BBC boss quits after story disaster

Tim Burrowes

November 11, 2012 4:02

The boss of the world’s biggest public service broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation has been forced to resign after just eight weeks in the job.

George Entwistle announced his resignation over the weekend after one of the BBC’s flagship news programmes wrongly linked a senior politican to child abuse.

The blunder came weeks after the same TV show, Newsnight, was accused of blundering by dropping an investigation into abuse by BBC personality Jimmy Savile.

Entwistle’s departure will trigger an unexpected search for a successor as the BBC’s director general. When the role came up previously, ABC boss Mark Scott was named as one of the potential candidates before ruling himself out.

Be a member to keep reading

Join Mumbrella Pro to access the Mumbrella archive and read our premium analysis of everything under the media and marketing umbrella.

Become a member

Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.