mr Goslett telephoning her to complain about a Freedom of Information request she does not recall that he mentioned the nature of the allegations against Savile." (Click here for the BBC’s full statements on the affair )
Jessica Cecil is the head of the director general's office.
This week NBC News approached Thompson for an interview, after a lecture he gave at Oxford University. Thompson declined, saying he wanted to wait for the outcome of that BBC inquiry.
But whatever its conclusions, the implications for the BBC are already becoming clear. Trust in the institution had dropped from 62 percent in 2009 to 47 percent last week, according to a poll conducted by one of the BBC’s own radio stations.
It is not alone. This scandal has rocked people’s faith in many of Britain’s institutions and left a country questioning itself and its elite.
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If you don't treat the male victoms of child sexual abuse, you will always have this problem. Sexual offenders are not born, they are made. We are probably a lot further into reducing (will never stop) this scourge then we think because of all the daylight we are shining.
In light of the 'news' reports based on internet innuendo and the bravado of handing 'guilty person' lists to authorities on air - when did Fox News take over the BBC?
If the BBC falls down far enough Rupert Murdock will be tempted to make and offer for it. Donald Trump could be interested if Murdock loses interest, but that may be too low.
Rich,
After the News Corp debacle, I don't think the UK would let Murdoch have any access to new media outlets there, much less the BBC.
Trust? In the British Broadcasting Company? They are no more credible than the American media that everyone says has absolutely no credibility. No entertainment company should have much credibility anyway, since most of what they produce is made up anyway. Once a company reaches a high social status, just like any rich family or government official, they will use their power and 'untouchability' to do damn near whatever they please.
It couldn't have happened to a nicer country...
Bunch of bastards...
lol, wow have something agaisnt the English do we? What was it, a bad personal experience on a holiday to England? Or are you just a xenophobe who doesn't like anyone but Americans? Lol
I tried to figure latintango's comment for a few seconds myself earlier today........all I could think of was that he must be an @sshole and pretty stupid to boot. Meh........his opinion is insignificant at minimum.
Oh dear. No I'm suspicious of every element of the BBC.
Indeed, I cannot look Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "Bouquet") in the eye for a while.
Tsk.
Who gives a crap about the BBC? Get back to Petraeus as the headline.
Great, now the NYT will have a denier in chief. If anyone takes the time to investigate the relationship between power, wealth, and aberrant sexual behavior...they might be thoroughly overwhelmed with some reality that will make them puke. We are a sick and dying society. There is no respect for human life, none.
How shocking! A news organization ignores a rampant scandal because it involves a liberal icon who not only shares the views and politics of its senior executives but perhaps a bit more importantly, generates enormous profits for them as well. Not only that but it then it accuses a conservative politician of raping a boy and implying a conspiracy of coverup with absolutely no proof or even a token effort at verification of the allegations.
How appropriate that Mark Thompson, the senior executive who buried the story has been hired by the New York Times.
Timothy-----You really summed it all up. Great job.
Those are some gross ugly looking freaks!
Tbone 123 is exactly right. Pedophiles are MADE not born. What the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts of America, Masons have in common is the cover up of predatory behavior by some of their members in order to preserve the institution. Our outrage must not be mistaken for carte blanche on consenting adult sexual behavior. What is at issue here is CONSENT. Children and teens up to a certain age (given the research on development, likely around 17) cannot assess the consequences of their behavior in the future. Pedophiles prey on this.
Nice how Obama deliberately put off announcing this BBC scandal until after the election. Can anyone say "conspiracy"? I cant wait to vote Obama out!
Romney / Ryan 2012
Yawn.
I read about this Savile scandal two weeks ago - sorry you are so inept at keeping up on the news. That says more about you and your small mindedness than anything else. How in your little tiny brain did you come up with Obama putting off news in another country? You right wingers are a thing to behold.
@floridamaggie,
Umm...I believe margeimpalla123 was putting out left-wing sarcasm, but you missed it.
This will only stop when a law is passed that these misfit of humans, once found quilty will never walk our streets again. There is no justice for the people who care about what is going on. Any newspaper that defends this behavior needs to be shut down. Any judge or jury that doesn't do their duty needs to be thrown off the bench and barred from practicing law. Anyone who knows a child has been molested and does nothing about it should serve time in prison. Any teacher, male or female, who is quilty of having sex with a student, should face a prison sentence plus be barred from any school room in America. And their sex should not be given a thought. Get rid of them, and let the community know why.
The British "Serf System" is alive and well, just hidden from the world.
Holy smokes, I wonder if this includes DR. Who?
IMPOSSIBLE!!!
The LIBERAL BBC would never be involved with something like this!
P.S. Do they carry Big Bird?
Of course not, the liberal media is sacred, just like Hollywood and all of the sex crazed movies they put out. What else can we expect when people watch that crap?
If I remember correctly, I believe Rome went through this same phase.
Thompson should have the decency to step aside till all this is cleared up.
IMO. there is a lot to come down the line yet.
After this presidential election, nobody can believe what the liberal main stream media puts out here in US as well...unless your a liberal, and then it's toss the kool-Aid back and enjoy.
This is very sad for the children who were abused and not supported or helped. There was an earlier comment about how things have deteriorated, and how everything has gone downhill in recent years. Unfortunately, this is not true. Pediophilia, and the cover-up therein, has been with us since time immemorial.
It's about the time the lid was blown off this pedophilia. I have a question - why is it that only the molestation of boys gets news coverage? Is it because of the underlying homophobia most men have? WHy don't molested girls get the same publicity and concern that the "poor little boys" get? Is it because people just figure the girls better get used to it, or that's what girls are for? All the uproar in the US was about boys molested by priests - never a word about the girls who were raped and molested and I'm not aware of any molested girl getting the millions of dollars in lawsuits that the boy victims got.
I think the outrage is more about homophobia than pedophilia - otherwise, we would see much more about female victims. I haven't read one word about a female.
@floridamaggie,
Your question gives me pause about your mental state. Look up the words penis envy. Molestation is wrong whatever the gender. Please see a shrink.
OOPS! So BBC now stands for Bad Boys Cruising? I just don't get it, got some sick people out there.
Pedophilia should be treated as a criminal act, and punishable by life without parole after castration. I was in Ireland recently, and this was coverage everyday in October. Only recently, has this become coverage in the the US. Those idiots at the BBC even maintained a room for Seville at a Children's Hospital, even knowing that sexual abuse allegations were placed against the scum. If the media here showed the actual interviews of the victims after the trauma. Lots of victims exist as a result of the total lack for greed of the heirarchy at the BBC. Every one of these scum bags should be placed in a general population of prison. Watching the media in Ireland, reminded me of the fools at Penn State, money and greed are more important than the welfare of a precious child.
I thought conservative's were not gay..but christian
I wounder what the pope will say about this
you conservative Christians you do know what God says about hurting a child right.in any way..mind or soul