Lord Patten defends George Entwistle and says terrible damage has been done to corporation's reputation
The BBC Trust chairman has defended George Entwistle's performance before parliament, saying he was unfortunate to be engulfed by a "tsunami of filth" – his description of the Jimmy Savile scandal – less than two weeks into his new role.
In a Radio 4 interview, Lord Patten also admitted that the Savile sex abuse scandal had done "terrible damage" to the corporation's reputation.
"It was a very, very difficult initial baptism of fire for a new director general of the BBC," he said. "This broke over him, this great tsunami of filth, broke over him 11 days into the job".
Speaking on The World At One, the peer resorted to unlikely political comparisons, saying that the great Victorian prime ministers would have found it difficult to endure the grilling from the culture, media and sports select committee on Tuesday.
"If there had been a combination of Benjamin Disraeli and Mr Gladstone they would have had a pretty tough job. I'm not criticising the select committee. I think John Whittingdale did an exemplary job in managing that as he did in the Murdoch inquiries," said Patten.
However, he conceded that he thought the Savile scandal was very damaging to the BBC – and voiced concerns for the victims of the late presenter of Jim'll Fix It.
Patten said: "Our main concern has to be for the victims of the abuse and worse, men as well as women, but mostly women, who have been marooned for years trying to tell their stories and not being believed, including it seems, by the BBC and secondly we have to consider the terrible damage to the reputation to the BBC which has hitherto been a national institution that has been trusted."
The peer and former Tory party chairman said it was he who insisted that a controversial blog by the Newsnight editor, Peter Rippon, had to be corrected after he was informed of inaccuracies in relation to the programme's original investigation into Savile. Patten said that he demanded changes to the blog on Sunday.
The BBC's correction altered Rippon's initial explanation about the decision to shelve the Newsnight Savile film and followed objections about the editor's version of events by the reporter and the producer behind the investigation, Liz MacKean and Meirion Jones.
Patten had previously supported Rippon's explanation for dropping the programme's Savile investigation – and explained his decision to do so: "Should I have disbelieved what a senior editor said? I have at a certain point to believe. I can't disbelieve everything that is said … my concern is to get to the bottom of what's happened."
He also rejected claims that he had acted inappropriately earlier this week when he told Maria Miller, the culture secretary, to stop interfering in the BBC Trust's management of the crisis, reminding her that the corporation was not a government body.
"I think it's important in view of what some people have said. It's quite important to remember the BBC is independent. It is answerable to licence fee payers, it is not an agent of the government. We are a national broadcaster, we are owned by the license payers," he said.
Earlier this week Miller told Patten that he needed to be aware of the deep public concern over the Savile scandal and the impact it was having on public confidence in the BBC.
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Reported by guardian.co.uk 17 hours ago.
The BBC Trust chairman has defended George Entwistle's performance before parliament, saying he was unfortunate to be engulfed by a "tsunami of filth" – his description of the Jimmy Savile scandal – less than two weeks into his new role.
In a Radio 4 interview, Lord Patten also admitted that the Savile sex abuse scandal had done "terrible damage" to the corporation's reputation.
"It was a very, very difficult initial baptism of fire for a new director general of the BBC," he said. "This broke over him, this great tsunami of filth, broke over him 11 days into the job".
Speaking on The World At One, the peer resorted to unlikely political comparisons, saying that the great Victorian prime ministers would have found it difficult to endure the grilling from the culture, media and sports select committee on Tuesday.
"If there had been a combination of Benjamin Disraeli and Mr Gladstone they would have had a pretty tough job. I'm not criticising the select committee. I think John Whittingdale did an exemplary job in managing that as he did in the Murdoch inquiries," said Patten.
However, he conceded that he thought the Savile scandal was very damaging to the BBC – and voiced concerns for the victims of the late presenter of Jim'll Fix It.
Patten said: "Our main concern has to be for the victims of the abuse and worse, men as well as women, but mostly women, who have been marooned for years trying to tell their stories and not being believed, including it seems, by the BBC and secondly we have to consider the terrible damage to the reputation to the BBC which has hitherto been a national institution that has been trusted."
The peer and former Tory party chairman said it was he who insisted that a controversial blog by the Newsnight editor, Peter Rippon, had to be corrected after he was informed of inaccuracies in relation to the programme's original investigation into Savile. Patten said that he demanded changes to the blog on Sunday.
The BBC's correction altered Rippon's initial explanation about the decision to shelve the Newsnight Savile film and followed objections about the editor's version of events by the reporter and the producer behind the investigation, Liz MacKean and Meirion Jones.
Patten had previously supported Rippon's explanation for dropping the programme's Savile investigation – and explained his decision to do so: "Should I have disbelieved what a senior editor said? I have at a certain point to believe. I can't disbelieve everything that is said … my concern is to get to the bottom of what's happened."
He also rejected claims that he had acted inappropriately earlier this week when he told Maria Miller, the culture secretary, to stop interfering in the BBC Trust's management of the crisis, reminding her that the corporation was not a government body.
"I think it's important in view of what some people have said. It's quite important to remember the BBC is independent. It is answerable to licence fee payers, it is not an agent of the government. We are a national broadcaster, we are owned by the license payers," he said.
Earlier this week Miller told Patten that he needed to be aware of the deep public concern over the Savile scandal and the impact it was having on public confidence in the BBC.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter
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Reported by guardian.co.uk 17 hours ago.