:00:03. > :00:13.It is now time for Newswatch. This week, your reactions to the crisis
:00:13. > :00:14.
:00:14. > :00:18.Well come to Newswatch with me, Samira Ahmed. The biggest crisis
:00:18. > :00:23.facing BBC News in a decade, how did it happen? Can the
:00:23. > :00:33.corporation's journalism still be trusted? Does George Entwistle
:00:33. > :00:34.
:00:34. > :00:37.deserve his pay-off? And has it all The BBC marked 90 years of
:00:37. > :00:41.broadcasting this week, but there was not much of a celebratory air
:00:41. > :00:46.around. The crisis started by a Newsnight report on care homes in
:00:46. > :00:50.Wales which led to Lord McAlpine being wrongly implicated in child
:00:50. > :00:55.abuse allegations came to a head on Saturday night. A new crisis for
:00:55. > :01:00.Newsnight. Tonight this programme apologises. A key allegation in a
:01:00. > :01:05.report about child abuse was wrong. The victims says he was mistaken.
:01:05. > :01:10.The wholly exceptional advance of the past few weeks have led me to
:01:10. > :01:14.conclude that the BBC should appoint a new leader. I have a job
:01:14. > :01:19.to do, get a grip of the situation. The BBC deserves strong leadership,
:01:19. > :01:24.that is what I want to bring. course they should have called me,
:01:24. > :01:27.and I would have told them exactly what they learned later on. What
:01:27. > :01:32.was that? That it was complete rubbish.
:01:32. > :01:38.As a result of George Entwistle's resignation, the acting director-
:01:38. > :01:43.general of his Tim Davie, and because of others stepping aside
:01:43. > :01:48.pending inquiries, BBC news now also has an acting director, and
:01:48. > :01:53.acting deputy director, and acting head of news-gathering, and acting
:01:53. > :01:57.editors of Newsnight and of the Today programme. Clearly, or
:01:57. > :02:07.reorganisation to be done there, but where should the BBC go from
:02:07. > :02:27.
:02:27. > :02:30.here? Newswatch dealers have not We asked for an interview with a
:02:30. > :02:34.BBC News executive but were told no-one was available. We can
:02:35. > :02:38.discuss what viewers think about the events of the past week, and we
:02:38. > :02:43.are joined by Terry Berry, who spoke to us about the Jimmy Savile
:02:43. > :02:48.scandal, and Alex Giles. In Birmingham is Georgio Mystkowski,
:02:48. > :02:52.and joining us from Salford is June Bennett. Terry Berry, what has been
:02:52. > :02:59.your concern watching events unfold? I think it has been the
:02:59. > :03:04.lack of clarity from management, the higher management, would regard
:03:04. > :03:08.to... It seems to me that people are standing aside, while
:03:08. > :03:13.investigations are going on. However, it was quite disturbing to
:03:13. > :03:17.see George Entwistle given his notice after such a short time.
:03:17. > :03:22.do not see a connection between who seems to have gone and be
:03:22. > :03:27.responsible. Exactly, but from George Entwistle's point of view,
:03:27. > :03:31.nobody gave him a head start that was so something so serious about
:03:31. > :03:35.the programme that was going up. Somebody could have made the phone
:03:35. > :03:39.call to say, look, this is what is coming your way. Although he admits
:03:39. > :03:42.he did not look at this or that programme or read the newspapers,
:03:42. > :03:48.surely somebody could have said, there is something going on here,
:03:48. > :03:52.it needs to come across your desk. Where were the management? You have
:03:52. > :03:59.a different concern, June, what was your view about the way the story
:03:59. > :04:07.was covered? I think there was far too much attention being paid to
:04:07. > :04:12.the difficulties at the BBC, who had mentioned somebody's name, and
:04:12. > :04:18.the children were not considered. I mean, I was amazed that it was
:04:18. > :04:25.aired on one programme, saying that Steve Messham was not a reliable
:04:25. > :04:30.witness. I could not believe that anybody could pile that on top of
:04:30. > :04:34.what he has lived through through all his life. So is there a bigger
:04:34. > :04:37.concern that because of the attention being paid to BBC
:04:37. > :04:45.managers resigning that the focus shifted off children who have been
:04:45. > :04:49.abused? Yes, without a doubt. We have heard names, and we did see on
:04:50. > :04:54.television people who had come forward, and they have come forward,
:04:54. > :04:59.and you can see the anguish with which they felt, and these children
:04:59. > :05:04.have spent all their lives feeling unclean, used, having nowhere to go,
:05:04. > :05:08.and all of a sudden they could see a window, a window where perhaps
:05:08. > :05:12.they could perhaps express how they felt throughout their lives up to
:05:12. > :05:16.that point. They had been physically abused, but also
:05:16. > :05:25.mentally abused, and to me they were the people who we should be
:05:25. > :05:28.focusing on. The whole issue that we heard earlier, it did lead the
:05:28. > :05:33.director-general to resign. You think that was the right thing to
:05:34. > :05:39.do? Is the BBC moving on? Yes, I do. I would agree with everything the
:05:39. > :05:45.previous speakers have said. My concern was particularly upon the
:05:45. > :05:49.BBC and the trustees' understanding of the word honourable. On Saturday
:05:49. > :05:53.night, the former director-general came on television with the
:05:53. > :05:57.chairman, Mr Patten, stood behind him, and he made a statement that
:05:57. > :06:01.he was resigning as editor in chief because it was the honourable thing.
