[Omah]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

Has the BBC finally reached its sell by date, scandal after scandal allegations of Paedophile rings, corruption almost endemic, huge fat cat salaries and a massive licence fee all combine to make me wonder if the world has moved on leaving the BBC as an anachronism, a relic of days gone by.

Maybe better to break it up and sell it off to private companies...??

Yeah, privatisation will promote competition, encourage choice, lower standards and raise prices .....

[Omah]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...-auditors.html

Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, indicated in parliament on Monday that the government's public spending watchdog will review George Entwistle's severance pay.

However, the NAO yesterday confirmed that it is unable to launch an "immediate" inquiry unless the BBC Trust refers itself to the spending watchdog.

The government's spending watchdog has limited powers to scrutinise the BBC under an agreement intended to protect the corporation from political interference.

Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC, admitted that he gave Mr Entwistle a payoff worth twice as much as he was entitled to to so he would go quietly.

The Prime Minister yesterday gave his support to Lord Patten despite admitting that the payout was "hard to justify".

He said: "On the BBC, we have said that clearly, it is hard to justify the payment that George Entwistle was given.

"But in terms of Chris Patten, the BBC is a vital national institution. It needs radical and urgent changes to get back on track.

"But I do believe we have to let the chairman of the Trust get on with the process, including the first step, hiring a new director general."

"Old boy network*" rules OK .....

On Monday, Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, said on Monday: "The National Audit Office is empowered to conduct a value-for-money review of any issue.

"If it decides it wants to review this decision, I expect that the BBC would co-operate fully."

The National Audit Office yesterday confirmed that it wants to conduct a "quick" review of the payment.

However, under the terms of its agreement with the BBC it will have to wait until December 31st to begin any review, by which time the public spending watchdog fears it will be too late.

Amyas Morse, the Auditor General, yesterday wrote to Lord Patten saying he wanted to scrutinise the payment. The watchdog also confirmed it wanted more power to look at BBC accounts.

A spokesman for the National Audit Office said: "We stand ready to review the decision. We will be talking to the BBC Trust. We think that if such an examination is to be carried out it should be done quickly or not at all."

* Patten worked for the Conservative Party from 1966, first as desk officer and then director (from 1974 to 1979) of the Conservative Research Department.

Patten was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Bath from 1979 to 1992, serving as Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1986 to 1989.

In 1989 he was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Environment and became responsible for the unpopular Community Charge (or so-called "Poll Tax").

In 1990, John Major made Patten Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party, with responsibility for organising the coming general election campaign. As party chairman, he was widely considered to be the main architect of the somewhat unexpected Conservative victory in the 1992 election.

In July 1992, he became the 28th and the last Governor of Hong Kong until its handover to the People's Republic of China on 30 June 1997.

Tory top-gun .....

[Kizzy]

Have you only just cottoned on to Patten? ...tsk
Check out what he said in interviews with the guardian as he took over as chairman.
(sorry can't post links)

[Omah]

Originally Posted by kizzy

Have you only just cottoned on to Patten? ...tsk

No - I took part in the Poll Tax riots - some younger FMs, though, may have no idea of his Tory loyalty and his past "form" ..... hence the summary .....

[arista]

Lord McAlpine gets £185,000 plus costs from the BBC


Ref: SkyNewsHD Business Report


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...tion-newsnight

[arista]

[Omah]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...istle-evidence

George Entwistle, the former BBC director general, is expected to give evidence on Monday before Nick Pollard's inquiry into the handling of Newsnight's aborted investigation into sexual abuse by the late Jimmy Savile, in a demanding hearing that will see him grilled on what he knew about it by a silk.

The much criticised executive spent the last days of his short-lived director generalship preparing intensively for his appearance, which is expected to last several hours, and comes as the Pollard inquiry moves into its third week of evidence, having seen most of the senior BBC executives touched by the Savile film that never aired.

It is likely to be an exacting experience for a man who clearly struggled when he had to give evidence before MPs on on the culture media and sport select committee last month, and who performed poorly when interviewed by John Humphrys on the Today programme on the morning of what turned out to be the day he resigned.

Not just exacting, but excruciating .....

[Omah]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...t-jimmy-savile

The BBC is planning to publish on Wednesday the much-anticipated Pollard report into the handling of the abandoned late 2011 Newsnight investigation into child abuse by Jimmy Savile.

The report is due to be handed over to the BBC acting director general Tim Davie on Tuesday afternoon, with plans in place to publish the report along with witness statements and all relevant evidence including emails on Wednesday, or the latest Thursday.

[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20781287

An inquiry into Newsnight's shelving of a report on sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile has published its findings.

Key points:

No evidence of a cover-up of Newsnight's Savile investigation
The decision to drop Savile investigation was flawed
The editor and deputy editor of Newsnight are to be replaced
Head of BBC News to return to her post

Top tier of management not to to blame, obviously .....

[Omah]

Newsnight: MacQuarrie report

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20784534

A report into a Newsnight programme which led to a former senior Tory politician being wrongly implicated in child abuse has concluded that it was a "serious failure of BBC journalism".

The report found that basic journalistic checks were not carried out, the story had been badly managed and the decision to broadcast the report was wrong.

As expected .....

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Omah

Newsnight: MacQuarrie report

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20784534



As expected .....

Anyone who believes the BBC were at the crux of this (s)tory cover up at the time.
They thought they had paid enough to bury this years ago..

[arista]

[Omah]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...e-fiasco.html#

A £2 million review commissioned by the corporation concluded that bitter infighting, flawed decision-making and “rigid management chains” led to one of the biggest crises in the corporation’s history.

It found that executives were warned nearly two years ago about Savile’s “dark side” but still pressed ahead with tribute programmes about the presenter.

Six senior executives and editors were singled out for criticism in the reports – the findings of which were accepted by the BBC in full – but none have been fired. Two have quit, three are being moved into new positions in the BBC and one has kept her job.

The decision not to fire anyone was taken by the broadcaster and approved by the BBC Trust, which is headed by Lord Patten of Barnes. The Trust has no power to remove staff except the director-general.

The BBC is as bad as the bankers in looking after the interests of its "top tier" .....

[Omah]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...l-8637443.html

Sexual allegations about 81 BBC staff have been reported since the Jimmy Savile scandal came to light - with almost half still working for the corporation.

New figures show that 40 of the people whose names have come up since October 3 are either current staff or contributors to the organisation. The remainder have either died or no longer work for the BBC.

Data released as a result of a Freedom Of Information request shows that just ten of the cases involving present staff or contributors are still ongoing with investigations by the police or the BBC

Of the 81 people about whom allegations have been made, 54 are physical with 23 still involved with the corporation. The remainder relate to verbal and "non-physical" incidents.

In all there have been 152 sexual allegations made about BBC staff and contributors, with 52 of those still involved with the organisation.

[Kizzy]

Forget the BBC! have people forgotten about Cyril Smith? and the claims relating to the Tories of the 80's? That were exposed by an MP during PMQ's?.....
What about the poor bloke who was systematically abused (allegedly) by someone with the same name as a certain peer?
This is nothing but a huge cover up.

[Omah]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Forget the BBC! have people forgotten about Cyril Smith

Not me .....

21-05-2013, 01:05 PM #31

Sir Cyril Smith abuse claims investigation widens