10/25/2012

New York Times finally covering scandal involving their incoming president

From the NY Times:
Mr. Thompson, the BBC’s chief from 2004 to last month, was not in charge during the years when Mr. Savile is now said to have engaged in widespread pedophilia. But he was when Mr. Savile died at age 84 last October and two branches of the network set off in very different directions to examine the life of the eccentric host. . . . 
Precisely why an investigation by the BBC program “Newsnight” into pedophilia accusations against Mr. Savile was killed while a package of Christmastime tributes to the host was broadcast was at the heart of a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday that featured an uncomfortable and apologetic George Entwistle, the current director general. . . . 
In a statement released on Oct. 13, Mr. Thompson issued a blanket denial of any knowledge of the squelched BBC report. “I was not notified or briefed about the ‘Newsnight’ investigation,” he said, adding that “during my time as director general of the BBC, I never heard any allegations or received any complaints about Jimmy Savile.” 
But on Tuesday, in a letter in response to Mr. Wilson, the Parliament member, Mr. Thompson appeared to adjust his answer slightly, saying, “I was never formally notified about the ‘Newsnight’ investigation and was not briefed about the allegations they were examining and to what extent, if at all, those allegations related to Savile’s work at the BBC.” . . .
There are some questions in what Thompson was told.
BBC foreign correspondent Caroline Hawley said that she thought she had told Thompson the "broad context" of the axed Newsnight investigation into Savile at a pre-Christmas drinks party at BBC Television Centre in late 2011. . . . 

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