BBC chief quits over ‘catastrophic failure’ of journalism

Tim Burrowes

November 12, 2012 10:44

The new boss of the BBC had to go because he needed to take responsibility for the organisation’s errors, argues Brian McNair of the Queensland University of Technology.

To get one Newsnight story about child abuse wrong could be regarded as an unfortunate lapse of editorial management by the BBC. To mess up two such stories in quick succession is much more than careless, and indicative of a failure of executive leadership.

George Entwistle, who served just 54 days as the BBC’s Director General, resigned because he knew that the disaster of the McAlpine story was his responsibility as editor-in-chief.

The transcript of the BBC Radio 4 interview in which Entwistle sealed his fate demonstrates a Director-General who was simply not paying attention when the biggest crisis of the corporation’s history was breaking all over the internet, and indeed in the rest of the mainstream media.

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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.