BBC director general resigns over 'shoddy journalism'

Reuters/Reuters - BBC director general George Entwistle speaks to the members of the media after appearing before a Culture and Media Committee hearing at Parliament in London October 23, 2012. REUTERS/Andrew Winning

By Michael Holden | Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - BBC Director General George Entwistle resigned on Saturday, just two months into the job, after the state-funded broadcaster put out a programme denounced by the corporation's chairman as shoddy journalism.

The BBC, reeling from revelations that one of its former stars was a pedophile, brought further problems on its head when a flagship news programme aired a mistaken allegation that a former senior politician
sexually abused children.

The BBC had already issued a full apology on Friday, but on Saturday its director general had to admit under questioning from his own journalists that he had not known in advance about the Newsnight report, weeks after being accused of being too hands-off over the previous scandal on the same programme.
Accepting Entwistle's resignation, BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten said: "This is undoubtedly one of the saddest evenings of my public life.

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