BBC chief: Broadcasting report wrongly implicating politician in abuse was ‘unacceptable’

LONDON – The BBC’s director general said Saturday that it should not have aired a report that wrongly implicated a politician in a child sex-abuse scandal, admitting that the program further damaged trust in a broadcaster already reeling from the fallout over its decision not to air similar allegations against one of its star hosts.

George Entwistle’s comments followed an embarrassing retreat for the BBC, which apologized Friday for its Nov. 2 “Newsnight” TV show on alleged sex abuse in Wales in the 1970s and 1980s. During the program, victim Steve Messham claimed he had been abused by a senior Conservative Party figure. The BBC didn’t name the alleged abuser, but online rumours focused on Alistair McAlpine, a Conservative Party member of the House of Lords. On Friday, he issued a fierce denial and threatened to sue.

Messham then said he had been mistaken about his abuser’s identity and apologized to McAlpine, prompting fury over the BBC’s decision to air the report and the suspension of investigative programs at “Newsnight.”

“We should not have put out a film that was so fundamentally wrong,” Entwistle told BBC radio on Saturday. “What happened here is completely unacceptable.”

The number of adults reporting past sex abuse has surged in Britain due to the growing scandal revolving around Jimmy Savile, the renowned BBC TV host who died last year and who is alleged to have sexually abused numerous young people. It has led to worries that Britain’s institutions — and its media — have for years been too conservative in responding to claims of child abuse.

One reason the Savile scandal has jolted the BBC was that “Newsnight,” its premier investigative program, decided to shelve its own report into allegations against Savile. The uproar over that decision had already prompted deep soul searching at the long-venerated broadcaster, and now the latest blunder involving McAlpine by the same program could mean even more fallout.

Entwistle said the BBC is facing a “bad crisis” of trust but that he has taken “clear and decisive action” to find out what happened with the program on abuse in Wales. He said he expects a report into what went wrong to be on his desk by Sunday, adding that staffers could be disciplined.

Entwistle said he was not aware of the program before it was broadcast, but that as far as he could tell it had been “referred to senior figures within news, referred up to the level management board, and had appropriate attention from the lawyers.”

“In the light of what has happened here I wish this was referred to me, but it wasn’t,” he said.

Influential lawmakers questioned why a program making such serious allegations was not vetted by Entwistle himself.

“At the end of the day, the director general of the BBC is editor-in-chief,” said John Whittingdale, chairman of the government’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee. “This has done immense damage to the reputation of the BBC.”

The BBC Trust offered its own apology, saying it has told Entwistle to urgently “get to the bottom of this” and take appropriate action as quickly as possible.