BBC begins disciplinary measures over scandal

today, reportedly wants an outsider for its new director-general who could overhaul an unwieldly management culture.
The “Beeb” is under a pall caused by two programmes — one smearing Conservative politician Alistair McAlpine, which was broadcast, and another which was shelved but accused late star Jimmy Savile of being a paedophile.
An internal investigation on Monday found “basic” journalistic failures led the flagship show “Newsnight” to run the story falsely saying that former Tory treasurer McAlpine abused children at a care home in Wales in the 1970s.
The probe into the programme, carried out by the BBC’s Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie, “will be used to inform disciplinary proceedings, which will begin immediately,” the BBC said in a statement.
The BBC has not yet said who will be punished but it took the unusual step of saying that Peter Johnston, Director of BBC Northern Ireland, had been involved in the decision to run the programme.
The botched “Newsnight” report and the BBC’s response to the Savile scandal has led to calls for changes to the annual “licence fee” that all Britons with a television must pay, and even a possible break-up of the organisation.
Publicly funded under a Royal Charter, the British Broadcasting Corporation has nearly 23 000 employees and a global audience of around 239 million people, according to the BBC’s own figures.
The furore has already claimed the top job at the organisation after director-general George Entwistle resigned on Saturday after just 54 days in the position.
His temporary replacement, Tim Davie, has pledged to “get a grip” of the crisis but the former PepsiCo executive has only been at the BBC for seven years and gave a shaky performance in television interviews on Monday.
The Times newspaper reported that Chris Patten, who heads the BBC Trust, the broadcaster’s governing body, wants a new chief who was not a BBC “lifer” like Entwistle.
The BBC has also found itself embroiled in a row over the revelation that Entwistle would receive a US$715 000 — the equivalent of a year’s salary.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg added to the pressure yesterday, telling the BBC that the sum was “hard to justify”.
Culture Secretary Maria Miller told parliament on Monday the BBC was facing the “most serious of crises”.
Former director-general Mark Thompson, who took up his new job as chief executive of the New York Times on Monday, said he was “very saddened” by the crisis at the BBC.
Nicknamed “Auntie” in Britain, the BBC was established in 1922 by a Royal Charter and now operates eight domestic TV channels, 54 radio stations, its famed World Service and one of the world’s most visited websites. — AFP.