Free Republic

Few seem to be enjoying the management meltdown at the venerable BBC more than Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp. chief whose rival British newspapers have been caught up in their own lengthy, embarrassing and expensive phone-hacking scandal. But the troubles for both media organizations highlight that the news industry in Britain is at rock-bottom in public esteem, and could face increased restrictions from the government of Prime Minister David Cameron, which appears convinced it has been unable to police itself. The British Broadcasting Corp. has moved into full-bore damage control since it retracted mistaken allegations by its marquee news program...

While the staff of the New York Times has been absorbed in hurricane and election coverage, it’s also kept a wary eye on a big story brewing in its own headquarters—the imminent arrival of the new CEO, Mark Thompson, the former director-general of the BBC who starts at the paper on November 12. He does not arrive with the full confidence of the Times’ journalists. “People are going to start paying closer attention, and that probably isn’t good for newsroom morale,” says one Timesman, “because there’s now a widely held sense that this guy’s story doesn’t add up.”

Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, came under increasing pressure last night as it emerged he approved a £1.32 million ($2.1 million) severance package for George Entwistle, the former director-general. Entwistle, who resigned on Saturday night after just 54 days in the job, leaves with a £450,000 ($715,365) lump sum on top of his £877,000 ($1,394,961.75) pension pot, which was described as “unjustifiable and unacceptable” by one MP. … Entwistle quit after Newsnight was forced to issue an “unreserved” apology to Lord McAlpine after it broadcast a report wrongly accusing a senior Conservative of pedophilia, which led to...

The BBC's Director General George Entwistle has stepped down tonight in wake of Newsnight sex abuse scandal. He made the statement outside New Broadcasting House alongside Lord Patten, the chair of the BBC Trust. The explosive announcement came hours after the editor-in-chief was humiliated live on air by one of his own presenters today over the Newsnight report that wrongly implicated former Tory treasurer Lord McAlpine in child abuse.

The office of former BBC director-general Mark Thompson was formally alerted twice about child abuse accusations concerning Jimmy Savile. In May and again in September, his aides were told of allegations concerning the late television presenter's abuse of minors on BBC premises, but his spokesman has denied the claims were passed on to Mr Thompson. -snip- A YouGov poll for newspaper revealed that 48 percent of respondents believe Mr Thompson, who is to become chief executive of The New York Times next month, has not been honest about the affair. Mr Thompson said in an interview with The Times last...

Police are on the verge of arresting up to a dozen household names accused of sex abuse but missed an incredible seven chances to trap paedophile Jimmy Savile while he was alive, it has been revealed. Scotland Yard is to act 'within days' as it emerged the pervert DJ abused at least 300 people because he was allowed to rape and sexually assault victims unhindered for decades. Savile is believed to have had accomplices and celebrities named by victims – some huge TV stars – will be quizzed over serious sex assault allegations as police warned: 'we will come for...

In life he was one of Britain's best loved children's television personalities, an icon of the pop music world, flamboyant friend of the famous, renowned for his eccentricities and honored for his tireless charity work. --SNIP-- Meanwhile the BBC finds itself accused of complicity in a sprawling child abuse scandal because some of the alleged incidents in the 1960s and 1970s are said to have happened on its premises. It's also facing claims that it allowed a wider culture of routine sexual harassment to thrive within its corridors in past decades.

This is an important history lesson for anyone who thinks that state-owned media can in any way be informative or that politically correct censorship began recently. He was finally invited to give a talk in 1934 and used this opportunity to warn of the danger of ignoring German rearmament. That broadcast demonstrated the impact Churchill could have had in warning the country against appeasement. It was not to be. This was his last radio appearance on the subject before the outbreak of war.Churchill did complain to a young BBC producer who visited him on the day after Chamberlain returned...

(Financial Times) -- Mark Thompson, the outgoing director-general of the BBC, has been named president and chief executive of the New York Times Co, signalling an attempt by the newspaper publisher to expand its business digitally and internationally. Mr Thompson, 55, has led the BBC since 2004 and said he would step down after the London Olympics. He is credited with building the BBC into one of the world's biggest digital news brands while finding new revenue streams at its BBC Worldwide commercial unit. He most recently led the BBC's multimedia coverage of the Olympics, deciding to stream everything live...

She bagged the coveted role of the new Doctor Who assistant five months ago, and Jenna-Louise Coleman has now got to work in shooting what is believed to be her debut scenes. The 26-year-old actress will take over from Scottish star Karen Gillan in portraying the Time Lord's new companion, Clara. It is believed the thought Coleman will make her entrance on the BBC sci-fi show's Christmas special, which the former Emmerdale actress began filming scenes for yesterday.