:06:01. > :06:05.I think the majority of people around the country would say, is it
:06:05. > :06:11.really honourable for somebody to take one year's salary after 54
:06:11. > :06:17.days when he should have been sacked? I just want the BBC to use
:06:17. > :06:22.those words, like honour, integrity, all those key words, I want them to
:06:22. > :06:25.use them so carefully, so that the viewers and the public start
:06:25. > :06:31.believing again and start getting their commitment back to what the
:06:31. > :06:33.BBC. Thank you. Alex, one of the practical effect of all this
:06:33. > :06:37.decision-making, honourable or otherwise, is that Newsnight is not
:06:38. > :06:44.allowed to make any investigative reports at the moment. What is your
:06:44. > :06:47.feeling about that? I think they have been making a real meal of it,
:06:47. > :06:50.frankly, and I think George Entwistle has got an expectation
:06:50. > :06:54.and a right to expect his editors and his managers to be doing their
:06:54. > :06:59.job. I notice that David Dimbleby said the director-general should
:06:59. > :07:05.fight like a tiger for this organisation. There has not been
:07:05. > :07:09.enough fighting? These are two programmes, ironically, one which
:07:09. > :07:13.was maybe too wary, they sat on the story, they were too concerned
:07:13. > :07:17.about who they were going to upset, and the other story more recently,
:07:17. > :07:21.they jumped the gun, before they properly check the stories. Stuff
:07:21. > :07:25.like that happens in journalism, surely, all the time, and what we
:07:25. > :07:30.are seeing now is it being blown out of all proportion. I am not for
:07:30. > :07:33.one moment saying that this identifying someone as a child
:07:33. > :07:37.abuser or not listening to these children is not a serious matter,
:07:37. > :07:44.but I do think there is a huge amount of news that is going out
:07:44. > :07:48.from the BBC which is fantastic, and so much time is being wasted,
:07:48. > :07:53.you know, with his inviting being played out in front of the viewers.
:07:54. > :07:57.June, in a sentence, what would you like to see the BBC do now to win
:07:57. > :08:02.back on confidence and trust? have not lost my confidence or my
:08:02. > :08:06.trust. What I would like them to do is to try and work with agencies to
:08:06. > :08:11.try and help these children, to try and help them move forward in their
:08:11. > :08:16.lives, and to feel as if we are not letting them down. OK. The final
:08:16. > :08:21.thing I would say is we all need to say to ourselves, if this was my
:08:21. > :08:26.child, how would I feel? The same question to you, in a sentence.
:08:26. > :08:30.What has been said is absolutely right that when it comes to abuse
:08:30. > :08:37.of children, all too often the reporting is very salacious, it is
:08:37. > :08:43.very focused on the abuser and the acts. It rarely focuses on the
:08:43. > :08:46.carriage and the bravery of the young person in these instances,
:08:46. > :08:49.but if we think about the young people who have the courage to
:08:49. > :08:56.speak up, let's give them airtime which would encourage other young
:08:56. > :09:02.people to speak up as well. Terry, again, briefly. I agree with what
:09:02. > :09:06.has been said, but what troubles me is the clarity and getting to the
:09:06. > :09:10.checks and balances that are in place, the structure, the
:09:10. > :09:15.management processes, which allowed this to happen. It seems as though
:09:15. > :09:18.people have stood aside, to use that word again, without coming
:09:18. > :09:23.forward, and now it looks like the people are consulting lawyers about
:09:23. > :09:26.statements, what they are going to say. They are afraid to come out
:09:26. > :09:29.with a possible truth, what has happened, and that is where they
:09:29. > :09:34.are something dark and sinister going on. So you need clarity on
:09:34. > :09:41.the way that management is handling things. I would like to see them
:09:41. > :09:45.get along with serving the public. It is such a great organisation
:09:45. > :09:55.that we are all very proud of. will have to leave it there, but
:09:55. > :09:56.
:09:56. > :09:59.all of you, thank you very much for While the reverberations of all
:09:59. > :10:03.that will carry on for some time, you have had plenty to say about
:10:03. > :10:07.other issues this week, too. One complaint focused on the practice
:10:07. > :10:17.we discussed last week with regard to the US election of presenters
:10:17. > :10:27.
:10:27. > :10:30.being sent on location to cover big Finally, this week saw the first
:10:30. > :10:33.elections for Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales
:10:33. > :10:43.with a mostly very low voter turnout, and we had some differing
:10:43. > :11:08.
:11:08. > :11:13.Thank you for all your comments this week, positive and negative.
:11:13. > :11:23.If you want to share your opinions on BBC news and current affairs, or
:11:23. > :11:30.