WORLD BBC scrambles to contain crisis
Two senior editors ‘step aside’ as outrage grows over payout to departing director general
LONDON— They’re words that the BBC isn’t accustomed to hearing about itself: “shoddy journalism” on one of its premier investigative programs, “unacceptable mistakes” by senior staff, a director general with “the leadership qualities of Winnie the Pooh.”
The august British broadcaster, one of the world’s biggest media brands, is battling mounting criticism and outright ridicule as it scrambles to contain its worst crisis in years. Public faith in “the Beeb” has plunged as the result of one program on an alleged child molester that it didn’t air — and another that it did air, falsely implicating a former politician.
The turmoil intensified Monday with the announcement that two senior editors were “stepping aside” as the BBC tries to get to the bottom of what went wrong. The suspensions came after a weekend in which the head of the corporation resigned after less than eight weeks on the job and the chairman of the BBC Trust called for a radical overhaul.
The new acting director general, Tim Davie, said Monday that he would immediately streamline the chain of command within the BBC’s news division to create clear lines of responsibility. He added that some employees would likely face disciplinary action, but did not identify them.
“The BBC is all about trust,” Davie said. “If we haven’t got that, we haven’t got anything.”
But even as he spoke, more outrage erupted, this time over the $720,000 severance payment awarded to Davie’s short-lived predecessor, George Entwistle. The office of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron said the amount, the equivalent of a year’s salary, was hard to justify, while another Conservative politician branded it a “reward for failure.”
It’s hard to overstate the role the BBC plays in British public life through its widely admired news reporting and its portfolio of dramas, documentaries and other offerings on television and radio. Even government officials who grumble about a perceived liberal bias acknowledge that the organization is a major conduit throughout the world of British “soft power.”
Analysts say that much of the heavy criticism now engulfing the organization is opportunistic, particularly from politicians who resent its influence and from Britain’s tabloids, which have had their own turn at the whipping post thanks to the phone-hacking scandal. The Sun on Sunday blared “Bye Bye Chump,” a play on the broadcaster’s initials, on its front cover, alongside a photo of Entwistle. “It’s being deliberately exaggerated by the BBC’s traditional enemies and critics,” said Steven Barnett, a journalism professor at the University of Westminster. “That’s not to say it’s not serious, and I think it is a crisis in the normal sense of the word. But the sky is not about to fall in, nor is the world about to end.” The crisis began with the revelation that the BBC had abruptly shelved an investigation last year by its Newsnight program into allegations of child sexual abuse by the late Jimmy Savile, the popular host of a BBC children’s show. The accusations against Savile have since avalanched, with police now investigating hundreds of potential cases. Newsnight then broadcast an episode on Nov. 2 about allegations of sex abuse at a children’s home in Wales, which implicated a former Conservative party grandee. But Newsnight apparently did not try to contact the man for a response to the allegations. He robustly denied them, and his accuser later admitted identifying the wrong person. The BBC was forced to issue an abject apology.