<p>There's an online alternative that's commercial free, more international in scope and does not feature Ryan Seacrest.</p> <p>It's at the BBC website, where the British broadcaster streams the Games live and offers clips in high-quality video just a tantalizing click away.</p>

Hello everyone, I was wondering about something. I wanted to watch the opening ceremonies of the olympics on the BBC. Does anyone know the link? I went on the BBC website but couldn't manage it. Thank you so much.

Three years ago film maker Robb Leech was reading a newspaper article about the radical Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary, when he spotted his stepbrother, Richard Dart’s name. Richard Dart, 29, is a white Muslim convert who featured in a BBC documentary last year filmed by his own brother about his conversion... now one of the extremist’s most devoted followers and was spending his days calling for strict Sharia law to be imposed in Britain. Unable to believe what he was seeing, Robb, who had been extremely close to his stepbrother when they were teenagers contacted him and they arranged to...

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) “got it wrong” in its reporting of the massacre of the Fogel family by Arab terrorists in the Jewish community of Itamar, the broadcaster's outgoing director-general admitted at a parliamentary committee hearing. The BBC’s Mark Thompson acquiesced on June 19 while being questioned by Conservative member of parliament Louise Mensch, the London Jewish Chronicle reported. In complaining about the insufficient coverage of the event on BBC radio and television programs, the newspaper reported that Mensch said, “I only found out, after the event, from an American blog, called ‘Dead Jews is no news,’ and the...

Pro-Arab racism biased BBC, again “repeats” infamous bombastic pseudo fake Pallywood terminology. Though Israel dismantles ALL Illegal buildings. The BBC is only showing the “grievances” of Arabs (who keep illegally constructing without licenses) and the Pallywood terminology of (fake) “ethnic cleansing.” On that same twisted note / logic, is the BBC now believing that the Zionist regime is ethnic cleansing Jews as it razes its outposts? And why is “impartial” BBC not showing the removal by force of Jewish constructions, because it proves its anti-Israel bigoted propaganda wrong?------- Here are three examples (from: 2009; 2011; 2012)AFP: Israel dismantles West Bank settlement...

An Israeli human rights group has released a video that appears to show Israeli soldiers standing by while Jewish settlers open fire on stone-throwing Palestinian protesters in the West Bank, wounding one of them, reports the BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes. It is the sort of incident that we often hear about, but almost never get to see. This time, thanks to B'Tselem, we have graphic video evidence of what happened. The picture the videos paint is disturbing. It appears to show Jewish settler youths attacking a Palestinian village; later heavily armed Jewish settlers shooting at, and wounding, a Palestinian man,...

The BBC has suffered a sophisticated cyber-attack following a campaign by Iranian authorities against its Persian service, director-general Mark Thompson said on Wednesday. Thompson also reported attempts to jam satellite feeds of the British Broadcasting Corporation services into Iran and to swamp its London phone lines with automated calls. In extracts from a speech he will make later on Wednesday, Thompson stopped short of explicitly accusing Tehran of being behind the cyber-attack, but he described the coincidence of the attacks as "self-evidently suspicious". Last month, Thompson accused Iranian authorities of arresting and threatening the families of BBC journalists to force...

BBC North America editor Mark Mardell, in South Carolina, says a Gingrich win is important, because all along the story of this race has been the search by Conservatives for an alternative to Mitt Romney. It is just possible they have settled on Mr Gingrich, and at the very least such a result will puncture the sense that eventually Mr Romney will triumph, our correspondent adds. Shortly after the vote, Mr Gingrich wrote on Twitter: "Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida," referring to the next nominating contest on 31 January.

Quelle horreur! Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has been skewered in a new political attack ad - for speaking French. The ad, released by rival Newt Gingrich, seeks to draw unflattering parallels between Mr Romney and another Massachusetts politician, John Kerry. Entitled The French Connection, it features a clip of Mr Romney talking in French when he ran the Winter Olympics. Video at link

12-31-2011 19:26 BBC in hot water over 'pandagate' sexism row It was intended as a lighthearted addition to an otherwise serious list of women who made the headlines in 2011. But the BBC's inclusion of a panda in its "faces of the year" has kicked up a storm. In a media row dubbed "Pandagate" by users of Twitter, the broadcaster has included Tian Tian (Sweetie), one of two pandas who arrived at a Scottish zoo earlier this month, as its female "face" for December in an online feature. The hairy giant is named alongside women such as U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle...