Director General of BBC Resigns

Head of public broadcaster steps down amid widening criticism of its handling of pedophile scandal

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/11/2012 10:08:16 PM

Rising criticism over the BBC's handling of a pedophile scandal has prompted the director of general of the U.K. broadcaster, George Entwistle, to resign.

The scandal has been expanding recent months over revelations that British authorities are investigating allegation that a longtime BBC host Jimmy Savile had possibly sexually abusing hundreds children and young people. Savile hosted such shows as the Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It, which ran from 1975 to 1994. He died in 2011.

In the wake of Entwistle's resignation after only two months in the job, the public broadcaster has named Tim Davie acting director general. Davie had been director of BBC Audio & Music. He joined the BBC in 2005 as head of marketing from Pepsi. 

The BBC first drew fire when it decided not to air report on its popular current affairs program Newsnight on Savile last year. That criticism exploded in the last week after a Nov. 2 Newsnight broadcast accused a prominent conservative politician of participating in the abuse.

That report proved to be completely erroneous and one of the victims of the abuse has since said he made a mistaken identification.

On Friday, Nov. 9, the BBC broadcast an extensive apology. This included the admission that it had not contacted the politician for a reaction and that it had not actually shown a picture of the politician to the victim, the New York Times has reported.