It's always going to be a difficult balance between taking such accusations seriously and not branding innocent folk on the basis of rumours - and actually in both cases here Newsnight took the accusations seriously enough to give them due consideration and rightly or wrongly did not out anyone as a suspected paedophile. As others have said the Newsnight aspect of this whole thing is so insignificant compared to the bigger picture, especially in the Bryn Estyn case.
I agree with many of the points people have posted here. Newsnight gave no names, and then the Internet took over. They didn't give a list of names to the PM live on TV!
Interestingly, Newsnight ended with 'Newsnight is back on Monday... Probably.' I can't see it being axed.
The critical point over Newsnight, is that they obviously knew the name of the 1980's era Politician who was, prior to yesterday's retraction, accused by the care home victim. Newsnight clearly didn't question the victim thoroughly, presenting the victim with a 1980's era picture of the alleged perpetrator for confirmation would seem to be a required element in such an investigation.
It was not until this was done yesterday that the accusation was withdrawn.
The critical point over Newsnight, is that they obviously knew the name of the 1980's era Politician who was, prior to yesterday's retraction, accused by the care home victim. Newsnight clearly didn't question the victim thoroughly, presenting the victim with a 1980's era picture of the alleged perpetrator for confirmation would seem to be a required element in such an investigation.
It was not until this was done yesterday that the accusation was withdrawn.
Yes, and the other issue is Entwislte wasn't informed that Newsnight were to broadcast the report (extraordinary that no one flagged it to him for approval, in view of the Savile debacle) and after the report was broadcast Entwistle didn't really latch on to the other media discussing the report, and the subsequent build up of 'internet chatter' until yesterday.
I've not been continuously watching today, but I don't think BBC TV News have broadcast the Radio 4 John Humphrys interview, only the softer BBC Breakfast (TV) one ? John Humphrys had Entwistle on the ropes, possibly because they were face to face in the London studio. That's the one Sky have been carrying. Interesting that (according to Sky) no other broadcaster other than the Beeb are to be permitted interviews with any current BBC personnel today on this matter.
Entwistle seems totally clueless , or at least he acts that way. Both his testimony in front of that committee and BBC interviews give a very bad impression of BBC boss, surely there's someone more competent and more interested in what happens at BBC, who could do a far better job.
Newsnight has NOTHING to say sorry for....Their original story still stands.....and this whole mess it not the newsnight fault.
Normally I'm a big, big supporter of the BBC and do think they get terribly unfair treatment from certain sections of the press - but I'm afraid on this occasion they've dropped a massive bollock.
They didn't name McAlpine - but I believe they made references to a 'senior Tory politician' - which sparked off endless speculation on the internet.
The fact they didn't show the accuser a picture of McAlpine to confirm his identity or put the accusations to McAlpine is extraordinary. It's a colossal mess-up and people should be fired.
"George Entwistle’s departure is a great shame. He has been brought low by cowards and incompetents. The real problem here is the BBC’s decision, in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry, to play safe by appointing biddable people. They then compounded the problem by enforcing a series of cuts on programme budgets, while bloating the management. That is how you arrive at the current mess on Newsnight. I very much doubt the problem is unique to that programme. I had hoped that George might stay to sort this out. It is a great pity that a talented man has been sacrificed while time-servers prosper. I shall not be issuing any further statements or doing any interviews."
The critical point over Newsnight, is that they obviously knew the name of the 1980's era Politician who was, prior to yesterday's retraction, accused by the care home victim. Newsnight clearly didn't question the victim thoroughly, presenting the victim with a 1980's era picture of the alleged perpetrator for confirmation would seem to be a required element in such an investigation.
It was not until this was done yesterday that the accusation was withdrawn.
Yes, and the other issue is Entwislte wasn't informed that Newsnight were to broadcast the report (extraordinary that no one flagged it to him for approval, in view of the Savile debacle) and after the report was broadcast Entwistle didn't really latch on to the other media discussing the report, and the subsequent build up of 'internet chatter' until yesterday.
I've not been continuously watching today, but I don't think BBC TV News have broadcast the Radio 4 John Humphrys interview, only the softer BBC Breakfast (TV) one ? John Humphrys had Entwistle on the ropes, possibly because they were face to face in the London studio. That's the one Sky have been carrying. Interesting that (according to Sky) no other broadcaster other than the Beeb are to be permitted interviews with any current BBC personnel today on this matter.
The Today Entwistle audio was played in full on the News channel earlier, complete with John Humphreys difficult questions.
"George Entwistle’s departure is a great shame. He has been brought low by cowards and incompetents. The real problem here is the BBC’s decision, in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry, to play safe by appointing biddable people. They then compounded the problem by enforcing a series of cuts on programme budgets, while bloating the management. That is how you arrive at the current mess on Newsnight. I very much doubt the problem is unique to that programme. I had hoped that George might stay to sort this out. It is a great pity that a talented man has been sacrificed while time-servers prosper. I shall not be issuing any further statements or doing any interviews."
Is that a resignation speech of his own - I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him leave the show in protest at the way it's been treated in the last few weeks. The NUJ seems to have been very quiet on the whole matter too.
