George Entwistle appearing on BBC News
In the wake of the resignation of the director general George Entwistle, a “thorough, radical, structural overhaul” of the BBC is necessary said BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten.
Entwistle resigned on Saturday having only spent 54 days in the role of director general, and yet presiding over both the under-reporting of the Jimmy Savile scandal and more recently the controversial Newsnight report that led to a former Tory treasurer being wrongly accused as a child abuser.
Before his resignation, Entwistle commissioned a report from BBC Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie into what happened with the Newsnight investigation, a report which is expected to publish its findings later today. The problems stem from the accusations from abuse vistim Steve Messham against Lord McAlpine, a leading 1980s Tory politician, being an abuser in north Wales, but he withdrew his accusation a week later, saying he had been mistaken. The investigation based its entire report on these accusations, and had little additional evidence to support them, which meant that as Messham withdrew his accusations, the report had nothing to fall back on.
Upon Entwistle’s departure, Lord Patten explained that the BBC needs a “thorough structural radical overhaul”
In place of Entwistle, Tim Davie, who was about to take over as chief executive of the BBC’s commercial arm, will now be acting director-general. With the debate raging about the strength of editorial leadership and journalistic values at the BBC, appointing a man with a background in marketing has not appeased commentators who are waiting to see how the corporation will react these significant new challenges.
Showing uncommon support for the BBC from a Conservative politician, Prime Minister David Cameron has described the corporation as “one of the great institutions of this country” and believes it has the capacity to reform itself, address its failings, and get through this crisis as it has done before according to Number 10.
