Latest .. BBC Tries To Restore Trust Amid Pay-Off Row
Boaden ‘steps aside’ as head of BBC News
Up to six senior staff members could be jettisoned in the wake of director general George Entwistle’s sudden departure over the Newsnight November 2 programme. The new man, former Pepsico marketing boss Tim Davie who has no journalistic experience, now finds himself running the world’s best-known broadcaster even though he did not make the final round of interviews when he applied to be director general this year.
@matthewwells If the Daily Mail have their way by the end of the week the only person left will be the assistant cameraman from Blue Peter.
— Simon Best (@simonpjbest) November 12, 2012
His first task will be to assess the report by BBC Scotland’s Ken MacQuarrie into how the Newsnight investigation went so terribly wrong.
Last night BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten warned that the two current internal inquiries – one on the dropped Jimmy Savile report and the other on North Wales – ‘may involve people’s jobs as well’. But there are growing fears among senior staff that the corporation is ‘rudderless’ and there is a power vacuum at the top of the organisation.
Newsnight editor Peter Rippon last month ‘stepped aside’ as the corporation probed the bloody aftermath of the decision to drop an investigation last year into the Savile claims. Acting editor Liz Gibbons faced tough questioning by the MacQuarrie inquiry which is looking into how the discredited film led to Tory peer Lord McAlpine being wrongly labelled a paedophile on the internet.
REMEMEMBRANCE: Acting DG of BBC Tim Davie resigns after repeat of Saturday Kitchen from April 2008 shows James Martin not wearing a poppy.
— The DM Reporter(@DMReporter) November 11, 2012