BBC Boss Resigns After Newsnight Abuse Report

BBC's Reputation Is In Crisis

Updated: 12:34am UK, Sunday 11 November 2012

The BBC has been through crises before, but nothing that has shaken trust quite like this.

According to a ComRes poll carried out after the Savile allegations came to light, but before the latest scandal hit, more people now believe the corporation is untrustworthy than trustworthy.

Of 1,002 adults polled last month, 47% did not agree that the BBC was trustworthy, compared to 45% who said it was.

Among 45-54 year-olds, the results were even worse - 59% said the corporation was not trustworthy.

Media commentator Steve Hewlett told Sky News it was the first time he could remember that more people did not trust, than trusted, the BBC.

The corporation has had its share of uncomfortable scrutiny over the last decade - the Hutton Inquiry, misleadingly edited footage of the Queen, the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand affair.

Yet the Savile scandal seems to have resonated with viewers like never before.

In the space of just over five weeks, Savile has been unmasked as, according to police, one of the most prolific sex offenders the country has ever seen, the BBC has had to order an inquiry into why a Newsnight report that might have uncovered his activities was shelved, and now another Newsnight investigation has been broadcast falsely accusing a senior Tory of being a paedophile.

It has not been the corporation's finest hour.

What's at stake now is trust in the integrity of the BBC's journalism, and trust in the senior management's ability to get a grip.

Hewlett said: "It looks like no-one's in charge, no-one's got a grip and it's clearly unsettling. Not just inside the BBC, where it's plainly unsettling, I can tell you that for certain, but it's also unsettling out there. People are not sure, they are just not sure."

Before he resigned as the corporation's director-general, George Entwistle demanded a report into the latest Newsnight incident and halted all Newsnight investigations while their editorial robustness is assessed.

He also had to admit that he did not see the Newsnight report in question at the time - he was out that night - and he did not know anything about it in advance. He found out about it on the internet, he said.

That led to the unfortunate label "Incurious George" from some - the man who failed to ask questions as Director of Vision last year about the Newsnight Savile investigation, and who failed, as director-general and editor-in-chief of the BBC, to show that he was wholly in charge of the organisation.

Conor Burns MP said that ought to have been "at the very heart of George Entwistle's agenda every day" and which has been "destroying the credibility of the BBC".

"This is a crisis for the BBC, it's been an ongoing crisis for the BBC for some weeks now," he added.

Trust in the BBC is more than just a warm, fluffy sentiment - the BBC depends on the trust of the public because it depends on the licence fee to fund it.

Perhaps no surprise then that the BBC Trust, which oversees the corporation and protects the interests of the licence fee payer, has expressed its concern.

A spokesperson told us: "This is a deeply troubling episode. The Trust notes the BBC Executive's apology and would like to offer its own apology also.

"The Trust has impressed upon the director-general the need to get to the bottom of this as a matter of the utmost urgency and will expect appropriate action to be taken as quickly as possible."

In other words, Auntie needs to get the house in order.

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